Toronto Parkdale Hub | 54.5m | 16s | CreateTO | DTAH

innsertnamehere said:
looks good to me. Generally, add 2-4 floors on each residential building and it would be even better. There is no reason the west building can't match the height of the TCHC building to the south.

Also - I'm concerned about this large of a stretch of Queen being used only for community space with no retail. Community space is generally not a bad thing, of course, but two city blocks of it may result in killing the retail presence in the area.
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This is basically what currently exists, minus the Dollarama, and the retail prescence and foot-traffic is just fine. Instead of having a sidewalk progression of parking lot-library-gallery-parking lot-Dollarama-parking lot we get community space-library-community space. Massive improvement.
 
I love that they plan to demolish that fugly 70's bunker where the library currently is and move it into the art deco-ish heritage building to the west instead.
 
Kenojuak said:
2 acres of public land for only 111 new homes, in Parkdale, in the midst of a raging housing affordability crisis?

Absolutely indefensible dereliction of duty from CreateTO. Beyond embarrassing
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So, you reminded me to look........

I reviewed the arch. plans.

Assuming we stayed relatively conservative. Kept all the setbacks off Queen the same, and only bumped the height of the western block at the the smallest existing floor plate, based on the layouts provided for the 10th floor; and assuming we went only as tall as the TCHC building to the south (20s), that would net 10 additional floors and 100 additional units.

I think that would be a perfectly reasonable ask; perhaps @HousingNowTO can go wrap on some people's doors and strongly suggest as much.

I'm relatively pragmatic and understand the various trade-offs made to get things done........and respect many of them; but here, this really is under-sizing the site, even if one respects most or all of the key principles than Planning is going for here.
 
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This is beyond insane. You can meet or *exceed* every one of the Tall Building Guidelines setbacks here. All of them. Even the insane 12.5m side and rear setbacks. It really should be about how many floors are stacked on top, not how much of an stupid wedding cake can be sculpted. Unfortunately, that kind of thinking was never part of the process, the City just couldn't get its head around a tower here. Very frustrating for some involved.
 
The city talks about addressing the housing crisis yet proposes to severely under-build on a perfect site in the middle of an already urban, dense neighbourhood? How can anyone take them seriously when they offer up such impotent idiocy packaged as a solution? And let's face it, this isn't exactly a moneyed area with a formidable NIMBY contingent, so why exactly are they holding back so much here? What is the logical reason?
 
Towered said:
The city talks about addressing the housing crisis yet proposes to severely under-build on a perfect site in the middle of an already urban, dense neighbourhood? How can anyone take them seriously when they offer up such impotent idiocy packaged as a solution? And let's face it, this isn't exactly a moneyed area with a formidable NIMBY contingent, so why exactly are they holding back so much here? What is the logical reason?
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Actually, Parkdale has real gentrification happening. However, it would be unlikely to impact this particular site, which is right next to a TCHC building.
 
I'd argue that the most pressing gentrification problem in Parkdale is wealthy people buying up multi-unit houses, kicking out the tenants, and converting them back to single-family, and we've barely heard a peep from the city about that. But they sure will make it difficult and expensive to build new housing.
 
Both Staff and Perks deserve a chunk of blame here. Perks has been out there, tag-teaming with David Miller, attacking anyone who says they're leaving density on the table here, which is both deplorable and completely unsurprising.
 
smably said:
I'd argue that the most pressing gentrification problem in Parkdale is wealthy people buying up multi-unit houses, kicking out the tenants, and converting them back to single-family, and we've barely heard a peep from the city about that. But they sure will make it difficult and expensive to build new housing.
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Of course, one of the challenges there, in fairness to staff, is that many of the multi-tenant rooming houses never went through the legalization process, and the SFH zoning remained in place; meaning the new owners were within their rights to do that; even if that is contrary to the public interest.
 
ADRM said:
Both Staff and Perks deserve a chunk of blame here. Perks has been out there, tag-teaming with David Miller, attacking anyone who says they're leaving density on the table here, which is both deplorable and completely unsurprising.
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And what is their argument for doing so?
 
AlexBozikovic said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1623690579941924865
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Now here's the thing............ I broadly agree with this:

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But I also agree with this:

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Which is to say the following:

1) Quite right that mid-rise is an excellent form; and not every building needs to be 20s-50s; 100% true on both counts.

2) But also true, this is a good site for a hirise, with conditions that support that choice. There is ample room to (and the 10s tower form is) set well back from Queen creating the illusion of a short/mid-rise form on Queen; giving that human-scale which is a desirable quality. Additionally this site is right next to an existing 20s building, this matters both practically and as precedent. It also matters, because it means a lower net new shadow impact, and this case, no shadow impact to speak of on a park or a school yard.

***

So while I'm happy to agree that midrise works, and hirise should not go here, there and everywhere................... It should go here!
 
From Gord Perk's e-blast -


Reminder: Parkdale Hub Information Session Pop-ups

Session 1: Parkdale - Toronto Public Library – Tue, Feb 28th, 2:00 to 5:00 p.m.
Session 2: Masaryk-Cowan Community Recreation Centre, Fri, Mar 3rd, 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Drop by to learn more about the Parkdale Hub, and how you can be involved in the process. Details about the Pop-Ups will be available on the project website (www.parkdalehub.ca)
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