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Bloor Street condo development focus of meeting
Councillor Sarah Doucette is arranging a community consultation meeting to discuss the condominium development proposed for 1844 Bloor St. W. on Thursday, March 1 at Humberside Collegiate Institute’s Lismar Hall from 7 to 8:30 p.m.
The purpose of the meeting is to initiate a consultation process. City of Toronto planning staff will be seeking a small group of community volunteers to participate in a design working group.
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http://www.1844bloorstreetwest.com
Full article at insidetoronto.com
all text below from article
A highly contested High Park condo proposal likened by one west-end councillor to “putting a gorilla in a fishbowl” was referred back for more community consultation this week after a two-and-a-half hour meeting disintegrated into a shouting match.
The controversial development application – which proposes a 14-storey, 378-residential-unit, mixed-use building directly across from High Park on Bloor Street West – drew the ire of a standing-room-only crowd at Etobicoke York Community Council (EYCC) Tuesday night.
After an hour of similar deputations and visibly taken off guard by the long grocery list of complaints presented by her constituents, local Councillor Sarah Doucette admitted to having a change of heart – reversing her decision to approve the development in favour of seeking more time for consultation between the developer and the community.
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One of the buildings at Pacific Ave and Bloor St.
The National Post Newspaper ran a article yesterday on the boarded-up block of Bloor St. west just west of Keele St. [link to article] [map location window 1844-1854 Bloor St west.]
An excerpt from the article…
A hearing next week will decide the fate of a boarded-up block of brick houses overlooking High Park, which the owner hopes to demolish to make way for a new condo building.
W.J. Properties applied for a permit to demolish the block of houses along Bloor Street West in March, 2006, but council refused to approve it since the owner didn’t offer up re-development plans with the application. Senior city planner David Spence said city staff is worried the block will sit vacant after demolition — decreasing density in the neighbourhood — and they want to know how existing rental units will be replaced. [link to article]
…and some well thought words from the local Councillor who is spot on the block will be used for development simply because of it’s location, in the City of Toronto retaining single family zoning on Bloor Street is probably not a high priority nor a reasonable planning use.
Councillor Bill Saundercook (Parkdale-High Park) said the houses are attractive, but will inevitably make way for kind development.
“It’s a bit of an anomally in that the houses are still standing there,” he said.
Council often makes developers revise their plans repeatedly before giving out building permits. If W.J. Properties tears down the Bloor West buildings before this sometimes-lengthy process begins, the lot might stay empty for many months.
Mr. Saundercook is more concerned about involving the public in redevelopment plans than how long the site might sit vacant. “I would like to see a very cohesive plan that I believe an informed developer could make,” he said, “and that would include how long they speculated for this site to be sitting vacant, what they plan on doing while it is vacant and then try to hold them as rigidly as possible to a development plan.”
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1854 Bloor Street West Side door was door to a former doctors offices Photo: www.tobuilt.ca
The Site owners of 1844-1854 Bloor Street West, 6-14 Oakmount Road, and 35 & 47 Pacific Avenue have brought applications seeking permission to demolish 13 residential buildings.
Cot’s position from their reports…
In March 2006, demolition permit applications were made to demolish 13 houses located at the Site. No building permit application or redevelopment proposal to replace the buildings has been submitted.
On March 27, 2007, the Etobicoke York Community Council considered a staff report dated March 13, 2007, which recommended that the demolition control applications brought by the property owners in respect of the Site be refused and that, in the event of an appeal, the City Solicitor and appropriate staff be authorized to attend at the Ontario Municipal Board in support of the recommendation.
Consideration of the report was deferred to give the owners the opportunity to respond to concerns the City had about the proposed demolition. The owners failed to address the City’s concerns, and appealed the failure of City Council to approve the demolition permit applications that had been submitted.
The March 13, 2007, Staff Report
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