Toronto 985 Woodbine | 121.5m | 35s | Choice Properties | superkül

nfitz said:
Not sure where I'm wrong. I said the stairs out were gone. And in your post you later say you think they were filled in. I said that the tunnel is on TTC property, and those pictures you showed show that the stairs out were near the edge of the TTC property. So the tunnel must still be on TTC property.

I never said the tunnel was gone ... we've discussed it in other discussions in the past.

Also, you can see the abandoned streetcar tracks on Strathmore still. That should help line up angles on old photographs.
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There is not and never was any 'daylighting' as the photos make clear.

I never posted that the tunnel entered the development property, rather that it went TO said property, which in English means it's exactly where I said it was, at the property line.

(ps I measured where everything is, utilizing the subway vent shaft, and the east wall of the Woodbine Stn Bldg, both of which are present in the archive photos and current ones and have not changed locations)

You critiqued my post without any good reason, and made one explicitly erroneous statement and wrongly implied something about my post in another.

Please stop.
 
Northern Light said:
There is not and never was any 'daylighting' as the photos make clear.
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I'm not sure what you think I meant by 'daylignting' but I simply referred to the way out from the end of the tunnel to the streetcar platform - which you've confirmed is stairs. As I was only about 95% sure it was once stairs and not a ramp, I chose my words carefully!

I'm not sure why your posts here are so rude and hostile. Please stop.

Northern Light said:
You critiqued my post without any good reason, and made one explicitly erroneous statement and wrongly implied something about my post in another.
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I thought we were just talking. If you see discussion as criticism, then I think you are overanalyzing this.
 
Preliminary Report up:


Passage of interest to me:

Proximity to Woodbine TTC Station The proposal is adjacent to the Woodbine TTC Station. Staff have received correspondence from local residents that City staff, together with the TTC and the applicant, should be exploring opportunities to incorporate and/or integrate the Woodbine TTC Station into the proposed development application. This integration could include proposing additional height and density atop the station or incorporating the entrance of the station with the development proposal. The application has been circulated to the TTC for review and City staff will be exploring this opportunity as part of he review of this application.
 
Extremely ignorant, so I apologize, but 14 stories seems incredibly high, no?

Per the City's Official Plan and Design Guidelines, wouldn't the maximum height be the lesser of either 11 storeys or the width of Danforth Avenue:

"The height of a mid-rise building varies from street to street, as we define mid-rises as buildings that are no taller than the width of their adjacent street right-of-way (the width of the publicly owned portion of the street). In Toronto, on the narrower 20 metre wide streets in the downtown, a mid-rise is 5 or 6 stories high. On the wider arterial streets outside of the Downtown, a mid-rise may be taller up to a maximum of 11 storeys on the widest Avenues. Mid-rises typically are designed with step-backs or terraces at upper levels to make them appear lower in height from the street, and to allow sunlight and sky views at the sidewalk."

https://www.toronto.ca/city-governm...delines/design-guidelines/mid-rise-buildings/
 
Where the hell does Planning even get the ROW argument from? Fully most of the streets that people often cite as "beautiful and vibrant" have streetwalls taller than the width of the ROW. It's both a frustrating and kind of random stipulation, to my eye; hard not to think of it as a North American/arrogance of space thing.
 
Allan B. Jacobs' Great Streets has a lot to say about building height along streets, and it was rather influential when Toronto's Mid-Rise and Tall Buildngs Guidelines were being written.

Street width is always being used to determine where step backs have to kick in, and yes, as @innsertnamehere says, the lot is deep enough that the tower can be that tall here. I also wonder, with this proposal being located right at a subway station, whether they should be applying tall building guidelines here and pushing more for the sky.

42
 
Public meeting for this was tonight, I was in attendance.

A few notes.


First, the TTC has been looped in by City planning, and the Councillor, as has CreateTO in order to discuss inclusion of the Woodbine Station lands within the proposal, for the purpose of enhancing/expanding Woodbine Stn.

Notwithstanding the above, and despite an invitation from City planning, the TTC did not send a rep to the meeting. That did not go over well in the room.


Second as you might expect, there was some pushback from locals on the height/density. Not everyone was opposed, but there were some vocal concerns.

That said, much of the concerned centred around existing traffic/parking issues particularly on the 2 side streets, and the City and the developer seem open to looking for solutions.


Third, the City has flagged the building at the corner of Woodbine/Danforth (former TD Branch) as a possible heritage asset. (not all the remarkable, if I say so myself....but w/e) ....developer is open to discussion integrating the facade and/or other features of the building.

Fourth, The councillor flagged his priorities for the site:

1) Transit integration
2) employment and non-residential use (generating local employment rather than putting more people on the subway)
3) parking
4) family friendly units and amenities (currently less than 10% 3 brdrm); (also need for playground, not sure about this, as there is a school yard a stone's throw away, but perhaps better access to that? Hmmm
5) affordable housing

Fifth, there was some discussion from the floor about the temporary loss of the Valumart supermarket and trying to minimize any downtime for the store.
I happen to think the more practical option is to locate a temporary or additional permanent grocery store at another Choice REIT site just up the street.

Finally, developer is hoping to break ground in 2024.

****

PS, listening to some of the speakers from the floor reminds me why I have not pursued a career in politics and why I often avoid public meetings.......sigh.

Concision is an art form more people should learn.
 
Looks like this one is headed for a re-work........


From the article

"Developers proposing a massive two-building 402-unit condo redevelopment project on Woodbine Ave. where the Valu-Mart grocery store currently sits are redesigning the proposal following input at a community consultation meeting in May and followup session with Ward 19 Councillor Brad Bradford, the Beaches-East York representative says.""

.....

“They heard that and are taking steps to include that in their next submission, which will have changed quite significantly compared to what was shown at the first meeting.”
He said he told the company that the project needs to be integrated with the Woodbine TTC station “so that we ensure we are not wasting this opportunity to be leveraging the site the best we can for the community’s benefit.”

- Also noted the need for affordable housing and more employment use mixed in there.
 
I don't really understand how the city keeps wanting to enforce mid-rise heights in the avenues, and then adding on affordable units and removing some of the saleable GFA for employment use, all the while still complaining that 14 storeys is probably too tall, and expect that development to still be feasible.

This site will probably be fine because of the scale of the development and attractive location, but it still boggles my mind how our bureaucracy works while we are in a housing crisis.
 
Is the side of the building on Woodbine going right to the sidewalk which is there now? If so, the aesthetics of the outside of the complex will be seriously compromised. Why? a. Because the sidewalk is much too narrow considering heavy pedestrian traffic. b. Cigarette butts have nowhere to go before smokers enter the supermarket and/or the TTC Station. Cigarettes and other messes lie on the sidewalk all along Woodbine and around the TTC property. c. The TTC Station is too small and can't be kept clean inside or out. It is a big pedestrian-traffic area. d. The garbage bins need to be emptied far more often and they make the sidewalk even more narrow.
If places are well looked after, their users tend to help keep them that way. A team of cleaning people working all day every day inside and outside the Woodbine Station would help but could not make this new complex look professional without attention to the challenges I have mentioned. If an impressive, professional looking complex is your desire, please pay attention. Talk seriously with the TTC, too.
 
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Sandra Lewis said:
Is the side of the building on Woodbine going right to the sidewalk which is there now? If so, the aesthetics of the outside of the complex will be seriously compromised. Why? a. Because the sidewalk is much too narrow considering heavy pedestrian traffic. b. Cigarette butts have nowhere to go before smokers enter the supermarket and/or the TTC Station. Cigarettes and other messes lie on the sidewalk all along Woodbine and around the TTC property. c. The TTC Station is too small and can't be kept clean inside or out. It is a big pedestrian-traffic area. d. The garbage bins need to be emptied far more often and they make the sidewalk even more narrow.
If places are well looked after, their users tend to help keep them that way. A team of cleaning people working all day every day inside and outside the Woodbine Station would help but could not make this new complex look professional without attention to the challenges I have mentioned. If an impressive, professional looking complex is your desire, please pay attention. Talk seriously with the TTC, too.
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I appreciate that you're new here, as new as new gets.

So, let me offer some assistance in understanding this site and its threads and etiquette.

1) Wherever possible, you should answer your own questions by reading the other posts in a thread in front of yours. We're all reasonable (well, most of us), if a thread is 100+ pages long, no one expects you to go back to the beginning, but this thread is only 2 pages. Many of your questions are answered already.

2) Try not to stray from the topic at hand too much. It's totally fair to point out that Woodbine Stn is too small, it's already been mentioned in the thread, as it was as the public meeting. But getting into nitty-gritty of how clean it is, is a bit of a digression, from a development that is not owned by the TTC or the City; to a station that is not maintained by the developer in question.

***

That said, I will now endeavour to answer your questions.

1) The development as it was originally proposed did not envision enlarging Woodbine Station.
2) The development as it was originally proposed did have a sidewalk widening along Woodbine to between 4M to 4.4M wide. The current sidewalk is approximately 2.7M, so roughly a 50% widening, which was to include the addition of street trees.

- To obtain this information, you can follow a link, usually found in the first post of a development thread, though not always, called 'development applications' That link is below.

app.toronto.ca

Application Information Centre

Search for details about current planning applications and Minor variance and Consent applications. Application Information Centre For best results, please use the latest version of Microsoft IE/Edge, Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. The Application Information Centre allows you to: Search by...
app.toronto.ca app.toronto.ca

This will take you to the City's Application Information Centre where you can look at detailed plans filed under 'supporting documentation'. The plans for sidewalks will most commonly be found in the Landscape and Lighting report and/or the Transportation Impact Study.

In this case, the former will show you the design, while the latter has the measurements.

**************

That said, the important take away here is than neither the public, including yours truly, nor the City Councillor were satisfied w/the proposal. The failure to examine opportunities for expanding Woodbine Station was among the reasons stated.

The developer is currently reworking the proposal, and a new version should be out in the next several months.

Watch for several changes.

Welcome to the discussion.
 
Thanks very much for your quick reply. I could not attend that May meeting unfortunately. I appreciate your answers to my questions as well. I did see the previous parts of the chain but being technically challenged about the workings of computers, I just inserted my own 2 cents' worth. Sorry for the inconvenience to you.
For the most part, the comments are somewhat general and I am being picky. I love the idea of transforming the corner of Woodbine and Danforth and might choose to live there one day. I wouldn't move in, though, unless TTC property and the new buildings are attractive inside and outside any entryways.
Obviously, a wider sidewalk is a terrific idea.
It's very small issues I'm pointing out because something like specially designed ashtrays might have to be built into a wall and the same for garbage bins. Big and relevant questions might be: How many ashtrays? How many garbage bins? Where should they be? Maybe these are minor structural matters not needing to be addressed in early planning stages but I myself do not know about such installations. I'm just a senior who walks through that area many days each week and who is distressed about the state of it. I have emailed Valumart's manager, the former Dominion Bank and the TTC more than once about the need of serious, regular cleanup. It seems finally possible to get some action and I for one am excited to imagine something impressive rise at Danforth and Woodbine, north-east corner.
Does anyone know who is responsible for keeping sidewalks clean? I always thought the occupant was. I think I am expected to keep the public sidewalk in front of my house clear of snow in winter and well swept in summer. I don't know about Woodbine and Danforth. Snow, yes but dirt, etc. - who knows?
Thanks for reading this.
 
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