# 2 storeys not 12

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://paragraph.com/@brandondonnelly), 2023-01-08

25-old-york-mills-road, agricola-church-condo, development, development-application, development-notice, development-poster, mobility, nimby, planning, urbanism, yimby, york-mills, york-mills-subway-station

---

I came across this poster -- related to [this development application](https://urbantoronto.ca/forum/threads/toronto-25-old-york-mills-42-05m-12s-agricola-finnish-lutheran-church-ibi-group.33971/) -- over the weekend:

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/7a8617b8f142fd395e30e125d0d9ad8a.jpg)

And I think it raises a number of important questions:

*   Is 2 storeys appropriate for next to a subway station and next to an existing mid-rise building?
    
*   Is a mid-rise building truly _unprecedented_ in this context? See below.
    
*   Are mid-rise homes inappropriate for "residential streets?"
    
*   How does building height factor into flood plain concerns? Wouldn't lot coverage be more relevant?
    
*   And when does a mid-rise become a "high-rise?"
    

For more context, here's the proposal and its immediate surroundings:

https://twitter.com/HousingNowTO/status/1557173774016995328?s=20&t=-I9yrZU8WNE\_\_TVthtMPWg

I fully appreciate that there's little incentive to support new development in a place where you already live -- even if you happen to live in a similarly-scaled building across the street. And I am sure that I'll receive a number of emails following this post.

But optimizing the use of land around our existing transit stations is one of the best things we can do as city builders.

_Update: I have redacted the contact information on the above poster._

---

*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://paragraph.com/@brandondonnelly/2-storeys-not-12)*