Major changes are on the horizon for Toronto's Scarborough Village neighbourhood, where a new 20-storey rental complex could soon transform the intersection of Kingston Road and Scarborough Golf Club Road.

A current strip plaza at 3730 Kingston Road is on the chopping block, though its planned replacement promises to introduce new retail along with community amenities and affordable housing opportunities.

A plan for this site has been evolving since a 2021 application filed by a former owner to build a 14-storey building. However, the site would be acquired by developer TAS in 2022, and the new owners have since filed an updated application seeking a bigger and bolder presence for the site.

Andrea Chrysanthou, VP of Brand and Communications at TAS, tells blogTO that when purchasing the site, "we saw an opportunity to create a more environmentally efficient building that would better serve the community's needs, while also providing returns for our investors."

The updated submission increases the height of the building from 14 to 20 storeys, reimagining the previous stepped mid-rise form into a tower-and-podium model designed by SvN. TAS states that the massing update allows for a more cost-effective and efficient design with less embodied carbon than the previous plan.

This change in height produces a boost in floor area of roughly 8,000 square feet. However, despite the upped density, the overall unit count has actually been slashed from 435 to 384. This update includes a 10 per cent affordable housing component, which Chrysanthou says is part of TAS' "ongoing commitment to equity and affordability."

Other changes include a significant reduction in parking, lowering from 383 in the previous submission to the current 160, and removing an underground level from the plan and replacing it with a much smaller covered at-grade parking area.

This update can be attributed to the elimination of mandatory parking minimums in Toronto, a change that allows developers to cut costs in underground garage construction and better utilize transit infrastructure.

A key feature in the proposal is a wrapped amenity courtyard surrounded by balconies and featuring landscaping with greenery.

Behind the scenes, the project team is aiming for some ambitious sustainability goals, with plans to achieve the city's latest green standards introduced in 2022.

A minimum of 75 per cent of planned construction and demolition waste is to be diverted, while the final product building is targeted for 25 per cent less embodied carbon than the baseline.