28-storey building wins thumbs up from councillors
Jul. 8, 2005
In spite of concerns from local residents, Toronto and East York Community Council approved the construction of a 28-storey residential building near Wellesley subway station.
The condominium application was met with opposition from many in the community, who said the building was out of character with the surrounding neighbourhood.
"This represents a threefold increase over what's permitted," said resident Brigitte Westway. "This is a unique single-family residential low-scale neighbourhood downtown. The impacts will include shadowing, view obstruction and setting a precedent for future redevelopment of other sites in the area."
Fellow resident David Reynolds argued that the tall building would cause major shadowing problems for his nearby home. "In the winter, my backyard gets an hour of sunlight in the morning," he said. "It's a quality of life issue for me, not to mention that this is a massive, massive violation of zoning."
Les Klein of Quadrangle Architects, the company that brought forth the application, said the proposal was the result of an extensive peer review process where outside architects were brought in to evaluate the building plans.
"There have been major changes to the original plan," he said. "There's a four-storey podium so the building is stepped away from the surrounding neighbourhood and it's less than 100 metres from the subway station."
That argument was of little consolation to Tom Demlakian, the president of a much smaller condominium complex on nearby Dundonald Street, who noted that previous applications in the area were held to strict zoning guidelines.
"Our building is eight storeys and it staggers to four storeys toward the surrounding neighbourhood," he said. "We went to great pains to achieve that."
But Ward 27 Councillor Kyle Rae (Toronto Centre-Rosedale) sided with the developer, citing the need to build up population density near the subway system. He said that he had met with many people in the community who were in favour of the application.
"It's a major arterial road running east-west across the city and it's 100 feet from Wellesley subway," he said. "This is exactly where we should be seeing intensification."
He added that staff and the applicant had taken care to ensure that the shadowing impact on the surrounding community was minimal.
"The building is taller, but the floor plan is smaller," he said. "In general, people have been supportive of this plan."
The application was approved, with Ward 22 Councillor Michael Walker (St. Paul's) asking that his objection be noted.
- Justin Skinner
Jul. 8, 2005
In spite of concerns from local residents, Toronto and East York Community Council approved the construction of a 28-storey residential building near Wellesley subway station.
The condominium application was met with opposition from many in the community, who said the building was out of character with the surrounding neighbourhood.
"This represents a threefold increase over what's permitted," said resident Brigitte Westway. "This is a unique single-family residential low-scale neighbourhood downtown. The impacts will include shadowing, view obstruction and setting a precedent for future redevelopment of other sites in the area."
Fellow resident David Reynolds argued that the tall building would cause major shadowing problems for his nearby home. "In the winter, my backyard gets an hour of sunlight in the morning," he said. "It's a quality of life issue for me, not to mention that this is a massive, massive violation of zoning."
Les Klein of Quadrangle Architects, the company that brought forth the application, said the proposal was the result of an extensive peer review process where outside architects were brought in to evaluate the building plans.
"There have been major changes to the original plan," he said. "There's a four-storey podium so the building is stepped away from the surrounding neighbourhood and it's less than 100 metres from the subway station."
That argument was of little consolation to Tom Demlakian, the president of a much smaller condominium complex on nearby Dundonald Street, who noted that previous applications in the area were held to strict zoning guidelines.
"Our building is eight storeys and it staggers to four storeys toward the surrounding neighbourhood," he said. "We went to great pains to achieve that."
But Ward 27 Councillor Kyle Rae (Toronto Centre-Rosedale) sided with the developer, citing the need to build up population density near the subway system. He said that he had met with many people in the community who were in favour of the application.
"It's a major arterial road running east-west across the city and it's 100 feet from Wellesley subway," he said. "This is exactly where we should be seeing intensification."
He added that staff and the applicant had taken care to ensure that the shadowing impact on the surrounding community was minimal.
"The building is taller, but the floor plan is smaller," he said. "In general, people have been supportive of this plan."
The application was approved, with Ward 22 Councillor Michael Walker (St. Paul's) asking that his objection be noted.
- Justin Skinner