By: Reva Landau

Reva Landau — Wed, 20 Dec 2017 01:49:49 +0000

The author of this article must have been at a different meeting. At the meeting I was at, it was clear the development was not on Bloor, as the article said, but on Huron, a narrow residential street. Even on Bloor the development would be much higher than allowed by the recently revised by-law, the Downtown Tall Buildings Guideline, and the Bloor Vision Study, but on the narrow side street of Huron, it is unprecedented.
It was also very clear that while the church claims they want to work with the community, their actions do not match their words. Several people at the meeting, including someone who lives very close to the church, said they were not informed about this proposed 38 storey tower development from church material, but from posters concerned residents put up near the church property. The church did not even have a sign on its own property giving the date, time, and purpose of the meeting. It was also clear the church has not budged one foot on the height in spite of repeated protests from the community. So much for working with the community.
It was not clear from the article that only one person, a church member, supported the proposal during the limited open discussion period.
It was also clear from the meeting that it was not that Annex members have some strange fear of “heights” but that they have legitimate concerns. For example, concerns about Huron traffic; the entrance for vehicles and parking will be on Huron. Vehicle traffic for the 250 residential units, four floors of United Church of Canada office space, visitors, etc., will all be from Huron. Plus the impact of this additional density on already overcrowded subway stations and streetcars and other local amenities Plus the impact of, according to the church’s own studies, 1 to 3 additional hours of shadow on nearby gardens and green space. Would anybody who read the article know this?

By: Christopher King

Christopher King — Fri, 15 Dec 2017 20:36:43 +0000

Frankly speaking, you can try to please the local community and the ARA as much as you want, but it ultimately boils down to this. Save the church with a condo attached, or destroy the church and erect the condo on the site, where a precedent for a building height that high on Bloor West has already been established.

Comments on: NEWS: Height-ened fears (Dec. 2017)

By: Reva Landau

By: Christopher King