Toronto 2150 Lake Shore | 215.75m | 67s | First Capital | Allies and Morrison

Is the maximum height now 215m?

215.75m; Tower D1-1

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I don't think there is any burning need to have taller towers here. This is plenty of density for this site. It is 28 acre site, and with 7500 units will have around 15,000 residents. That equivalent to 133k residents per square km (the site is 0.113km2). Never mind that there will also be 3500 jobs on the site! That puts this development up there with some of the densest neighbourhoods in the world, though it is not as large as them. This is plenty dense.

 
“An example of a complete community in Toronto that Lintern cites is City Place, the old railway lands near Spadina Avenue and Front Street, a place that has parks, community services, a school, retail — a mix of uses that are accessible without having to get in a car.”

Is this a joke?

Also, part of the reason congestion is so bad is that we don’t have fast, consistent transit in the area. And still aren’t planning to.
 
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I’ll also point out that it’s the chief planner of Toronto that’s making that quote :( Cityplace could have been so much better: from the architecture to the ground conditions to the streetscape.

At least First Capital has done an amazing job on the planning side.
 
“ An example of a complete community in Toronto that Lintern cites is City Place, the old railway lands near Spadina Avenue and Front Street, a place that has parks, community services, a school, retail — a mix of uses that are accessible without having to get in a car.”

Is this a joke?

On paper, he's not really wrong. If by that we mean can you walk to an elementary school, a library, a supermarket, a community centre etc. within 15 minutes, the answer is that it is a complete community.

The problems with City Place, architecture aside { the City has minimal ability to control this); would be that the streetscape particularly east of Spadina doesn't make walking seem as appealing as it might.

In conjunction w/that, there could have been more retail, and it could have been handled better in terms of its relationship to the street.

Crossing Spadina as a pedestrian is a royal pain.

The area's connections to the north have improved in recent times but still aren't as good as one might hope.

I don't think transit is all that bad, in as much as the eastern 1/4 of CP is certainly as easy walk to Union Stn,.

Spadina LRT is roughly in the middle of the community and is high frequency

Bathurst is a decent Streetcar as well.

An LRT on Bremner might be nice but I don't know that it's huge.

I think as transit goes, I'd single out the poor/non-existent service on Front Street.

Though certainly there's room for more improvement.

I have to say, outside rush hour (I don't walk in the area in rush hour much) I don't find Bremner congested.

York and Spadina are both nuts busy, but most of that is access to the Gardiner.
 
The problems with City Place, architecture aside { the City has minimal ability to control this); would be that the streetscape particularly east of Spadina doesn't make walking seem as appealing as it might.

In conjunction w/that, there could have been more retail, and it could have been handled better in terms of its relationship to the street.

Crossing Spadina as a pedestrian is a royal pain.
Agreed on all of these points.

I don’t find Cityplace a particularly lively community. If this is what we aim for with a “complete community”, we’re aiming way too low IMO.

Lots more retail would help, as well as a complete rework of pedestrian access in the area (including Spadina, which is overly wide).

I also happen to think that the bridge over the rails could be made way more inviting and feel more like an ‘attraction’. I’ve always loved standing there and looking at the trains coming in, the CN Tower, the Skydome...
 
First Capital's proposal for 2150 Lake Shore will be more of a "complete community" than any master plan we've seen built so far.

I am glad they are setting the bar high, and am a little disappointed to see it trashed by the usual rhetoric such as concerns about congestion. I'd like to poll how many of those citizens concerned about congestion would be in favour of a property tax increase to fund the appropriate level of service needed for a City like Toronto.
 
“An example of a complete community in Toronto that Lintern cites is City Place, the old railway lands near Spadina Avenue and Front Street, a place that has parks, community services, a school, retail — a mix of uses that are accessible without having to get in a car.”

Is this a joke?

Also, part of the reason congestion is so bad is that we don’t have fast, consistent transit in the area. And still aren’t planning to.
The GO station with RER service?
 
I think once the GO Train station opens, there should be a dramatic decrease in traffic

They should also look into adding a congestion charge when you enter Humber Bay shores for non-residents.

This will force people to take the GO Train if they want to visit this area.
 
The Star article claims, “At those times, it’s common to see cars backed up for hours in both directions on the Lake Shore and Gardiner Expressway, as well as offshoots like Park Lawn Rd.” This is a very considerablle exaggeration. Of course there is some typical urban congestion at rush hour and transit service needs a considerable upgrade, as planned, to serve the area. But “backed up for hours”??? “Common?” Nahhh!

Aside from driving in the area when I need to, I can see the intersection of Park Lawn and Lake Shore out my window. I don’t recognize this description.
 
^The common problem i see at Park Lawn and Lake Shore is traffic turning from eastbound Lake Shore north onto Park Lawn. Traffic is frequently backed up there which cause streetcars to wait up to 10 minutes just to proceed out of the area. They are either delayed by vehicles turning north into Westlake, or turning onto Park Lawn.

Part of which points to the failure that is Westlake, but there are some traffic issues in the area. Let's also remember that most new builds are no yet fully occupied, and traffic volumes are down. Once we get into the new normal, the issues will be pretty evident.
 

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