On April 21, Toronto’s planning and housing committee recommended a new secondary plan for the lands, that will see that community expanded, with another 7,500 residents in 15 tall buildings and multiple lower-rise buildings.
And that proposal by the land’s owners First Capital has residents worried about the impact.
“I think the community has very mixed opinions about this,” said Graham Rowlands, a Mimico realtor who operates the South Etobicoke Community Facebook group. “I think the development is necessary — we have a growing population and people need a place to live. But I think it needs to be done in a responsible way.”
That development is to include 15 residential towers, with heights ranging from 28 to 67 storeys, another 15 mid-rise residential buildings, between five and 11 storeys tall, and seven commercial buildings as tall as 13 storeys.
It is expected to have as many as 1,500 units of affordable housing.
The plan also includes mitigating factors — specifically, a GO station and an integrated TTC loop to help alleviate the transit impact, as well as two community parks totalling 1.25 hectares in area, and eventually, a community centre, public library, space for community agencies and two daycare centres, provided by the developer.
“The plan really does revolve around creating a complete community centred on the ability for people to take transit, walk and cycle within the area,” said Sarah Phipps, the city planner in charge of the development, at the committee meeting.
Residents who attended the meeting weren’t entirely persuaded.
Ron Anderson, speaking on behalf of the Humber Bay Shores Condominium Association, worried that basic infrastructure — including but not limited to roads — would struggle to keep pace with the growth of the lands.
“For this to have positive impacts on the community, the infrastructure that services the site has to be assessed, and sized-up to meet that development,” he said.
Anderson said sewer and storm run-off was potentially a problem, in addition to the transportation issues.
Resident Sharon Jazzar, meanwhile, said the biggest problem is the delayed construction of a community centre.
“We have been waiting for years for a community centre,” she said. “The fact is that even though we are condominium dwellers, we have a true community — people get involved. We need something that can be enduring, a community centre that can harness what we have to create functional events.”
According to Toronto’s chief planner Gregg Lintern, the community centre is going to be built in a later phase because of its location.
City staff and the developer have determined the best spot for the centre is directly on Lake Shore Boulevard.
“That places it in a later phase — there is that challenge that it will likely be a part of a building that isn’t to be constructed for quite some time,” said Lintern. “There is that chicken-and-egg challenge.”
Similarly, there may be relief for traffic problems, both existing and future, when the city finally goes ahead with its decade-old plan to extend Legion Road in south Etobicoke to join the Parklawn ramps to the Gardiner Expressway. That process is expected to move forward separately, when the city renews work on a stormwater management plan there.
trca.ca
