Scarborough home to green housing development
Homes will meet new environmental standards
The largest project of its kind in Canada broke ground this month in Scarborough, and the City of Toronto and Monarch Corporation hope the $100-million development will begin a new trend in green housing.
On June 11, construction began on the Evergreen project near Midland and St. Claire avenues. The roughly 24-acre housing development will feature 206 town- and single-family homes that will be environmentally friendly.
A joint venture between the Toronto Economic Development Committee (TEDCO) and Monarch, Evergreen is the largest low-rise green development in the country.
"Really it's rare to have green houses in this low-rise type of format," said Jeffrey Steiner, TEDCO CEO and president. "We've had some examples of green buildings like condos and tall highrise developments, Tridel and Minto have done well with that, but no one has been tackling how to make the low-rise project super green and environmentally friendly, and that's what this project is all about."
All homes will be LEED-H certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Homes), a rating system that evaluates homes by recognizing environmentally appropriate choices in site development and landscaping, water and energy efficiency, selection of building materials and finishes and indoor environmental quality.
"I believe if it were built today, it would double the number of LEED houses in North America, because there have not been that many built," said Monarch President Brian Johnson.
Some of the features of the new homes will include Energy Star appliances, thermal insulation exceeding building code requirements, high-efficiency, ultra-low water use toilets, faucets and shower heads, compact fluorescent lighting, high-efficiency sealed combustible tankless hot water heaters and high-efficiency furnaces.
But the project took awhile coming together.
Monarch originally bought the property about 10 years ago, but needed to make use of city-owned property adjacent to their land to begin development.
Unable to reach a deal with Toronto's real estate department, the city transferred the land to TEDCO to get the project going. TEDCO is the principal redevelopment corporation for the city and part of its mandate is to redevelop properties across the city, including brownfield sites and under-utilized land, and to encourage sustainable development.
Monarch paid fair market value for the adjacent land, Steiner said, and TEDCO placed one condition on the sale: the entire property needed to be developed as one of the leading examples of green development.
Johnson recalled TEDCO being adamant on the issue, and wanted the housing to be LEED silver, a higher standard than LEED certified. But Monarch wanted to build housing that was marketable, and eventually it was decided to meet the LEED certified level.
"Our philosophy is make it sustainable, make it repeatable because we're not doing anybody any good at all if we're building houses that will never be repeated again," he said.
There are other projects that meet higher LEED standards, Johnson said, but they receive government subsidies, and once government funding dries up, these projects will not be repeated.
"It's important that the private sector can rationalize and justify this type of building," he said.
Steiner said the project will benefit the trades, allowing workers to gain practical experience in building to LEED-H standards, and hopefully provide data and knowledge to others in the industry so they will follow suit.
And he said he believes Evergreen will set a trend in environmentally friendly housing.
"They're going to prove the market will respond to a greener product, even if it's a little bit more costly," he said. "The owners and buyers will want to do the right thing and they'll see the benefits in the medium and long term of having a more energy-efficient home."
However, Johnson isn't convinced buyers fully appreciate or look for a greener home when shopping. Most people aren't aware of what LEED certification is.
"We've not found to date that the market is willing to pay us more money for it, because a lot of people don't even know what we're talking about," he said. "This is just the nature of real estate. The people are primarily interested in price, value, product design and builder reputation."
But Johnson sees promise in Monarch getting its feet wet in the endeavour.
"Over time, I think the market is going to evolve in that direction," he said. "It's the way of the future."
Homes in the first phase of the development will cost between $370,000 to the low $500,000s, and the entire project should be completed in 2012.
