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Observer Walt

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The sale of the property at 2376 to 2388 Dundas Street West has been reported. The site is immediately north of the Crossways complex, at Bloor Street. It stretches back from Dundas to the railway tracks, immediately adjacent to the GO station. Most of it is a parking lot now.

It is 63,000 square feet in size, and currently zoned Industrial. I can't see anything on the City of Toronto site pertaining to a development application. With a rezoning it might be a condo site (a companion to Giraffe).
 
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I'd like to see a sort of Freedville/Brad J Lamb-style development here, perhaps with some public/arts housing. Maybe ten stories max, with some good red brick and glass architecture.

What I predict will happen: Some horrible big box development.
 
Good news. Let's hope something of good quality winds up getting built there. As it is now it's a gross eye sore.
 
urbandreamer said:
I'd like to see a sort of Freedville/Brad J Lamb-style development here, perhaps with some public/arts housing. Maybe ten stories max, with some good red brick and glass architecture.

What I predict will happen: Some horrible big box development.
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It wouldn't be that ideal for big boxes. Unless it was multi-floor with parking, I couldn't see much big box fitting in there apart from the types aleady to the north - the Price Chopper and Shoppers Drug Mart, which are hardly big box. Interesting too that the SDM at least uses an old warehouse for most of its building, rather than a new building.

Also, from what I understand, since the Crossways refuses to cooperate, and that soil conditions are supposedly poor, there will not be any east end entrance for Dundas West to connect to the rail corrdor. A new GO/ARL station facility would also have to go on these lands, with an improved connection to the current TTC entrance.
 
ShonTron said:
Interesting too that the SDM at least uses an old warehouse for most of its building, rather than a new building.
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Though given that it wasn't "heritage" (though there might have been lip service to the notion) and it's only really the side walls that were kept, I'm wondering if this was a weasel way to make this register as a rehab rather than as a new building. (Sort of like the under-construction Hakim HQ behind the Torch saving its side walls.)

Besides, if anything in the area screams out future-big-box, it's the Loblaws/Zellers plaza to the south. (At least in theory. Though in practice, I suspect it'll more likely be a Roncy-zone rendition of the Northtown redevelopment in Willowdale...)
 
From Gord Perks' blog:

"Representatives from Urban Strategies Inc., and Lormel Homes will be providing a presentation and answering questions about their development plans. Currently, plans for the site propose a mixed us development with a 29 story tower, 3 story podium and an 8 story building."

Same height as originally proposed for the Giraffe (and same as the Crossways). This sight does not have the traffic, TTC and pedestrian issues that the Giraffe location had, but will presumably face resistance for its height. I live in the area, and while I actually dislike the Crossways a lot less than many people, I think the best way to mitigate its visual impact is to build high enough around it. Assuming the developer is using 29 storeys to start so there is room to come down, I think a building north of the Crossways and adjacent to the tracks that steps down a little bit (in the range of 20 storeys), with a shorter building fronting on Dundas in the range of 8 storeys, is a good approach.

But this is substantially higher than proposed in the Bloor Dundas Avenue Study and the Metrolinx Mobility Hub Study. According to the Avenue Study there is existing approval for a 5 storey building fronting Dundas and an 11 storey building adjacent to the tracks. The Avenue Study seems to have accepted those heights whereas the Mobility Hub study refers to maximum 6 storeys on this parcel. I personally think anything shorter than 15 is a mistake if for no other reason than it leaves the Crossways completely unobstructed and it will continue to be just a big brown curtain across the area.

I don't know anything about Urban Strategies but do have some concerns that the builder appears to be Lormel Homes, which from its website appears to be (up to now) exclusively a suburban home builder.
 
Thanks for the link. For the area, I think it looks rather decent. This awful stretch of Dundas West is pretty patchy in terms of streetscape but has potential.

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Here is another one that is going to go through a rocky road of approvals...Perks and area residents most likely will not like any of this.
Expect the same fate as Giraffe, but this one will probably go to the OMB and pass.
 
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...Except the Bloor-Dundas Avenue Study and the Dundas Street West-Bloor Mobility Hub Study both identify this site for significant density as it is an area slated for transit-oriented development. Over-shadowing won't be a significant issue, and the majority of density is adjacent to the rail lines, not Dundas Street West. Different issues than Giraffe.
 
The studies identify this site for increased density, but identify it for much lower heights than 29 stories. This development does not have many of the traffic/TTC/pedestrian issues that were associated with the Giraffe, but in my view the issues with the Giraffe were not so much problems with the development but were instead problems with the layout of the Dundas/Bloor intersection and the TTC station (such as no east side access) that need to be fixed. The question is whether the real concern that people had with the Giraffe were the issues that the OMB relied on to dismiss the appeal, or if the real concern of those who objected was 29 stories, both on the site at issue and as a precedent for the surrounding area. I was not at the community meeting last week on the new development, but the minutes of the meeting show that the participants were complaining again about height, traffic, crime (?), etc.

This looks to me like a quality development (albeit very early conceptual stages) and we already lost out on one opportunity to set a precedent for high quality development in the area with the Giraffe.
 
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Grimace said:
I was not at the community meeting last week on the new development, but the minutes of the meeting show that the participants were complaining again about height, traffic, crime (?), etc.
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Gee, How can you complain about height, when you have those two ugly tall bunkers at the corner...and crime, of all things. Dont get it.:confused:
 
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