Toronto 3140 Dufferin | 90.6m | 26s | RioCan | Arcadis

[blur]

My ideal plan would be a subway up Dufferin (the western portion of the drl). But I do think a streetcar could work. From eglinton to Wilson station it could run in a ROW. I would probably prefer It g underground at eglinton with stops at Rogers, St Claire dupont an then it would be above ground from Bloor to the water. It would be unique but I see t Dufferin problem big enough it needs a radical approach.

Having a subway on Dufferin would be completely redundant. The Spadina Subway is located so close to Dufferin Street. It simply does not make sense.
Having said that, Dufferin is such an eclectic street and it needs a comprehensive transit solution to Steeles and beyond into York Region.

 

[interchange42]

I'm interested to see the site plan for this one, it's a fairly large site for only 2 towers.

Also, absolutely loving the insane amount of bike parking going into new development now.

Why is that a good thing when it probably won't be heavily utilized?

Essentially two bike parking spots per unit is pretty amazing, and a wonderful sign of where we are going. Not sure of the suite breakdown, but it makes sense to have storage spots for two per unit so couples are covered, and for singles, well, they can have a spot for their 21-speed and one for their fixie. (Or maybe the suites will get one spot per bedroom; that would be a cool idea.

42

 

[innsertnamehere]

I get the feeling that there is more than just residential proposed here too. Seems like too many vehicular parking spots as well. Perhaps a large retail component that isn't mentioned?

edit: missed the GFA counts. It's a lot of bike parking for sure, way, way more than required. A bit odd.

 

[Armour]

I get the feeling that there is more than just residential proposed here too. Seems like too many vehicular parking spots as well. Perhaps a large retail component that isn't mentioned?

edit: missed the GFA counts. It's a lot of bike parking for sure, way, way more than required. A bit odd.

Perhaps the copious parking is to accommodate visitors?

 

[Uptowner]

I agree that traffic on Dufferin is often horrendous and seems like it will remain one of the more intractable problems as there seems to be no good fix. Hopefully the Eglinton line will get some people out of their cars but that is by no means a solution. Streetcars would definitely be a failure this far north on Dufferin unless they could go underground at certain key points and for quite long stretches. I assume that would cost too much at this point, though. Things will reach a breaking point but who knows when.

With all of that said, I still think this is not near enough density for this site. It's huge and blocks no residential properties to the west. It's my impression (no hard data to support it) that projects in locations like this rarely get revised to significantly increase density after this stage. Does anyone know anything that could give hope that this might happen in this location?

 

[salsa]

I agree that traffic on Dufferin is often horrendous and seems like it will remain one of the more intractable problems as there seems to be no good fix.

The biggest reason why traffic is so bad in this area is because the 401, Allen Rd and Barrie rail corridor form a series of barriers that hamper the road network. They force all traffic to use arterial roads to get to the other side through only a small handful on underpasses spaced far apart. Traffic on Dufferin is especially bad because Caledonia Rd (4 traffic lanes) is forced to turn east because of the 401 and then dump all its cars onto Dufferin, and these roads are merging right next to a highway interchange and massive shopping mall. And then the Dufferin-401 underpass is just 4 lanes wide. This is a huge problem.

The only solution I can see is is to create new connections, for example:
- Connect Bridgeland Ave and Floral Pkwy with a new underpass through the rail corridor, perhaps do the same thing for Rustic Rd as well.
- Extend Caledonia Rd over the 401 up to Wilson.
- Widen the Dufferin-401 underpass.

However all this would be very expensive, and any new road connections would require properties to be razed. It will probably never happen.

 

[sixrings]

A subway up dufferin would be a fair distance from the spadina line up until Eglinton where it would become very close together. The thing is the spadina line will need a relief line in the future and this is a good option as it has one of the busiest bus routes in the city. The problem is that this is where the subway should have been to start and instead the allen was chosen. Im all for converting the ARL to subway but if thats for sure going to be smart track RER then the western relief line doesnt need to go as far west as it would have and then dufferin becomes more of a good solution.

 

[UrbanAffair]

If anything Dufferin would need an LRT at some point, but to be honest, the densities that this point aren't even close to needing a substantial change yet. I live nearby and the traffic people see has to do mostly with people driving from the suburbs to go to Yorkdale and the Orfus Road area. It's (and no offence meant to anyone here) stay at home moms doing their shopping from what I see everyday. We may see some improvement when the Spadina Line finishes up, but I doubt it. These folk tend to see public transit as travel for low income earners only, which to me shows their lack of knowledge of the world, or things they don't know. Can you tell how much I dislike the Yorkdale crowd? Sorry for the rant...

 

[sixrings]

I live on Eglinton and daily have to make a decision to drive down dufferin from the 401 or take the allen because there are no off ramps at bathurst. I do frequent the mall a lot and that does describe the day customers but at night there is a big mixture. Either way Yorkdale is always going to attract traffic, both transit riders and drivers. There are plenty of problems like the lack of on and off ramps at bathurst or the staggered streets increasing left hand turns and intersections on dufferin. The thing is withTreviso being 26/25/15 floors, 3130 dufferin (http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2012/ny/bgrd/backgroundfile-50378.pdf), dream condos (across from yorkdale) and now this development you can see this area is about to boom really fast. Now add in the condos going up at Dufferin and King (http://urbantoronto.ca/news/2015/10/more-details-emerge-regarding-proposed-king-dufferin-development) and Bean condos at Dufferin and Eglinton which I assume will be the beginning of a cluster of condos and there is a real problem traffic wise. Dufferin of tomorrow may be completely different today but there needs to be some traffic and transit solution. I understand a Subway here may seem redundant and people may say why wouldnt the people here just take a bus to lawrence west but lawrence itself is a disaster so they might as well walk which sounds great in last weeks weather but not so great in todays weather. Besides I havent looked at where the riders are going but Im thinking many of them are using dufferin to go somewhere on dufferin, not necessarily downtown.

 

[Uptowner]

Salsa,

Thanks very much for taking time to outline all of that. I guess I hadn't really thought about it very much despite the fact that I have wasted many hours of my life in that quagmire. Although your post doesn't give me any more hope of even distant amelioration, I am happy that I better understand the cause of my occasional suffering. Somehow I suspect it will make it somewhat less intolerable.

 

[PMT]

Refused by Council:

http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgendaItemHistory.do?item=2016.NY14.29

NY14.29
ACTION

Adopted on Consent


Ward:15

Refusal Report - Official Plan Amendment Application - 3140 - 3170 Dufferin Street and 60 - 68 Apex Road
City Council Decision
City Council on June 7, 8 and 9, 2016, adopted the following:



1. City Council refuse the application to amend the Official Plan at 3140-3170 Dufferin Street for the following reasons:



a. the proposal does not conform to the City's Official Plan;



b. the proposal does not implement the City's recently-completed Dufferin Street Secondary Plan; and



c. the proposal is inappropriate and does not represent good planning.



2. Should the application be appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board, City Council authorize the City Solicitor and appropriate City staff to appear before the Ontario Municipal Board in support of Council's refusal of the Official Plan amendment.



3. Should the application be appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board, City Council direct the City Solicitor to consolidate the appeal with the applicant's appeal of the Dufferin Street Secondary Plan.

 

[sixrings]

Happy we have a omb. Across the street is 30 floors at Lawrence and dufferin. What's the difference.

 

[Uptowner]

Happy we have a omb. Across the street is 30 floors at Lawrence and dufferin. What's the difference.

I think what happened is they need to pay for their holidays without dipping into savings and the overtime to be generated from the extra work to come on this file will help with that for some of them. Did any of them even travel to the actual location before stamping a big fat rejection on the application? This is exactly the kind of location where we need to be putting more people. Also, this should have been even taller IMNSHO.

 

[AlbertC]

I wonder if these renderings match up for this development.

http://www.quadrangle.ca/design/portfolio/dufferin-plaza

 

[Edward Skira]

The renderings from the link.