Re: Snark Avenue
Tower plan alarms critics
City intensifying transit corridor, but some residents near Sheppard line disagree
Nov. 28, 2006. 06:21 AM
PAUL MOLONEY
CITY HALL BUREAU
www.thestar.com
It seemed like a good idea at the time.
Put more buildings on Toronto's main streets to make room for hundreds of thousands of new residents. In the process you would cut urban sprawl and maximize use of public transit.
But implementing the city's master plan is causing concern.
Several enormous projects underway or proposed along the Sheppard subway line in North York demonstrate the plan in action. And not everyone is happy about the construction cranes populating the Sheppard corridor.
Some fear the trend will spread across other parts of the city as Toronto seeks to intensify usage of other main streets from Scarborough to Etobicoke.
Former chief Toronto planner Paul Bedford downplays any concerns.
"Generally the strategy in the official plan is to encourage development where the transportation exists," he said. "On Sheppard, the strategy obviously is to develop there, given the subway. You don't build a subway and keep two-storey buildings on Sheppard."
Passed this year, the city's official plan was the first post-amalgamation reform of the way the city should be designed.
"The development is going where it fits," said Councillor Brian Ashton (Ward 36, Scarborough Southwest). "You build bigger densities there and when you go to Kingston Rd. or Avenue Rd. or Wilson Ave. you build on a scale that complements a community and doesn't destroy it."
Ashton said council was upset with North York a few years ago because intensification wasn't taking place. "Now we're getting buildings in places that are well-suited for them, and that increases our assessment base."
The first wave of North York development was along Yonge St. from Highway 401 north to Finch Ave. Spurred by the opening of the $933 million Sheppard subway line four years ago, the second and newest wave is along Sheppard from Yonge St. to Leslie St.
It's supposed to be a haven for transit users, but many new residents rely on their cars just as much as other Torontonians, said Councillor John Filion (Ward 23, Willowdale).
"I'd sure like somebody to tell me where the traffic's going to go," Filion said. "We've already got gridlock at the peak hours in both the morning and afternoon. I don't know what stage is worse than gridlock. I guess quagmire."
Filion has been a critic of the development plans, first pushed by former North York Mayor Mel Lastman, ever since he was first elected as a councillor 15 years ago.
"Why does somebody buy at Yonge and the 401? A few might buy because it's close to the subway; most buy because it's close to the 401 and they're working in Mississauga or Scarborough."
The centrepiece of the North York development is the site of the old Canadian Tire warehouse, near the IKEA store, visible to motorists driving westbound on Highway 401 between Leslie and Bayview Ave.
The giant warehouse is soon to be knocked down to make way for 3,974 housing units. The 16-hectare property was recently purchased for $149.7 million by Concord Adex Investments, the same people building condo towers in the downtown railway lands west of Rogers Centre.
"This is the biggest residential project in the history of North York," said Dennis Au Yeung, vice-president and chief financial officer for Concord Adex.
The development, approved by city council in late 2002, was comprehensively planned with tall buildings sited along the 401 side and shorter buildings along Sheppard, said Councillor David Shiner, who represents the area.
Commitments include $5.2 million from the developer toward the cost of a community centre, and setting aside 3.4 hectares for the community centre, a park, playgrounds and future school and library sites, said Shiner (Ward 24, Willowdale).
"We spent two years on charettes and working groups with the community and area businesses to establish the layout of the buildings," Shiner said.
Farther east, also south of Sheppard but closer to Yonge St., is a proposal for 1,195 units in five towers ranging from 15 to 21 storeys, plus townhouses on a 3.9-hectare site off Oakburn Cres. The proposal by K & G Oakburn Apartments began a 10-day hearing yesterday before the Ontario Municipal Board.
And at the southeast corner of Yonge and Sheppard, Willowdale Plaza would be razed in favour of two towers, 37 and 45 storeys, and a five-store retail/residential block with a total of 825 units under a proposal for the 1.5-hectare site by condominium developer Tridel.
In all, the three projects would bring some 6,000 units with almost 11,000 residents.
"I think the development is a positive," said Ashton. "With the 401 on one side and the Sheppard subway on the other, you've got a whole strip of land. If you're going to intensify, that's the Garden of Eden."
Some residents, however, appear overwhelmed. Bernie Morton, the past president of the 5,000-member Avondale Community Condominium Association, says the area is clogged with rush-hour traffic.
The association, whose members live in condo towers and townhouses near Yonge and 401, opposes the Oakburn project to the east due to traffic, Morton said.
"The Oakburn project is not an ugly project at all — there's been some creative thought that's gone into it — but our main concern is traffic," he said. "Where are the cars going to go when it's already bottlenecked?"
The planners, meanwhile, emphasize that the plans were finalized after extensive analysis of the road and transit system."That's one of the things the North York Centre plan does extremely well," said planner Paul Byrne. "Densities assigned to the blocks and parcels were all worked out from a transportation capacity point of view."
The area is blessed with transit, said Victoria Witkowski, transportation planning manager for the North York District. Most of the new residents along Yonge St. are within a 10-minute walk of one of three subway stations, Finch, North York Centre and Sheppard on the Yonge line, Witkowski said.
The same will be true for the new people moving into the Canadian Tire site, who will be able to access either the Leslie or Bessarion stations on the Sheppard line, she said.
"From a transit perspective, that's phenomenal. The additional people are coming here because the subway's here, because we have such good transit available to them."
She conceded that road capacity is an issue. However, help is on the way. The city plans eventually to extend Anndale Dr. to Yonge St., providing a new route for residents south and east of the Yonge and Sheppard intersection.
"The Anndale link would take pressure off Avondale, where people are having a hard time getting out to Yonge St.," she said.
Filion doesn't buy it.
"It's a huge mess," he said. "It would be different if three-quarters of the new people were taking public transit, but that's not happening and it's never going to happen."
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The Sheppard corridor is going to look quite different in the next 10 years. There are plans for a massive redevelopment further east at Don Mills (Parkwoods Village) and on the other side of the 404 at Heron Hills (former Monarch HQ). Even with the subway close by, there needs to be some major roadwork to keep traffic flowing. I think most people who buy in this area will be driving first and using transit second.