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Eglinton Connects - Revitalizing Eglinton Avenue after LRT construction

junctionist

junctionist

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Now that the Eglinton LRT is nearing completion, is the city going to implement Eglinton Connects? There was so much talk about it 7 years ago and excitement. Then, there was some talk that conservatives on council didn't want to fund it.

The street needs to be renovated throughout the area of construction after getting battered by construction vehicles over the years and getting little investment while it was a giant construction zone. It already looked shabby and in need of revitalization in many areas west of Bathurst before the LRT construction project. It could be a beautiful and vibrant street from Yonge to Black Creek with the right investment, similar to Bloor or Queen streets. Easy rapid transit access will make it an attractive area for businesses.

The public realm is shabby, and there are a lot of vacant storefronts. Eglinton Avenue West, west of the Forest Hill area, in particular, needs to be revitalized.
 
junctionist said:
Now that the Eglinton LRT is nearing completion, is the city going to implement Eglinton Connects? There was so much talk about it 7 years ago and excitement. Then, there was some talk that conservatives on council didn't want to fund it.

The street needs to be renovated throughout the area of construction after getting battered by construction vehicles over the years and getting little investment while it was a giant construction zone. It already looked shabby and in need of revitalization in many areas west of Bathurst before the LRT construction project. It could be a beautiful and vibrant street from Yonge to Black Creek with the right investment, similar to Bloor or Queen streets. Easy rapid transit access will make it an attractive area for businesses.

The public realm is shabby, and there are a lot of vacant storefronts. Eglinton Avenue West, west of the Forest Hill area, in particular, needs to be revitalized.
Click to expand...

I think Eglinton Connects is a great idea for all the reasons you've listed above. I'd love to see bike lanes extended from where the multi-use trail on Eglinton ends just west of Jane.

But so much about the article you linked to is infuriating:

The result will be an increase of the current height limit, mostly between Keele Street and Duplex Avenue. This would eliminate the need for constant rezoning applications by developers. The proposed height limits, based on the 2010 Performance Standards for Mid-Rise Buildings, range from four to eight storeys, which would result in a one to three storey increase for many sites.
Click to expand...

In a city with an acute housing affordability crisis, along the route of a $13 billion brand new transit line, the city thinks making it illegal to build anything taller than 4 stories is a good idea? Thank god for the OMB.

Since the Eglinton Crosstown LRT will bring higher-order transit to the corridor, there is also a proposal to reduce minimum parking requirements for new developments, particularly between Weston Road and Kennedy Road.
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Why are there minimum parking requirements in the first place??? Downtown Calgary has parking MAXIMUMs. We are the only large city in Canada to have downtown parking minimums. And while Eglinton isn't downtown, there is no benefit whatsoever to government-mandated parking oversupplies unless you want to encourage car use and tack $50k on to the construction cost of any unit next to an LRT station.
 
After the Bloor-Danforth Subway (now Line 2) opened, Business Improvement Areas started. The first, Bloor-Jane now Bloor West Village in 1970, was successful in drawing customers that no longer had a visual draw. The Danforth BIA opened up in 1986, and others followed.

Eglinton's BIA must itself create a "draw" for customers, who no longer have the visual attraction of the store fronts.
 
aquateam said:
In a city with an acute housing affordability crisis, along the route of a $13 billion brand new transit line, the city thinks making it illegal to build anything taller than 4 stories is a good idea? Thank god for the OMB.
Click to expand...

While I agree that one should expect density along higher order transit, your 4 storey fear is likely a sensationalisation. The eight story average is more likely. A few towers may be included too - however the mix of what’s built is probably more important than height or numbers. Hiw much affordable housing and how much will be family size (2-3 bedroom) versus single bedroom starter condos? This is a great opportunity to build to coax aging homeowners out of their unneeded houses, too. But is that what developers would want to build if the zoning was eased?

The current zoning is a good place to begin negotiations for development approvals.

- Paul
 
junctionist said:
...The street needs to be renovated throughout the area of construction after getting battered by construction vehicles over the years and getting little investment while it was a giant construction zone...
Click to expand...
I’d imagine the construction vehicles won’t be going away on Eglinton as much as they’ll switch from LRT construction to higher density construction (which is great). As in Toronto style, there’s going to be the mess of lane closures while a lane is occupied and the result being damaged road from those heavy vehicles frequenting a midtown arterial.
I’m not saying that the project should be on hold, but we should be realistic in that the final result might not show well until Eglinton approaches saturation in new developments which may explode in the west, sort of like with Golden Mile in the east, but without the ability to use the massive parking lots as construction staging areas.
 
TorontoBun said:
I’d imagine the construction vehicles won’t be going away on Eglinton as much as they’ll switch from LRT construction to higher density construction (which is great). As in Toronto style, there’s going to be the mess of lane closures while a lane is occupied and the result being damaged road from those heavy vehicles frequenting a midtown arterial.
I’m not saying that the project should be on hold, but we should be realistic in that the final result might not show well until Eglinton approaches saturation in new developments which may explode in the west, sort of like with Golden Mile in the east, but without the ability to use the massive parking lots as construction staging areas.
Click to expand...

Good point, but the condo-related construction closures won't be comparable to the current situation with all the lane closures at major intersections happening all at once for LRT construction, not to mention the construction that was necessary at Black Creek Drive with the new viaduct for the LRT. The city has a great opportunity to have another vibrant and attractive main street commercial area all along Eglinton Avenue West, with different but interesting characters from neighbourhood to neighbourhood.

Revitalization there could also help Rogers Road by creating a spillover effect of new commercial activity, which also has a neat little main street retail area. There are a lot of great Portuguese businesses there but not that much pedestrian traffic. Also, the Portuguese population in the area is aging. Some new investment will help ensure these retail areas' long-term vitality by keeping them attractive to new businesses.
 
A report to next week's Planning and Housing Ctte recommends supporting the 'Eglinton Green Line' concept for public realm between roughly Eglinton Park in the west and Mt. Pleasant in the east.

The high level report is here:


The detailed public realm plan is here:


From said plan:

1622815242923.png


1622815289977.png

1622815316646.png


1622815402657.png


Lots more renders/concepts at the link above.
 
Eglinton Connects is now being promoted as "#eglintonTOday"

The map below shows the extent - only between Keele and Mount Pleasant. The yellow areas show the street restoration areas by CrossLinx/Metrolinx, where raised cycle tracks are being added as the road is rebuilt.

www.toronto.ca

eglintonTOday Complete Street Project

Stakeholder feedback and traffic impact analysis are currently informing changes to the proposed design. A comprehensive monitoring and data collection plan will also take place before staff report to IEC and City Council in March 2024. In 2014 City Council approved the Eglinton Connects...
www.toronto.ca www.toronto.ca

8dde-eglintontoday-studymaprevised-2048x830.png
 
* Cross-post to Cycling Infra thread *

Meeting/Presentation/Survey now up for 'EglintonTOday'

www.toronto.ca

eglintonTOday Complete Street Project

Stakeholder feedback and traffic impact analysis are currently informing changes to the proposed design. A comprehensive monitoring and data collection plan will also take place before staff report to IEC and City Council in March 2024. In 2014 City Council approved the Eglinton Connects...
www.toronto.ca www.toronto.ca

Presentation:


Survey:


From the Presentation:

1654630328987.png

1654630468020.png

Project to include some parklets, some streetscape enhancement, additional Bikeshare Stations, provision for CafeTO

Overall this reads as a complete street (mostly) based on what is deemed do-able w/o road reconstruction (unless otherwise scheduled)

****

Overall, its good progress, but I would rather see some of the parking, some travel lanes (cars) omitted and jersey barriers added to better protect cyclists.
 
cutting Eglinton to 2 lanes permanently is... interesting. Sometimes I wonder if the City is determined to cut every arterial in the city to a single lane in each direction. The Allen terminus is going to be a complete disaster.. I suspect 4 lanes should be retained on certian parts of the corridor, particularly around the Allen (say, Bathurst to Dufferin, or really Bathurst westwards). The Eglinton Connects plan shows that it's feasible while integrating new cycle tracks still as Eglinton has a 27m ROW..

I feel like it's going to be particularly awkward where Metrolinx has already rebuilt the street in accordance with Eglinton connects which envisions retaining 4-lanes across the corridor other than between Avenue Road and Yonge St.. are the roads going to open up to 4 lanes at each major intersection that Metrolinx has rebuilt and then go back down again?
 
I think I missed something, is this only being done between Keele and Mt Pleasant? What abou everything west/east of that zone? I thought this project was for the whole of eglinton...
 
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