As expected, "
We, the Board of Directors of The Beach and East Toronto Historical Society find the proposal at 1631 Queen St. E. of eight, 10 and 17 storeys to be a most egregious and outrageous proposal."
Source -
https://issuu.com/beachmetronews/docs/bmn-issu-21-04-06
View attachment 311211
Just for one moment...........lets set aside the fact that there's a housing crisis ....
Lets also accept at face value a desire maintain a small-town character/feel along Queen Street.
Fine. Seriously. Why? Because none of that precludes the 17-storey building that would actually front Eastern Avenue, not Queen Street.
Lets first state, what should be obvious:
1) The character argument, insofar as it is sincerely made, is about the 'illusion' of modest height or what buildings feel like as you walk past them or across the street from them, on Queen Street.
2) There is no 17-storey building fronting Queen Street here; not even with setbacks.........it fronts Eastern, while occupying the same block as the Queen Street portion of the site.
3) Should there be height of up to 8 storeys fronting Queen, setbacks can be used, along with various cladding choices to emulate the best aspects of existing Beach/Queen retail in the area.
4) This site is barely in 'The Beach'; it's within metres of Coxwell Avenue. This area has never featured the traditional Beach/Queen retail vibe between Coxwell and Kingston Road.
5) The site looks like this right now:
(Queen Frontage)
My goodness.........look at that quality small-town retail main street character that will be adversely affected................
(Eastern Frontage) This is where the 17 floors would go:
Gasp.....it's going to interfere w/that lovely parking lot that gives such lakeside small town feel!
*****
Oh, and there's a housing crisis...........