More housing, fewer pawn shops needed around shopping malls, GO stations in Ontario city

Oshawa Council is looking to make some zoning changes around the Oshawa Centre property to allow for more housing projects with building heights as high as 22 storeys.

The mall has undergone considerable redevelopment in recent years and council is hoping to “prioritize” intensification and higher-density mixed-use development in the area.

The zoning changes, which include reduced parking requirements, will be debated at a special council meeting Thursday afternoon.

Economic and Development Services Chair Tito-Dante Marimpietri said the city has been “actively working” with representatives of the Oshawa Centre to “modernize and optimize” their footprint to include a “vital” housing component.

“This will help to inject tens of millions into our local economy and provide for thousands of good-paying jobs while assisting current and prospective tenants, attracting new investment, and most importantly, secure the housing needs of our city.”

“The activation of this massive site will transform our city and our entire region.”

The former Knob Hill Farm at the planned new Oshawa GO station

Council will also be voting on zoning changes around the planned central GO station on Howard Street south of downtown, which is located just east of the new epicentre for the city’s homeless population.

A staff report is recommending council try to limit certain uses, such as vapour product shops, tattoo parlours, payday loan establishments and pawn shops, adult use stores and social service centres from the area around the new GO station.

“In order to support the significant growth planned for the city … it is appropriate to propose changes to the zoning by-law that will avoid the undue geographical concentration of uses that, when present in relatively large numbers, can reduce the quality of the pedestrian environment, public safety and ability of other existing businesses to remain viable,” the report declared.

Limiting certain business, the report added, would help deliver a “wide variety” of diverse uses at street level and contribute to the creation of a “high quality retail, residential and pedestrian-oriented environment” in residential/commercial mixed-use areas, such as the area surrounding the planned GO station.

Marimpietri said the changes are part of a plan to modernize the city after decades of “inefficient, now antiquated local government policies, bylaws, and practices,” with “particular priority” on revitalizing the downtown and some of the city’s prominent corridors.”