But where would you say a crossing should go of the 401? And would it be a multiuse trail or include vehicle traffic?
The southern terminuses of Bessarion Road and Willowdale Ave seem like good mid points between interchanges that would also increase the walk in radius of the one existing and one potential stations.
I think the tough sell is that unless there is mass rezoning/restructuring south of the 401, those areas will likely remain low-density and will jealously defend their from their enclaves being transformed into throughfares, be it trails or roads.

That being said, in tangem with rezoning the last few homes west of Concord Park Place, I could see a potential pedestrian connection crossing the 401 and linking up to Silvergrove Road behind the Armenian church. The terrain there is challenging, but it's precisely because of that that it's marginal land and more easily acceptable as a landing for a connection.

In terms of a road, connecting Bessarion makes sense, but I would imagine it would involve a larger redesign of a new continuous Bessarion from Bayview to Leslie.
 
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I'm sure this is far beyond what the city has the bandwidth to plan for at the moment, but what are your thoughts on the further subdividing of the suburban 'blocks' made up by the old concession roads? I've talked it out with friends in the past to mixed reception.
I think a lot of this could be the northern extension of existing roads that simply dwindle out at various barriers, such as Avenue and Spadina. But seems like a finer grain street grid will be needed to sustain the spike in population soon to hit these neighborhoods.
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I broadly endorse the idea, I strongly favour, where practical, bringing the grid to 1km apart for all arterials both E-W and N-S.

That said, some roads are discontinuous for a good reason, if you look at number/size of valley crossings that Avenue Road would face, it doesn't make a lot of practical sense to connect it north.

Woodbine is discontinous because the DVP occupies a good chunk of its natural alignment, too much of which is in valleys/floodplains meaning it would not be useful, as aligned for an arterial.

That said, there are a number of spots, small and large that make some sense.

Some, like Willowdale/Bessarion are hard/costly relative to return (in the case of the former, if you were being fantastical if sensible, you would link it to Mt. Pleasant. But when you look not only at the direct cost of doing that, but also the add-on costs to allow for development that would help pay that off, it just doesn't seem like a logical priority.

Others make more sense to me. Those already planned including linking Bellamy across the 401, for instance.

While others seem fairly easy, Pharmacy across the 401, or extending Bermondsey/Sloane cleanly to Lawrence, and possibly south to St. Clair.

In the east end, roughly following Surrey to create an E-W road between Eglinton and Lawrence, at least from VP to Kennedy (then you have the GO Corridor to get across), but possible do that and go east as well etc etc.

As part of that exercise, I would generally want to downsize six-lane arterials to 4 lanes to make them more human-scaled.

For all of that.......I don't think the City is there except for the easiest, shortest linkages. The time to build multi-km new major roads was 3 decades ago when the land was cheaper or even not fully developed. Doing it now is cost prohibitive and rather disruptive.

But I'd love to see some coherent thought around doing just a few of these and making sure you pick the ones that most alleviate congestion, that most facilitate development, that most shorten transit commutes etc.
 
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Neither would I.





Ideally it would allow for cars, in order to relieve the mess that is Bayview at 401, we're not going to shift the interchange traffic away from that location, but if it can shift local traffic that would be helpful.

However, allowing for cars is no small matter as one has to have a receiving road on the south side that is appropriate to the volume.

Both potential roads from the north meet residential, winding side streets on the south side. These would have to upgraded as far south as York Mills, and through some rather well-heeled, pricey real estate areas.

Its a challenge.

If you went pedestrian/cycling only I'm not sure the usage potential is there for what would be a very long crossing, either as a tunnel or if elevated, likely come with long switch-back ramps at both ends.

Willowdale is further complicated by a buried creek in the area, meaning supports have to go around this and preserve appropriate maintenance access. (Glendora Park is over the creek)

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This is why we need to properly plan and model out different choices about what modal splits can be realistically achieved, at what cost, and whose paying.
It would be great for the 115 Silver Hills bus to go under the 401 to Bessarion station.
 
I still am curious how the city will treat the 12.5m setback from tower to the neighbourhoods. They haven't compromised on this for years - unless something changed in the last few weeks.

The only other relevant cases I can think of include 1366 Yonge and 2475 Dundas - where less than 20m is proposed (ie 2475), or less then 20m has been accepted by the city (ie 1366) where they split the land use designations on the fire station into two
 
Missing from this discussion is the concept of using tolls for municipal infrastructure.
 
I live in the neighborhood directly west of the proposed tower. Though the tower is marketed as being on Bayview, let's be honest... the tower is IN our neighborhood! Access to the tower (2810-2816 Bayview Avenue) is through our neighborhood. We are a group of 100 homes, mostly seniors and we were shocked at 461 Sheppard Avenue got approved. The city completely disregarded the 45 degrees angular plane guidelines for tall buildings! Yes, they have a proposal to probably rezone our neighborhood at some point, but as of date, that has NOT been done.. so on what basis did they approve the 461 Sheppard Avenue development? We would love if someone could give us insight on how we can oppose the 2810-2816 Bayview development as we really cannot have a SFH neighborhood with no sidewalks withstand the traffic, construction vehicles, garbage trucks, fire trucks and ambulances for the proposed skyscraper!
 
I live in the neighborhood directly west of the proposed tower. Though the tower is marketed as being on Bayview, let's be honest... the tower is IN our neighborhood! Access to the tower (2810-2816 Bayview Avenue) is through our neighborhood. We are a group of 100 homes, mostly seniors and we were shocked at 461 Sheppard Avenue got approved. The city completely disregarded the 45 degrees angular plane guidelines for tall buildings! Yes, they have a proposal to probably rezone our neighborhood at some point, but as of date, that has NOT been done.. so on what basis did they approve the 461 Sheppard Avenue development? We would love if someone could give us insight on how we can oppose the 2810-2816 Bayview development as we really cannot have a SFH neighborhood with no sidewalks withstand the traffic, construction vehicles, garbage trucks, fire trucks and ambulances for the proposed skyscraper!

Though I think the rezoning of your neighbourhood is all but inevitable here, and forgive me, but probably desirable.......

I also dislike policy made on the fly that at least has the appearance of undue favouritism and inconsistent application of policy.

At this point, this particular proposal isn't yet approved, so you need to be in touch with your City Councillor and prepared to depute (speak) when the matter comes before Community Council.

You should follow the link posted in thread to the Application Information Centre and read as many of the documents as you can, so that you have a clear understanding of what the proponent is arguing, including the applicable traffic studies.

Should this receive a favourable report, you will have few options.

If you and your neighbours want to pool your resources, you can challenge this in Divisional Court, I would advise, it will likely be a costly exercise, as you will have to at minimum pay a lawyer and expert planner, along with filing fees.
The bill could easily run into the thousands and beyond, though if you win, you can ask for an award to cover costs. Such an award is at the discretion of any court, and not a given. While uncommon, there is also a risk that the City could seek costs from your group should they win.

Should an unfavourable report go forward from the City, and Council votes it down, next steps depend on what the proponent here chooses to do. If they drop the matter, you're gold. (for now); if they appeal to OLT, you and your neighbours would want to have party status to any appeal.

You would not be required to, but should have your own lawyer and planner for the purpose of same.
 
We would love if someone could give us insight on how we can oppose the 2810-2816 Bayview development as we really cannot have a SFH neighborhood with no sidewalks withstand the traffic, construction vehicles, garbage trucks, fire trucks and ambulances for the proposed skyscraper!
As Northern Light pointed out there are numerous formal avenues to oppose this project. However hiring professionals to contest this is a good way to waste thousands of you and your neighbors dollars to fight an outcome that was concluded a long time ago. There's not a spot in the neighborhood more than 650m from the station entrance, its wedged between a highway + two major arterials and there is nothing of heritage value to be found.
Although I don't agree with reasoning behind it, this block is one of the few in Ontario the powers at be feel comfortable letting redevelopment completely rip.

If I were you, I'd skip on padding a lawyers pockets and start planning a move.
 
Thank
Though I think the rezoning of your neighbourhood is all but inevitable here, and forgive me, but probably desirable.......

I also dislike policy made on the fly that at least has the appearance of undue favouritism and inconsistent application of policy.

At this point, this particular proposal isn't yet approved, so you need to be in touch with your City Councillor and prepared to depute (speak) when the matter comes before Community Council.

You should follow the link posted in thread to the Application Information Centre and read as many of the documents as you can, so that you have a clear understanding of what the proponent is arguing, including the applicable traffic studies.

Should this receive a favourable report, you will have few options.

If you and your neighbours want to pool your resources, you can challenge this in Divisional Court, I would advise, it will likely be a costly exercise, as you will have to at minimum pay a lawyer and expert planner, along with filing fees.
The bill could easily run into the thousands and beyond, though if you win, you can ask for an award to cover costs. Such an award is at the discretion of any court, and not a given. While uncommon, there is also a risk that the City could seek costs from your group should they win.

Should an unfavourable report go forward from the City, and Council votes it down, next steps depend on what the proponent here chooses to do. If they drop the matter, you're gold. (for now); if they appeal to OLT, you and your neighbours would want to have party status to any appeal.

You would not be required to, but should have your own lawyer and planner for the purpose of same.
Thank you Northern Light - I've started reading all the documents possted in the Application Centre..
 
Yeah...all 4 proposal around this area are at the above 40 story mark, so this is a trend here. Arguing against one will likely mean you'll have to argue against the others. Might as well be flatulating in a hurricane...sorry. >.<
 
Other the other hand if you own your property you may be able to make a windfall as developers try to build out the rest of the area.
 
Other the other hand if you own your property you may be able to make a windfall as developers try to build out the rest of the area.

The land vultures are knocking on doors trying to land assemble these Single Residential Houses,... are telling homeowners if they don't sell, the City will expropriate,.... even the local Councillor had to clarify

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Speaking of MTSA's........ what for the love of god is the hold up? It's kinda bizarre that for two+ years now a set of laws that are not actually law yet have been used to argue cases at the city and provincial level.
 

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