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Pan Am Games Temporary Uses in West Don Lands

Automation Gallery

Automation Gallery

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I guess this is for phase-2

475 FRONT ST E
Site Plan Approval 11 305223 STE 28 SA Ward 28
- Tor & E.York Nov 4, 2011 --- --- --- Inglis Baron, Heather
(416) 395-7073

Site plan approval application for development of a new 12 storey, 145 unit, affordable rental housing building complete with retail at grade and street front towhouse dwelling units on Block 15 of the West Don Lands - Phase 2. 37 parking spaces to serve the development and located below grade are to be provided on site
 
If these guidelines are still relevant then this is a very important location for setting the tone of the area as it borders on the boulevard on Front Street. I hope they get it right.

Capture-S.png


(image from West Don Lands Precinct Plans on Waterfrontoronto's website)
 
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Automation Gallery said:
I guess this is for phase-2

475 FRONT ST E
Site Plan Approval 11 305223 STE 28 SA Ward 28
- Tor & E.York Nov 4, 2011 --- --- --- Inglis Baron, Heather
(416) 395-7073

Site plan approval application for development of a new 12 storey, 145 unit, affordable rental housing building complete with retail at grade and street front towhouse dwelling units on Block 15 of the West Don Lands - Phase 2. 37 parking spaces to serve the development and located below grade are to be provided on site
Click to expand...

River City Phase 2 (which is certainly advertised on a huge billboard on King Street) is not on Front Street. This is Block 15 and is the first of the Pan-Am Games buildings - which may need a whole new thread or set of threads?
 
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A couple more developments from city planning.

475 FRONT ST E Site Plan Approval 11 314600 STE 28 SA Ward 28
- Tor & E.York Nov 23, 2011 --- --- --- Jones, Kelly ..(416) 395-7127
Site plan approval application for development of a new 15 storey, 48 metre 429 unit mixed use buildingcomplete with approximately 1130m2 of retail at grade on Block 4 of the West Don Lands - Phase 2. 173 parking spaces to serve the development and located below grade are to be provided on site.


475 FRONT ST E Site Plan Approval 11 314634 STE 28 SA Ward 28
- Tor & E.York Nov 23, 2011 --- --- --- Jones, Kelly (416) 395-7127
Site plan approval application for development of a new 11 storey mixed use building with retail at grade fronting onto the south side of Front Street East (Building A ), two 4 storey residential buildings (Buildings B & C) fronting onto the west side of the new Public Street E and the east side of the new Public Street D and a new 8 storey residential building containing live work units on the ground floor level fronting onto the north side of Mill Street on Block 11 of the West Don Lands - Phase 2. A total of 358 dweling units are proposed incliding 144 parking spaces to serve the development, 70 spaces located in an above grade parking deck and the remainder below grade.
 
From a week ago:

TE19.3
ACTION

Adopted on Consent



Ward:28

Final Report - 475 Front Street East - Zoning Amendment Application - Temporary Use By-Law
City Council Decision

Caution: This is a preliminary decision. This decision should not be considered final until the meeting is complete and the City Clerk has confirmed the decisions for this meeting.
City Council on October 30, 31 and November 1, 2012, adopted the following:

1. City Council amend the City of Toronto Zoning By-law No. 438-86, as amended, for Phase I of the lands generally located within the West Don Lands, substantially in accordance with the draft Zoning By-law Amendment attached as Attachment No. 3 to report (September 20, 2012) from the Director, Community Planning, Toronto and East York District, for a Phase I Temporary Use By-law, for a period of up to 3 years from the date of passing of the by-law.

2. City Council amend the City of Toronto Zoning By-law No. 438-86, as amended, for Phase II of the lands generally located within the West Don Lands, substantially in accordance with the draft Zoning By-law Amendment attached as Attachment No. 4 to report (September 20, 2012) from the Director, Community Planning, Toronto and East York District, for a Phase II Temporary Use By-law, for a period of up to 3 years from the date of passing of the by-law.

3. Prior to the introduction of the bills in Council for the Phase II Temporary Use By-law, City Council require that Infrastructure Ontario and Lands Corporation and the City come to an agreement regarding the temporary site layout and provision of landscaping that is satisfactory to the Chief Planner and Executive Director of City Planning.

4. City Council authorize the City Solicitor to make such stylistic and technical changes to the draft Zoning By-law Amendments as may be required.
Statutory - Planning Act, RSO 1990
Background Information (Community Council)
(September 20, 2012) Report from the Director, Community Planning, Toronto and East York District - 475 Front Street East - Zoning Amendment Application - Temporary Use By-law - Final Report
(http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2012/te/bgrd/backgroundfile-50435.pdf)
 
The configuration of Front st is baffling. Why does it go up after Yonge st and merge with Wellington? Why didn't it go straight eastward and connect to Esplanade and call the whole thing Front st?

The merging of Queen/King, Richmond/Adelaide east of downtown also makes one wonder, as they make much of the nearby land unusable.
 
FNTS said:
It's probably related to the fact that it used to run parallel to the former edge of Lake Ontario, before they started filling it in.

edited: I found a map of Toronto in 1894 and it helps to understand why it's configured like that.
http://www.canadaka.net/modules/Maps/gallery/historical/1800/toronto_1894.jpg
Click to expand...

thanks, very interesting stuff.
I noticed that back then, both Richmond and Adelaide stop at Jarvis st, and east of that two separate streets named Duchess and Duke st extend to Parliament. Richmond actually only goes to Peter St in the west. That explains all the twist and turns of Richmond.

Still doesn't explain why King St has to go up abruptly west of Berkeley St. It could go further east and connect with Easter.

I can see the Lake curves up east of Bay st, therefore the necessity for Front to go upwards. However, there is Esplanade east of the curve it can easily connect to, instead of go all the way up to join Wellington and make the traffic flow a lot messy and confusing.
 
balenciaga said:
thanks, very interesting stuff.
I noticed that back then, both Richmond and Adelaide stop at Jarvis st, and east of that two separate streets named Duchess and Duke st extend to Parliament. Richmond actually only goes to Peter St in the west. That explains all the twist and turns of Richmond.

Still doesn't explain why King St has to go up abruptly west of Berkeley St. It could go further east and connect with Easter.

I can see the Lake curves up east of Bay st, therefore the necessity for Front to go upwards. However, there is Esplanade east of the curve it can easily connect to, instead of go all the way up to join Wellington and make the traffic flow a lot messy and confusing.
Click to expand...
I don't think traffic flow was much of a concern in the 19th century... Anyways, for the full explanation, you have to go even further back in time. When Front St was built, it was the waterfront street, not the Esplanade (which didn't exist yet).

As for King Street's upward Northward shift, that's probably to do with Taddle Creek, which ran roughly around Berkeley Street. http://torontodreamsproject.blogspot.ca/2011/04/map-when-toronto-was-still-just-wee.html

It probably made more sense to cross Taddle Creek perpendicularly, and Taddle Creek was flowing SE. You can also see that it would have been complicated for Queen to cross Taddle Creek, since it ran pretty much directly East around Queen, so King Street had to be the link between the town and the rural areas to the East. Maybe they wanted King Street to cross the Don River further North, maybe it was less swampy and there was less of a risk of the bridge getting washed away by a flood?
 
So, with the applications listed here, it looks like we have three projects on the go:

-One on block 14, right behind the George Brown/YMCA complex, facing Front Street just before it widens,
-The second phase of Canary district condos, and
-One on block 4, just north of distillery district at it's eastern end, on what is now a large parking lot, if I'm remembering correctly.
 
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