[innsertnamehere]

Incredibly bad planning, Far too much crammed into such a small area.

Saying 'No' to this is a first corrective step.

The second is waiting for one of the owners to not move, and then to take the property off their hands (ideally Canadian Tire) as the park should be much larger to serve this area. That likely won't happen, but it should.

While I agree densities here are too high - there is no shortage of park space in walking distance here. I would rather the density simply be reduced to something reasonable and more liveable.

My problem with this area isn't even necessarily the tower heights - 50's is fine - it's that the towers are being squeezed in like it's Downtown with minimal tower separations, minimal podiums, and tiny rights of way with minimal public realm.

 

[Northern Light]

While I agree densities here are too high - there is no shortage of park space in walking distance here.

Disagree. Yes, there is a major park on the other side of the rail corridor, But the bridge represents a substantial barrier to many, both physically and psychologically in terms of accessing the park.

The only major park on the north side of the corridor in close'ish proximity is Dentonia Park which is a very fully subscribed place. The soccer pitch is busy most spring/summer/fall nights, the basketball court is full, the baseball diamond same, and the playground. Its also ~1km from these buildings.

The proposed park here is too small for any sports field of any kind. The area could really use a cricket pitch; and the incredibly dense community here deserve a proper playground for kids and some space to eat outdoors.

My problem with this area isn't even necessarily the tower heights - 50's is fine - it's that the towers are being squeezed in like it's Downtown with minimal tower separations, minimal podiums, and tiny rights of way with minimal public realm.

I agree. Lets also remember this set of approvals removes the 'public square' at Main/Danforth. It, of course, was never public, and yes, is a tad moribund, though busy in warmer weather just the same.

 

[Collingwoodbuildinglover]

Yeah really that is some massive density

 

[Natika33]

Based on what is approved at this node, one could argue that Main and Danforth IS the core (or will be).

With this density, yes, which makes it even more disappointing they won't be making a pedestrian tunnel under Danforth from Main Station. That's going to be a lot of people waiting for the lights all the time.

 

[Natika33]

Incredibly bad planning, Far too much crammed into such a small area.

Saying 'No' to this is a first corrective step.

The second is waiting for one of the owners to not move, and then to take the property off their hands (ideally Canadian Tire) as the park should be much larger to serve this area. That likely won't happen, but it should.

Agreed. The area in front of the current Canadian Tire that's currently a parking lot would make an ideal spot for a new neighbourhood park. I don't like the design where the neighbourhood park is small and on a side street as there wouldn't be as many eyes on it.

 

[marcus_a_j]

The Planning Report noted ~15,000 new residents within the block bounded by Main, Danforth, Trent and the rail corridor - which is about the same population projected for Villiers Island. That's just for the buildings proposed/approved/under construction, so doesn't include the existing Main Square buildings, the Sobey's site, and the other recently built condos.

 

[goodcitywhenfinished]

First take, too much.

I'm fine with height and pro intensification, but the Main - Dawes block between Danforth and the Railway is going to be denser than City Place, St. Jamestown, or just about anywhere else in the City, it's too much all in one spot.

The density here is probably more appropriate than city place to be honest. 2 modes of high capacity transit are within walking distance.

 

[Northern Light]

The density here is probably more appropriate than city place to be honest. 2 modes of high capacity transit are within walking distance.

We could debate whether the density a City Place, as built delivered what it ought to have.......

But I'm not going to agree that anywhere should be built to this density.

We're talking about a single (one) km 2 of area.

Within said area, 21 towers are built, under construction or proposed.

Average heights are around 40s.

That's something close to 10,000 units, likely 30,000 people, and within that block next to no parkland, no community centre, no library, etc etc.

Congestion on this section of Danforth is already severe, and impairing local transit on multiple routes.

There's a need to get a grip here and show some restraint.

 

[Technical Difficulties]

I can't help smirk as I read about this. I'm a fan of the design, but I do not think that the Main / Danforth area is ready. I can only imagine that all the other sites in the area will go higher as well (Minto, CT, etc). The area needs revitalization, but without the proper amenities, it's going to be bizzaro world - lots of people with no activation other than commuting. TDSB has had Secord Elementary on their priority list forever and it continually gets bumped lower. Bring the people I guess, but hopefully the amenities (bars, restaurants, playgrounds, schools, recreation facilities) are coming too.

I'm also no where near smart enough to understand this, but I don't get why Danforth GO doesn't have an entry point on the East End of the site off Dawes. With all this density, and even more planned to the east (Shoppers World etc), I don't understand why the only access point on the north side of the tracks is off Main Street. Seems silly to have everyone walk to that entry when you're tapping on / off anyway.

 

[christiesplits]

I agree with many of you that the density is way too much for this area, and this coming from someone who typically supports tower-level intensification near transit hubs. Pluck out *some* of the towers and I'll be much more agreeable to the plans.

Disagree. Yes, there is a major park on the other side of the rail corridor, But the bridge represents a substantial barrier to many, both physically and psychologically in terms of accessing the park.

Agreed. The rail corridor and bridge creates a physical barrier. I would reckon that most current Main Square families use the East Toronto Athletic Field/Ted Reeve Park infrequently, as it is much more connected, physically and culturally, with the Upper Beaches neighbourhood. There needs to be more local elementary school and park space before a development of this scale can proceed.

 

[Northern Light]

I can't help smirk as I read about this. I'm a fan of the design, but I do not think that the Main / Danforth area is ready. I can only imagine that all the other sites in the area will go higher as well (Minto, CT, etc). The area needs revitalization, but without the proper amenities, it's going to be bizzaro world - lots of people with no activation other than commuting.

Agreed.

TDSB has had Secord Elementary on their priority list forever and it continually gets bumped lower.

Its at the top of the list; but the province keeps refusing to fund it.

.....

I'm also no where near smart enough to understand this, but I don't get why Danforth GO doesn't have an entry point on the East End of the site off Dawes. With all this density, and even more planned to the east (Shoppers World etc), I don't understand why the only access point on the north side of the tracks is off Main Street. Seems silly to have everyone walk to that entry when you're tapping on / off anyway.

No one gets that! LOL

Well in fairness, its been planned to happen before, but then Mx scrubbed the project.

It absolutely would make enormous sense. It should be served by a second tunnel under the tracks there as well.

 

[Amare]

That's the biggest problem we're facing in this city, and although the city has learned little bit from past mistakes and has gotten better, it seems like we're just repeating the same mistakes over and over again. The province's various housing legislative acts doesn't help the matter either.

We keep building massively dense communities, where some have provisions in place for supporting community infrastructure (ie: Dufferin and Dupont, Etobicoke City Centre), while other communities are just the wild wild west where we just keep building more residential units without provision for anything else (ie: Yonge and Eglinton, Humber Bay, Liberty Village). Let's not even get to all the new massive dense communities that are in the pipeline where we are set to go down a path that's even worse than some of the one's i've already mentioned (ie: Concorde Place).

The thing is, we went down this path before in areas like the Entertainment District where we built mass amounts of density with towers that dont provide a single community benefit in the 2000's/2010's. You would think that we've learned our lesson from failed community planning like that, but clearly we havent and we just repeat the same mistakes over and over again. We've gotten slightly better at building communities overall, but the improvement's are nowhere near where they need to be at present.

 

[christiesplits]

Wowza:

View attachment 625036

View attachment 625037

Hypothetically, @Northern Light, if you could add additional parkland or community amenities to the new neighbourhood as proposed, where would you put it?

The 15s proposal right at the Main and Danforth intersection bothers me. Not that that the current plaza isn't 100% a disaster, but that it has the potential to be a dynamic public space.

 

[Mihairokov]

There really should be a tunnel/path connection through/under this development to connect Danforth GO Station and Main Street Station. That walk down Main is cumbersome, especially in the winter. We should be doing more to make transit connections easier and more accessible for users.

 

[Northern Light]

Hypothetically, @Northern Light, if you could add additional parkland or community amenities to the new neighbourhood as proposed, where would you put it?

The 15s proposal right at the Main and Danforth intersection bothers me. Not that that the current plaza isn't 100% a disaster, but that it has the potential to be a dynamic public space.

This is the old Main St. Planning Study.....from.....oh.....way back in 2019.

The preferred option was a central park (roughly where one is currently proposed, but it was supposed to be larger and front Danforth.

I have identified that site in Dark Green.

To the south I've identified in Light Green something close to but larger than what we are actually getting, which I would love to see added together with the northern patch.

The ideal version is ~1.6ha or 3 acres and would have sufficient room for one sports amenity and a playground, or alternatively a playground, waterplay, passive playspace and some eating/picnic spaces as well.

***

Also noted is a modest expansion of Coleman Park across Danforth, the principle reason for that is not a park expansion which would be a small, incidental benefit, but rather, to accommodate a new entry to Main Station which could be either direct to Platform or to the concourse level. But since that would be adjacent to the existing park and leave only one or two houses, I say remove them all, and redesign as a cohesive space.

The new entrance could be used by residents in this development (south of Danforth) via the traffic light crossing at the current Canadian Tire entrance just to the east of Barrington.

***

Edit to note that my proposal would require land currently approved for 4 towers, sigh.....which make it quite expensive. The time to buy it, of course, was pre-upzoning. But the City almost never does that. They wait until they quintuple the price of the land, then either buy and eat up money that could have delivered so much more; or they don't buy, complaining its unaffordable.......... duh......... whose fault is that?