346 - 356 Eglinton Avenue West

UPDATE - November 17, 2016

 

A developer, Terranata, has proposed to build a 15 storey building – now apparently reduced to 12 storeys – at the corner of Eglinton and Avenue.  The development proposal encompasses the businesses adjacent to the new Subway station at the corner.  For Zoning and By-law purposes, the development is known as 346-356 Eglinton Ave. W.

Our Councillor, Christin Carmichael Greb, arranged a public meeting November 24th, 2015, at Marshall McLuhan Catholic Secondary School.  The developer was not in attendance, but a representative of the developer outlined the proposal to the community.  At that time the proposal was for a 15 storey building.  The rendering produced at the meeting displayed what appeared to many to be a large, monolithic institutional structure.  The general consensus at the meeting was that the proposal should not be accepted given it was simply not appropriate for the neighbourhood.

The City of Toronto Planning Department continued discussions with the developer and issued a report that was in opposition to what had been proposed.  The developer appealed the matter to the Ontario Municipal Board for determination.  Following a couple of preliminary meetings dealing with process, the developer proposed Mediation.  That is set for next week.  The mediation is a confidential process and we won’t know what will be discussed, or what a resolution, if any, would be following that meeting.  However, will be able to participate in the process going forward over the next few months.

Residents of the area met to discuss the issues.  A presentation was prepared and a requested meeting between City Planning staff (Ms. Silver – Planner, Community Planning and Mr. Rezoski – Manager Community Planning) and the City Solicitor (Mr. Bradley) handling the case was granted.  That meeting occurred November 16, 2016 at the North York Offices of City Staff.  We had a good discussion and we feel confident that the City of Toronto Planning department and we are aligned in our opposition to the current proposal and have similar views as to potential resolution.

Here you will find a Power Point presentation that was prepared and presented by Stephen Vetter of the resident group.  Some discussion took place around the various issues presented in that deck.  Some of the main points where the Councillor, City Planning and our residents group are all in alignment are:

Parking – a 15 storey 112 unit residential building would require 104 parking spaces.  The developer is only proposing 57 spaces, which include visitor parking spots.  However, if the parking remains the same at 57 spaces, reducing the height by ½ and thereby the number of units by ½ would result in the development being in compliance with city requirements.  We also discussed the current inadequacy of parking in general in the neighbourhood thus demonstrating the need for parking to be maintained in accordance with By-Law requirements.. It is our belief that we continue to support City Planning in ensuring the development adheres to current by-law requirements.

Height and Mass – The City of Toronto created mid-rise building performance standards.  Those standards, based on this particular property depth indicate an approximate height of 22.5M or 7 storeys.  It remains our view that we support City Planning in maintaining these requirements and not exceeding them on this development site.

Shadows – We had a discussion about the shadows projected by this proposed development over the residences on Burnaby, and the potential shadow impacts to the entire street if further development of the proposed height and massing was allowed.  (you can see potential impacts in the PowerPoint deck).  It is our view that we are aligned with City Planning.

Aesthetics – We discussed the current proposed conceptual drawings of the site.  We felt that the design of the building, as currently envisioned in the rendering we had been provided, was not at all in character with the neighbourhood.  In our view, there was nothing about the rendering that was appropriate regarding design.  In fact, some felt there was no design.  During the discussion, City Planning advised that much more discussion would yet take place re the design esthetics and that this was clearly not yet resolved.  We believe that City Planning shares our views.

Traffic – it is fair to say that residents and Planning are aligned.  Having traffic go to and from the building through a narrow laneway to/from Avenue Road only 20M or so north of Eglinton in an area of bad sight lines is not consistent with safety.  There have already been too many accidents on that curved section of Avenue Road between Willowbank and Eglinton.

We did have some discussion on other items, but in general, I think the residents at the meeting left with some degree of comfort from the fact that City Planning was aligned with our views. For those who have not read the Staff Report that prepared by the Planning Department for North York Community Council, we have appended the short conclusion for your review:

Conclusion:
The application for a tall building is not appropriate for this site. It does not conform to the Official Plan and Yonge-Eglinton Secondary Plan; is inconsistent with Council approved Mid-rise guidelines; is not in compliance with the zoning by-law stemming from the Eglinton Connects Planning Study with regard to height, setbacks, stepbacks and angular planes and it does not fit within the existing context for this segment of Eglinton Avenue West. It would also create adverse shadow impacts and overlook conditions on the adjacent Neighbourhoods. This would be inappropriate development with unacceptable impacts which would form a negative precedent for this area. Therefore, this report recommends that staff oppose the applicant’s appeal of the Zoning By-law Amendment and Site Plan Control applications at the Ontario Municipal Board.