Toronto 290 Old Weston Road | 98.55m | 29s | i-Squared | TACT Architecture

The West Toronto Railpath ends currently at Cariboo Avenue, north of Dupont Avenue, From link. The residents would be able to bicycle almost all the way downtown.

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Some River City Phase 3 influences on certain elevations of the tower, albeit much tamer understandably. The podium is rather underwhelming though, especially with the lack of presence fronting Old Weston.
 
junctionist said:
If the Financial District can have projects like INDX, 1 King West, 88 Scott, and Ice, why not here? Strict single-use zoning makes for less walkable neighbourhoods and makes it more difficult to live near work.
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Land use designation is not zoning. Land use designation is part of the Official Plan and is a more fundamental policy level than zoning. Re-designating a core employment land use designation to a use suitable for residential development requires a conversion request and a completely different (additional) evaluation methodology on top of a rezoning. The City of Toronto does this through a Municipal Comprehensive Review (MCR) with a defined window for conversion requests.
 
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Kenojuak said:
Land use designation is not zoning. Land use designation is part of the Official Plan and is a more fundamental policy level than zoning. Re-designating a core employment land use designation to a use suitable for residential development requires a conversion request and a completely different (additional) evaluation methodology on top of a rezoning. The City of Toronto does this through a Municipal Comprehensive Review (MCR) with a defined window for conversion requests.
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I appreciate these insights. They help to explain your surprise in your earlier comment. But I believe that my point is still valid that there is merit to having a residential component here. The single-use employment-oriented planning that the City contemplates here by employment lands designation isn't desirable unless there are noxious industries present that the city wants to protect.
 
This lot is arguably too small to put in only offices or manufacturing. It's a bit of an awkward location for trucks and the like to get to, and it's not fronting a major street, so it would make sense to have some residential in this area. My biggest complaint is the excess of one-bedroom apartments, shouldn't there be a bit more encouragement for families to move in around here with all the nearby parkland and underutilized schools?
 
Kenojuak said:
On core employment lands??
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Yep:
ProjectEnd said:
It's currently an E / Employment parcel so immediately you're into an OPA 231 challenge. Not sure if the houses / R / Neighbourhoods designation right on Old Weston could force an OPA 320 challenge, but that's possible too. The site is outside of OPA 84, but I would imagine things like the NRT emissions plume would still apply here. I have a map of affected areas for that but can't remember where it is at the moment. It's also tight up into the rail corridor so the 25m setback will be challenging to accommodate.

It's going to be a long and difficult ride for these folks.
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innsertnamehere said:
To translate above:

OPA 231 is employment use protections, and also served as the last municipal comprehensive review.

Dougies changes to the Planning Act means they don't need an once every 5 years municipal comprehensive review (MCR) anymore to convert this now. Should be helpful for them, especially since I think this is a very valid employment conversion request. I wouldn't be surprised if it's already been converted as a part of the last MCR (OPA 231), and just hasn't been updated in the city's mapping yet. I know there are quite a few properties that have been converted that aren't yet reflected in the mapping.

OPA 320 is about preserving "neighbourhoods" character. I don't imagine it'll have *too* much influence here, given that the lands are designated employment. Probably will see the city try to lean on it for transition though.

OPA 84 is the avenues study for along St Clair that permits mid-rises. This is fairly far south of St. Clair, so again, not too much influence I don't think.

I fully expect them to lean heavily on the changes to the Planning Act and Growth Plan which push density around transit stations. This is right next to the planned new GO station at St. Clair, so they are fully going to push an MTSA designation as the justification.

What will be interesting here is how they accommodate the planned Davenport Road extension through the site.
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Reading the Planning Justification Report, it looks like my suspicions were correct and this received residential use permissions via OPA 231. OPA 231 introduced the new SASP 441.

The PJR Says the following on the matter:

" Official Plan Amendment No. 231, which is currently under partial appeal, introduced a SASP 441 designation, which is now in force on the subject site. SASP 441 provides that “light employment and residential uses are permitted” on the subject site. There are no other restrictions introduced through SASP 441."
 
As the front page story mentions, "The 23,509 m² development contains 4,643 m² of office space in the podium" so there will still be employment on this site in this design.

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innsertnamehere said:
Reading the Planning Justification Report, it looks like my suspicions were correct and this received residential use permissions via OPA 231. OPA 231 introduced the new SASP 441.

The PJR Says the following on the matter:

" Official Plan Amendment No. 231, which is currently under partial appeal, introduced a SASP 441 designation, which is now in force on the subject site. SASP 441 provides that “light employment and residential uses are permitted” on the subject site. There are no other restrictions introduced through SASP 441."
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Is there anything there about the Bingo site and/or the old Weston flea market. I am very curious as to what the possibilities are there. The flea market is a huge swath of unused land right now and I’m excited to see what they can do with it. I had heard rumours it was purchased by one of the large residential developers, but nothing more than that.
 
sebajun said:
Is there anything there about the Bingo site and/or the old Weston flea market. I am very curious as to what the possibilities are there. The flea market is a huge swath of unused land right now and I’m excited to see what they can do with it. I had heard rumours it was purchased by one of the large residential developers, but nothing more than that.
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Best start with the

Keele-St. Clair Local Area Study

at this link, and the

St. Clair Avenue West Area Transportation Master Plan

at this link.

St. Clair Avenue West will be widened between Keele Street and Old Weston Road, and Davenport Road will be extended between Old Weston Road and Union Street.

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