A coalition of residents in the Yonge Street and Eglinton Avenue neighbourhood are asking the city to make potentially big changes on the city-owned Canada Square site on the south-west corner of the intersection – and put a hold on any application to redevelop the land by its long-term lease-holder, Oxford Properties.
Oxford’s $2.5 billion proposal would sit on top of the Eglinton subway station on Toronto’s Line 1 and see four massive residential towers – 70, 60, 54 and 45 storeys tall – along with 12.1 hectares of open space, 1,000 square metres of community space and replacing the office use that’s on the site now.
But for the coalition of residents who came to Toronto’s Planning and Housing Committee June 28, that wasn’t enough to push back against the substantial growth in high-density residential developments that has so far not been accompanied by social and public infrastructure.
“We have found that the application doesn’t really respond to (our comments) since 80 per cent of the application is residential, and only 1,000 square metres is community space – and employment replacement is less than what’s there today,” said Andy Gort, president of the South Eglinton Residents and Ratepayers Association.
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Over the course of four meetings over the late spring of 2021, the group came up with a set of priorities for the land that Oxford is proposing to redevelop.
The site should become a new Town Centre for Midtown Toronto first and foremost, with a public square, parkland and open space, a higher-learning incident, community facilities, cultural and performing arts spaces, with a new elementary school and a limit on residential development.
Ann King, a tenant representative of the Stanley Knowles Housing Cooperative said the affordable housing component was key.
“There is an abundance of residential housing and more on the way – we are under siege by developers whose primary goal seems to be to put up more towers, but one thing that’s in short supply is affordable housing,” she said.
Urban Strategy’s Christine Fang-Denissov, speaking on behalf of Oxford, told the committee that while there were many elements of the working group’s document that Oxford agreed with, the city needs to balance “city-wide objectives” with the community’s needs. She said Oxford would work with the city to accommodate those needs.
The three local councillors – Josh Matlow, Mike Colle and Jaye Robinson – supported an immediate endorsement of the plan holding off on moving ahead with Oxford’s plans until city planners could assess ways to incorporate the priorities of the working group.
But Toronto’s Chief Planner Greg Lintern cautioned that delays could endanger the terms of the 200-year lease between the city and Oxford Properties, signed in 2018.
“We run the risk of running out the runway and having Oxford decide it doesn’t want to engage further,” Lintern said, noting that Oxford could revert to a previous lease.
The committee has recommended that council schedule community consultations on the development, and left it to city staff to report on the implications of holding off on approving the applications before the working group document can be further studied.
