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Social and Cultural: increased social and cultural benefits and
stronger communities
One of the biggest disadvantage residents in tower neighbourhoods experience is not
something within their apartment buildings, but outside of it. This is accessibility.
There are 2 types of accessibility issues in Toronto's tower neighbourhoods:
1. Lack of accessible amenities and community services, such as childcare, grocery
stores, greenspace, doctor's offices, restaurants, retail shops, etc.
2. Compromised accessibility to transit. The current design of tower neighbourhoods
limit people's mobility. It is surrounded by parking lots, fences that block shortcuts,
sidewalks that suddenly end, and long indirect walkways that are often unpaved and
turn muddy during rainy days.
it is not surprising that accessibility to services is an issue in tower neighbourhoods.
This is because most of the tower neighbourhoods are located in the City's 13 priority
neighbourhoods. These neighbourhoods have been identified as being underserved
by the City's services and amenities. The lack of accessibility to these services have
significant implications to people's quality of life.
According to the City's apartment neighbourhood zoning bylaw, only dwelling is
allowed in tower neighbourhoods, and all other land use is deemed illegal. This
includes drug stores, bank, clothing stores, coffee shops, place of worship, and etc.
Fortunately, Tower Renewal has a key initiative that directly solves the issue of
accessibility. This is done through the implementation of mixed-land use within tower
neighbourhoods, called the Residential Apartment Commercial (RAC) zoning. This will be
further discussed under the Tower Renewal: Implementation Programs section. But
this zoning bylaw is key to the creation of complete communities.
Economic: improved local economy activity
Tower Renewal retrofitting projects will have important economic implications with
the creation of significant number of jobs in the construction and building industry. It
will also foster development of local businesses with the implementation of RAC
zoning, which will permit a number of small scale commercial and community uses on
apartment building sites. This also means that residents, particularly single parents,
can have the option of acquiring employment near their place of dwelling, and will not
have to travel far distances and spend so much time in transit. Instead, they will have
more opportunities to be with their family. The improvement in local economic
activity will contribute to the vibrancy of tower neighbourhoods, and the increased
quality of life of its residents.
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