Toronto 1255 The Queenway | 210.1m | 65s | Figtree Holdings | Studio JCI

[Gman8901]

Looks like something interesting is happening in the Sobey's plaza at Kipling.

Address on the app is 1255 the Queensway. Screenshot is attached.

That address seems to be shared by:

1. The Brands & Bins Gone Wild
2. The Mandarin Resturant
3. SVP Sports Warehouse
4. Sobey's and that indoor plaza generally
5. Fit4Less
6. Swiss Chalet


Application for rezoning popped up this morning. Not publically accessible yet. Couldn't find much online about what's going on here.

Looks like it could be a fairly massive redevelopment. Parcel must be several acres?

 

[Northern Light]

I gotcha @Gman8901

@Paclo

Its public-facing now.

Application Details

www.toronto.ca

So its OPA only at this point, so there are no pretty renders........ but its certainly big............

15 towers, ranging from 12s to 65s.

Architect: Studio JCI

Proponent: Figtree Construction Ltd

Residential Unit Total 7, 360!

Ahem....nearly 4,200 vehicle parking spots! Parking ratio ~0.57

@Amare

@HousingNowTO will want to know that at this point no specific commitments on affordable housing have been made - essentially we'll talk about it at ZBA.

Site above contained in red-dashes.

I want to show the Block Context Plan here just to talk parkland:

Notice how you basically have Islington to Kipling developed in roughly 3 super blocks, each with its own parks/open space, ranging from ~0.4ha to about 1ha. (though that across more than 1 block)

If these three sites were laid out together, you could could have a single ~2.5ha / just over 6 acre park in the middle, a space large enough for 2 sports fields, and a playground or one field, large playground with waterplay, and tennis courts.
Instead you have this dysfunctional network of spaces none of which you can do much with, that will have higher maintence costs.

****

Comments:

Density - Excessive

Ramp Design for the Gardiner (not on the proponent, but wrong)

Parks - I touched on, fixing sites under different ownership is likely a lost cause.........but here, the opportunity should be to consolidate the school yard and the second park block to the main park block, and to create a more functional shape. I get that using the highway buffer zone works......but it can't be allowed to dictate a less functional shape.

Parking - Excessive, no higher order transit is present or proposed, so scale the density down considerably, but you still need to deliver something that won't congest local roads beyond recognition.
Parking should be capped at 0.4

 

[Undead]

These value uplift applications are so stupid.

 

[Towered]

There's no more market for all this junk.

 

[UtakataNoAnnex]

...they should put helicopter pads on some of those towers for that extra Seoul K vibe. >.<

 

[rdaner]

^Do you mean for condos or rental as I don’t think that it is specified but with such a long timeline will change with the market.

 

[canarob]

Are there plans for major transit expansion nearby? This is an incredible amount of density for an area that seems to only have bus service.

 

[Northern Light]

Are there plans for major transit expansion nearby? This is an incredible amount of density for an area that seems to only have bus service.

Not really.

The Line 2 extension to the west is the closest potentially, there's already a station on Kipling now, that extension isn't useful here, if at all, until it reaches down to The Queensway at Sherway Gardens, and that would involve people actually travelling backwards, for the most part, (giving themselves a longer commute than if they boarded at Kipling.)

In any event, that project is not going ahead in the near, or medium term.

There isn't even the whisp of a higher-order transit proposal for Queensway or for Kipling.

 

[70Challenger]

There's no more market for all this junk.

Have you seen what's there now? We need every effort possible to eradicate this type of wasteland once and for all. Market will always come back.

 

[ADRM]

Instead you have this dysfunctional network of spaces none of which you can do much with, that will have higher maintence costs.

Came here basically just to say this; love to have my kid play at the intersection of two off-ramps and a highway...

 

[Sauga89]

There isn't even the whisp of a higher-order transit proposal for Queensway or for Kipling.

I'd love to see a lane of the QEW/Gardiner between Winston Churchill and Humber Loop/Parklawn GO converted to BRT or LRT one day, similar to Ottawa's Orleans LRT extension. You're already squeezing people down to 3 lanes east of Kingsway, so taking the 4th lane away west of Kingsway shouldn't hurt too bad.

A cross-section of the Gardiner near Kipling:

(EDIT to add)
The Orleans LRT extension:

 

[DopeyFish]

.... holy smokes.

i do wonder if the proposals will make ontario line extension this way inevitable

that dinky queensway bus wasn't even sufficient for local service

 

[north-of-anything]

Have you seen what's there now? We need every effort possible to eradicate this type of wasteland once and for all. Market will always come back.View attachment 663276

You want to take away the commercial offerings for the swathes of single-family homes with meager transit access to build high-rise communities with meager transit access? By all means, be the guinea pig and live an urban lifestyle in a tower jungle with no retail, no culture, and buckets of fumes from the freeways.

I'd rather any large scale redevelopment be approached with a plan for a livable neighbourhood, especially since it will take years for this development to get off the ground regardless.

 

[toaster29]

Is that the existing off ramp in the rendering? I thought the City of Toronto was intending to replace this ramp soon (and had expropriated some oft this land)?

It's wild that South Etobicoke has absolutely no rapid transit in the pipeline given these dense proposals and what already exists at Humber Bay - the densest neighbourhood I would say in the world without access to local rapid transit). The Ontario line west to Humber Bay then along the Queensway west (to Sherway, or even to the rail corridor just west of Kipling then up to Kipling station) seems inevitable.

 

[rdaner]

I am indifferent to this as a resident of Bloordale but will say that each time I go along The Queensway it has become more urban. Two months ago I saw pedestrians at midday and several new businesses most of which are restaurants and cafés. So although it would never be confused with Paris it isn’t the hellscape many make it out to be!