Northern Light
Superstar
This new to the AIC application is for the site of a former Husky Gas Station, on the north side of Finch, as well as a current strip plaza located at the Finch/Birchmount intersection (2950 Birchmount) It also abuts a section of Highland Creek that is in a narrow culvert with no adjacent park space.
Site as is:
The App:
Site Plan:
Comments:
Existing and proposed taller building nearby provide support for a fairly reasonable intensification proposal in terms of height and units.
However, I disagree with the conceptual massing here for two reasons. The first is that it reduces existing retail/commercial GFA in an area that has too little to serve itself already.
Given the location and site footpint, I would argue strongly for considering a supermarket for this site. But to achieve that requires one larger retail footprint across what are now (as proposed) two buildings.
I think the site also offers too much 'private' landscape space while not proposing an onsite parkland dedication. The room for this can easily be found by reorganizing the proposed massing and cutting into the ground floor landscape plan.
I would argue for a 2-3s podium, running as one large building sited from the corner of Birchmount/Finch, with two towers above the podium (thus creating more usable/functional GFA at-grade), but then pulling the building and its driveway a bit further from the creek (5-10M) along the entire length of the site, with a bump-out (larger concentrated park at Birchmount, where one could have a restaurant w/patio seats fronting the park. This variation should easily provide for a 25000ft2 supermarket and some additional supporting retail, with commercial on a 2nd floor supporting medical and other offices for the area's needs. To allow more sunlight to pass through the site, you could actually drop the podium to 1s between the 2 towers, and create a skylight for the supermarket.
Site as is:
The App:
Site Plan:
Comments:
Existing and proposed taller building nearby provide support for a fairly reasonable intensification proposal in terms of height and units.
However, I disagree with the conceptual massing here for two reasons. The first is that it reduces existing retail/commercial GFA in an area that has too little to serve itself already.
Given the location and site footpint, I would argue strongly for considering a supermarket for this site. But to achieve that requires one larger retail footprint across what are now (as proposed) two buildings.
I think the site also offers too much 'private' landscape space while not proposing an onsite parkland dedication. The room for this can easily be found by reorganizing the proposed massing and cutting into the ground floor landscape plan.
I would argue for a 2-3s podium, running as one large building sited from the corner of Birchmount/Finch, with two towers above the podium (thus creating more usable/functional GFA at-grade), but then pulling the building and its driveway a bit further from the creek (5-10M) along the entire length of the site, with a bump-out (larger concentrated park at Birchmount, where one could have a restaurant w/patio seats fronting the park. This variation should easily provide for a 25000ft2 supermarket and some additional supporting retail, with commercial on a 2nd floor supporting medical and other offices for the area's needs. To allow more sunlight to pass through the site, you could actually drop the podium to 1s between the 2 towers, and create a skylight for the supermarket.
