1-19 and 2-20 Wilkins Ave (Trolleybus, ?s, ?)

[Northern Light]

Ran across this in the Lobbyist Registry:

What could possibly be going on with lobbying that encompasses every single home, on both sides of a Corktown side street, where every single home is on the Heritage Registry?

Its definitely that Wilkens........as we can see who was being contacted yesterday:

Aerial Pic:

Wilkins is the street running north off of King Street East, terminating at a parking lot below the Eastern Avenue access.

At-grade pic, looking south towards King:

Normally, I don't have any trouble visualizing a massing; but here, I mus admit to being a bit confuzzled.

 

[egotrippin]

Whoa. Confusing indeed. I lived in one of these homes from 2007-2011. Charming little street, few like it in the city and I'd hate to see it altered in any way.

If I recall when I moved in I was told these homes date to the 1880s roughly. Interestingly the entire street was part of a renovation project in the 1970s, after which they sold for a whopping $39.9k; while considered expensive at the time that'd be less than $300k in today's money. https://digitalarchive.tpl.ca/objec...wilkins-ave-in-cabbagetown-the-price-tag-on-t

 

[Northern Light]

Whoa. Confusing indeed. I lived in one of these homes from 2007-2011. Charming little street, few like it in the city and I'd hate to see it altered in any way.

If I recall when I moved in I was told these homes date to the 1880s roughly. Interestingly the entire street was part of a renovation project in the 1970s, after which they sold for a whopping $39.9k; while considered expensive at the time that'd be less than $300k in today's money. https://digitalarchive.tpl.ca/objec...wilkins-ave-in-cabbagetown-the-price-tag-on-t

Looking at pic you linked to, which I will bring forward, interesting to see the view horizon before the Eastern Avenue/DVP access was built: (or is that just the difference in vegetative cover? Hmmm)

Credit: Boris Spremo - The Toronto Star

 

[DavidCapizzano]

The tightness of the street is unique, but any of the original heritage elements of the buildings is long gone as of the 70s...

 

[egotrippin]

Looking at pic you linked to, which I will bring forward, interesting to see the view horizon before the Eastern Avenue/DVP access was built:

View attachment 500196
Credit: Boris Spremo - The Toronto Star

The church tower was still just visible when I lived there but is largely obscured by trees now. It was very interesting living there in the mid-late '00s, in a sense you felt quite isolated; not much development on King, a bit of an island with the highway infrastructure. The Distillery was pretty well developed though so I spent a fair bit of time at Mill Street Brewery. Betty's too, that was a short walk away. Of course there was the King streetcar but this was before open transfers, so I tended not to use it for errands much.

 

[Northern Light]

The tightness of the street is unique, but any of the original heritage elements of the buildings is long gone as of the 70s...

That is clearly evident w/the buildings covered in plaster/concrete on the one side, in respect of the exteriors, perhaps @egotrippin can speak to the interiors.

The masonry side also looks wrong to me, but I have yet to be able to find a pre-fix up photo to verify what these looked like before.

 

[egotrippin]

That is clearly evident w/the buildings covered in plaster/concrete on the one side, in respect of the exteriors, perhaps @egotrippin can speak to the interiors.

The masonry side also looks wrong to me, but I have yet to be able to find a pre-fix up photo to verify what these looked like before.

I've never found a photo pre-1970s renovation, but I agree the brick does not look like late 19c brick. One of our neighbours had exposed brick inside and it looked more like typical Don Valley red clay brick. Little to no original interior features seemed present on the inside either. These were certainly working class rowhomes and lacked the decoration of grander homes in the area.

Despite the lack of heritage features, Wilkins is greater than the sum of its parts. It along with Bright, Ashby, Percy and a couple others in the area are very special streets that make up the unique (for Toronto) typology of Corktown.

 

[Undead]

If this goes through, it would be nice if the City rebuilt Front-Eastern-Trinity as a roundabout for the public realm contribution.

 

[egotrippin]

It's just what would go through? These houses are all privately owned, constrained on every side to a degree that would limit you to pretty much the same built form. In a LinkedIn blurb for the lobbyist here, Amir Remtulla, he describes himself as "... a Government Relations professional that is astute in developing relations and managing issues across multi party and stakeholder lines." Perhaps he convinced everyone on the street to sell for potential development, but I'd be shocked if everyone was on board.

Two potential things I could see happening: they lobby to replace the current Wilkins homes with larger more premium townhomes on the grounds none of the houses retain heritage characteristics; something similar to the development on Gilead Pl several years back. Or, it's possible someone wants to redevelop that strip of land adjacent to Richmond that currently serves as parking for Wilkins residents. That seems less likely though as it's city property and would mean everyone loses their parking.

Perhaps I'm not thinking big enough. Maybe a new midrise development eliminates the street altogether, then you're looking at a floorplate the size of all those properties plus their yards. Retain the heritage buildings fronting King? Guess we'll find out more as this evolves.

 

[Northern Light]

It's just what would go through? These houses are all privately owned, constrained on every side to a degree that would limit you to pretty much the same built form. In a LinkedIn blurb for the lobbyist here, Amir Remtulla, he describes himself as "... a Government Relations professional that is astute in developing relations and managing issues across multi party and stakeholder lines." Perhaps he convinced everyone on the street to sell for potential development, but I'd be shocked if everyone was on board.

Two potential things I could see happening: they lobby to replace the current Wilkins homes with larger more premium townhomes on the grounds none of the houses retain heritage characteristics; something similar to the development on Gilead Pl several years back. Or, it's possible someone wants to redevelop that strip of land adjacent to Richmond that currently serves as parking for Wilkins residents. That seems less likely though as it's city property and would mean everyone loses their parking.

Perhaps I'm not thinking big enough. Maybe a new midrise development eliminates the street altogether, then you're looking at a floorplate the size of all those properties plus their yards. Retain the heritage buildings fronting King? Guess we'll find out more as this evolves.

Amir does not do assemblies, he's working on behalf of Trolleybus here.

I would assume they have optioned most or all of the homes, but I don't know that.

The thing is, I can't picture a good way to use this site, if demo were allowed to go ahead, unless the City allowed closure of the street itself and sold it off to Trolleybus.

The homes on the south-west side abut some larger lots and the parking lot, which appears to City property, but I'm not certain of that.

@ProjectEnd probably knows what's up here. If I don't, he's a damned good bet; not just cause he knows a bunch; but because he's better at keeping secrets than most, LOL

 

[egotrippin]

Amir does not do assemblies, he's working on behalf of Trolleybus here.

I would assume they have optioned most or all of the homes, but I don't know that.

The thing is, I can't picture a good way to use this site, if demo were allowed to go ahead, unless the City allowed closure of the street itself and sold it off to Trolleybus.

The homes on the south-west side abut some larger lots and the parking lot, which appears to City property, but I'm not certain of that.

@ProjectEnd probably knows what's up here. If I don't, he's a damned good bet; not just cause he knows a bunch; but because he's better at keeping secrets than most, LOL

I believe the parking lot is city property as we had to apply for City of Toronto permits to park there, same process and tags as typical street parking elsewhere in the city.