Kenojuak
Active Member
What exactly are the problems with the proposed street network?
- Thread starter AlbertC
- Start date
toronto647
Active Member
I for one will attest on not being an expert on the proposed street network or the associated problems however very roughly / paraphrasing there were a number of concerns.
- 7-11 Rochefort Drive is planned to be demolished and Ferrand Drive will be extended to St. Dennis Drive and potentially Grenoble through additional development that has not been announced as of yet.
- An initial cul de sac that was promised to the townhouse community and has now been removed. It is now being connected to Don Mills Road and Eglinton which as you can imagine for a townhouse community going from maybe 50 cars to potentially 1000s of cars passing by is a challenge and reducing the street from 3 lanes to 2 creates even more problems.
- The initial study was done based on 3 lanes and not 2 on Ferrand Drive. Was also done prior to the Ontario Line even being thought of and the hundreds of condos/towers being built within a small radius.
- Also I know there were issues with how the streets were planned didn't make sense from a traffic flow perspective which the transportation department agreed with will cause issues but I assume was too far down the pipeline worth making changes.
I know there were many other problems I can reach out to the community member and get back to you if you like. You can DM me.
Don Mills and Eglinton will be the next major hub with the Eglinton LRT and Ontario Line so I also support a revised transportation study so busses can get into the terminal and out quickly. Whats the point if they are sitting in traffic. If there are new developments coming down the pipeline and significant new changes not considered in the original plan best the city examine them and then create a street plan that makes sense rather than rushing something down and causing chaos for generations to come. Good governance.
Kudos to the community for advocating for affordable housing in their own backyard and fighting to get greater density. Don't see that often now days.
HousingNowTO
Senior Member
Most-recent public MILESTONE report is from APRIL 27, 2022.
PDF - https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2022/ra/bgrd/backgroundfile-225313.pdf
Next one won't be released until early OCTOBER 2022 - because of the Summer/Election break in Committee & Board meetings.
Assuming the Zoning By-Laws updates for DON MILLS sites that passed at Council last week - are executed quickly (and nobody spends the $400 to appeal them to the OLT) - then we expect the RFPs to be "on the street" in SEPTEMBER 2022.
Northern Light
Superstar
Ahem....
10 Grenoble | 174m | 54s | Osmington Gerofsky | a—A
The Lobbyist Registry tells us this these tower-in-the-park style apartments are in play in some fashion. To the extent that the the above addresses describe the entirety of the site(s) it's a rather peculiar shape. But regardless the obvious play here would be an infill tower. Here's...
toronto647
Active Member
Ahem....
10 Grenoble | 174m | 54s | Osmington Gerofsky | a—A
The Lobbyist Registry tells us this these tower-in-the-park style apartments are in play in some fashion. To the extent that the the above addresses describe the entirety of the site(s) it's a rather peculiar shape. But regardless the obvious play here would be an infill tower. Here's...urbantoronto.ca
Thanks @Northern Light for sharing this. Exactly so the way it's envisioned right now is Ferrand Drive will extend South to St. Dennis Drive (7-11 Rochefort Development) then further South to Grenoble (10 Grenoble / 7 St. Dennis Drive) and possibly directly to Gateway Blvd. Makes sense to clean up the street network prior to Flemo being gentrified and there is a mess in road networks because the city / developers failed to plan proactively.
Northern Light
Superstar
You're welcome.
Yes; but on the latter part, I might put it somewhat differently.
1) Flemo's original layout of roads is/was horrible. A product of its time, it actually does what it was meant to, in many respects, which is discourage traffic infiltration.
At the time, no one thought of this as 'isolating'; nor did they consider any future capacity issues (I'll forgive this one as few people would have contemplated the degree of intensification we're seeing now); and they likely
didn't fathom how the road grid's isolation would not make life difficult on residents (and emergency service responders), but also how it would discourage new investment, in the area, for probably 2 + generations.
2) The intensification we're seeing is driven by the Ontario Line/Relief Line North and by MTSAs; neither of which were more than ephemeral concepts even 10 years ago.
3) The City often has the habit of only investing in areas, on a large-scale, when the spinoffs from private sector development will pay for all or at least a significant chunk of said costs.
A low-income area, without the gentrification is likely out of luck in attracting City investment that would exceed 100M.
***
There are always exceptions, if you think of Flemo's upgrades as non-masterplanned TCHC renewal, a-la, Regent Park, or Lawrence Heights etc you can see that linkage.
An alternative example that didn't have TCHC would be Humber Bay Shores, but still most infra has been developer paid-for and that explains a great deal about why its been somewhat too little; somewhat late.
James1256
Active Member
According to the meeting that happened on April 24th, 2023, we should be expecting a market offering soon for both this and 805 Don Mills road, assuming the land sale from the Church (For 805 Don Mills road, as some of the site still needs to be acquired) and the TDSB agreement (For 770 Don mills road, as that's the one with the proposed TDSB elementary school) are completed. @HousingNowTO Would the market offering be discussed in the upcoming June 20th, 2023 meeting?
HousingNowTO
Senior Member
As the June 20th, 2023 date falls before the Mayoral By-Election date of June 26, 2023 --- I don't expect any RFPs to be issued until July or August at the earliest --- especially for these Science Centre adjacent HOUSING NOW sites...
James1256
Active Member
According to the upcoming meeting information on July 25th (Already published along with the milestone report), both 770 Don Mills and 805 Don Mills are available for market offerings pending provincial Bill 23 funding. 770 Don Mills is still discussing with the school board for the elementary school component that'll be a part of it, while 805 is still discussing with the church next to it for buying a part of their land. Depending on if and when the province does reimburse them, this might take a while longer to get market offerings out
Northern Light
Superstar
A report to next week's CreateTO meeting outlines where we are at here:
From the above:
From the above:
christiesplits
Senior Member
Could we see changes to this proposal now that the Ontario Science Centre is gone?
Northern Light
Superstar
Anything is possible, but I would tend to say no, and that that would not be desirable.
To go back and revisit everything now would delay things at least a year, probably 2........
I think the balance of the OSC site can be considered independently.
HousingNowTO
Senior Member
Unlikely. This proposal was always strictly-limited to the parcels of CITY-owned lands directly along the SOUTH side of Eglinton... and the TDSB School-in-Podium agreement is going to Toronto City Council on WED next week.
The PROVINCIAL lands and parking lots to the South of these sites were never part of this plan.
CITY can proceed "as is" with this approved plan for 770 DON MILLS, and get it out to RFP for Development-Partners within the next 12-months.
PROVINCE via Infrastructure Ontario will probably spend most of the next 18-months just doing site-stabilization for their old Ontario Science Centre buildings...and any housing they start to plan south of the City lands will only happen after the ONTARIO LINE above-ground tracks & piers are completed along DON MILLS in 2029(-ish).
Northern Light
Superstar
One note of correction.........
Not provincial lands.
The City and the TRCA are the owners, the province is the lessee.
Here's what the looks like:
From: https://trca.ca/news/ontario-science-centre/
HousingNowTO
Senior Member
mmmmmm.... City of Toronto property PARKING-LOTS all along Don Mills...???
Will need to look into the details of the T & C's on those Leases, I guess..???
Will need to look into the details of the T & C's on those Leases, I guess..???