Lenser
Senior Member
Re-imagining the Booth lands would be a real boon for that stretch of Eastern. As it is, I can feel a lot of changes already coming to east-central Toronto, it's very exciting.
Toronto East Harbour | 214.2m | 65s | Cadillac Fairview | Adamson
- Thread starter taal
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HousingNowTO
Senior Member
Developing the BOOTH Lands will follow-on after the WaterfrontTO development of the Portlands... so that means 2035+ before we expect anything to start there.
Northern Light
Superstar
While it would be wonderful to see the heritage component at Booth restored (whole), and given a new more public-facing life.............
from: https://cms.driftscape.com/feature/49ee1b5c-c66e-11e8-8000-a4480fe5cbe4
Relocating the functions of Booth is no small matter.
A simplistic description is here:
That's actually from here: https://s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.c....18_DRAFT_OPA_411.Public_Draft.pdf?1526676498
But, to put a bit more to it, that's the operations centre for south district forestry ops.; you can read what a few of the others are here:
Taken from:
HousingNowTO
Senior Member
Yeah, that is why it is back-ended late into the 2030's... a bunch of those city divisions will need to move onto less-valuable lands in the Portlands and up to the Industrial Lands near Bermondsy before BOOTH can be re-purposed.
Similar to what is now happening with the HOUSING NOW lands in North York at ORIOLE work yards.
Lenser
Senior Member
Those old buildings are lovely and bring a ton of historical character to Eastern Avenue. I feel confident they will be retained and gussied up for whatever's in store, however many years away.... as for Bermondsey, things are changing there too, more residential coming to replace the dated light industrial vibe that's defined that area for decades now.... it would be interesting to see how they''ll accommodate what presently goes on at Booth to relocated facilities up around Bermondsey or the Portlands - as for the latter, it's a huge area but in a couple of decades it's going to be vastly different and a helluvalot more manicured, despite the retained presence of cement plants and other heavy industrial usages.
Northern Light
Superstar
Report to the Nov 25th meeting of Planning and Housing Ctte has an update on this application/proposal.
Link: https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2021/ph/bgrd/backgroundfile-173143.pdf
There's a lot going on in there, but I will skim the surface, below:
Tidbit here about the erosion of Employment Lands:
Link: https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2021/ph/bgrd/backgroundfile-173143.pdf
There's a lot going on in there, but I will skim the surface, below:
Tidbit here about the erosion of Employment Lands:
smably
Senior Member
That's all really good feedback IMO! I'm glad (and a bit surprised) they called out the lack of variation in building heights.
Amare
Senior Member
Wow so 140 seperate requests for Employment land conversion? Where do Toronto developers expect people to work, over in Mars?
innsertnamehere
Superstar
indeed fair criticisms and points to improve the project.
The vast, vast majority of employment growth in Toronto in the last decade has been in mixed use areas.
Most employment conversion requests are piddly little stranded parcels in odd areas that are too small or odd-shaped to support modern demands of employers who need employment areas for their businesses. There are of course many conversion requests that don't fit that mold.. but they will likely be denied.
The vast, vast majority of employment growth in Toronto in the last decade has been in mixed use areas.
Most employment conversion requests are piddly little stranded parcels in odd areas that are too small or odd-shaped to support modern demands of employers who need employment areas for their businesses. There are of course many conversion requests that don't fit that mold.. but they will likely be denied.
HousingNowTO
Senior Member
I really don't expect the "Giant Soap Factory" business to return. "Employment land conversion" is kind of a red-herring when so much of that land it is now being used for Self-Storage Places and Trampoline Gyms, etc.
It is crazy the the Feds had to take the City to the OMB to be able to Redevelop the "Employment Lands" at Downsview for example.
HousingNowTO
Senior Member
From the report - "The Province is targeting early 2022 to provide zoning certainty for this TOC development."
MZO time.
MZO time.
Northern Light
Superstar
This is precisely what the City is anticipating, that is mentioned elsewhere in the report.
jayme2016
Active Member
I fully expect Ford to go MZO crazy in 2022.
torontologist
Active Member
Since this is the future site of an Ontario Line and GO RER station, an MZO would be appropriate.
Glad to see that any future plan will include mixed uses. An "employment zone" in this part of the city, abandoned at night, at this scale would be a scary place. Also.... we're in the middle of a housing crisis with an excess of office space proposed for the core. Some room for homes can be made here.
Amare
Senior Member
Which in and of itself is another problem frankly. To me, if the city is going to convert employment land at any site, they've got to obtain much more benefits in return for that (way beyond the typical Section 37 stuff). It's prime land that once converted, they can never get back and is lost forever.