On a personal note, it seems your life is about to be upended. I can only hope for the best outcome for you and other residents wrapped up in this. /bows
Thanks, Utakata. My partner and I were looking to move, perhaps to a smaller town, in the next few years. This may have put a concrete timeline into place.
 
Just to note the surrounding area: the townhouses on Inkerman and Irwin are co-ops I believe, and the set of townhouses on St. Nicholas are condos.

There is a real opportunity to have ground level and patio retail on the St. Nicholas side of the 25 St. Mary St property (it would match the retail and commercial mixed uses on St. Nicholas) with a park on St. Mary St. Townhouses could line Inkerman. Can imagine it would be quite nice, along with a tower in the centre of the site like currently exists.

I live over here and walk these streets pretty much everyday and while I like the shape of the existing tower as well as all the trees here, the site could be used in a different way.
 
Lobbyist Watch Update: Subject Matter Registration


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They'll move them or accept the 10:1 replacement requirement for removal. There's no way a tree sitting on the interior of the site will prevent development here.
It’s 1:1 for city trees and 3:1 for private trees with a diameter over 30cm in fair or better condition. Cash in lieu can be paid and is generally accepted.
 
...the building they're replacing seems more interesting, IMO. Come back with a more curved chevron shaped floor plates and I might get behind this.
 


My favorite part of UT is definitely these random insider drops that we get teased with. On initial glance I have a few thoughts:

1. I'm glad they are going for something white, I like that in a way they want to honour the colour of the original tower. I also just like white cause developers seem to get it right way more often than they can black (which always looks grey).

2. The grid portion on Panda south of this is looking sharp with its punched grid look, so I'm definitely welcoming the aesthetic.

3. I do hope for some retail space or at least some ground floor activation beyond townhomes in the base, i'll say this for anywhere though.

More thoughts below...

In the meantime, I made a little photoshop of how the towers might be placed on the site (They are versions of Tower Hill apartments from St Clair smashed together.) The heights are just estimated, I have a feeling I may have the heights of the towers backwards looking again at the render but it's a little late for me to fix it.

(Via Google streetview)

ma.jpg



...the building they're replacing seems more interesting, IMO. Come back with a more curved chevron shaped floor plates and I might get behind this.

I agree with this sentiment, the shape of this building is quite nice. Something like the original proposal for G2 by bkL Architecture with its interesting shape would go great here. I have a soft spot for Toronto's white brick/concrete slab towers, they feel like they've aged really well so it's a little sad to see it go when towers like it are considered quite up to standard in places like Singapore.

An upside to the plan will be a much more functional POPS greenspace, as the current one just feels like it's meant to be a doggy potty area and is just mostly fenced off.
 
ZBA & SPA application(s) submitted:

Development Applications

Project description:
Zoning By-law Amendment application for two mixed-use towers having heights of 54 and 59-storeys. The proposed non-residential gross floor area for the site is 974 square metres, and the proposed residential gross floor area is 80,941 square metres. A total of 1,143 residential dwelling units are proposed, comprised of 259 replacement rental units, 14 new rental units, and 870 new residential units.
 
ZBA & SPA application(s) submitted:

Development Applications

Project description:

There may, as the details come out, be much else to commend this proposal..........but it would sell this (to me) if the entire thing were purpose-built rental; and be a further bonus if the proponent were willing to include additional below-market units.
 

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