Toronto 2444 Yonge Street | 114.27m | 31s | Main and Main | Hariri Pontarini

Here's what the original plan with façadectomy would have looked like.

http://www.bayview-news.com/2017/01/what-heritage-plan-shelved-and-bank-building-razed.html/

yonge-and-roselawn.png
 
sunnyraytoronto said:
Yep,..... so if you ever wondered how first time councillor Christin Carmichael-Greb got elected,.... here's a hint,...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Carmichael_(politician)

Yep, Christin Carmichael-Greb is former MP (after 2015 federal election) John Carmichael's little girl,... the Carmichael name carries some weight in mid-town.
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What's more is that Carmichael-Greb was heavily supported by developers during the election.

Carmichael_Greb_Developers.jpg


Practically every lot slated to be a part of some condo development, or were vacant and owned by a group interested in collecting land parcels for development, had a Charmichael-Greb sign in the front lawn.
 

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Wow, this looks terribly inept on the part of the Clr Carmichael Greb, who in fairness, has always looked way in over her head on council.
 
Jennifer Keesmaat has some good comments on this whole issue- I hope she will be able to get this fixed.

https://twitter.com/jen_keesmaat

At the moment commercial properties can request a permit of demolition and the city is, by law forced to issue a demolition permit.
 
Apparently the Ontario Building Code allows commercial building owners to demolish a property without the city knowing what the plans are for the site. The city is legally required to issue a demolition permit except it's a designated heritage building. Councillor Wong-Tam has fought to get that law changed, but only the province can do it. Because as always, Toronto basically can't even fart without permission from the province.
 
This can't be solely reduced to jurisdictional frustrations-- there are other effective ways to hit at the problem, as Keesmaat explained in her anti-Greb tweetstorm last night. I'm finding it hard to view this any other way than Greb thinking she could get away with scoring some cheap local political points by throwing bureaucrats under the bus.

And here's the at least partly salient reminder that Greb:
A) Voted against a provision that would have expanded the planning staff at no added cost to the city
B) Won her election with 17.3% of the vote
 
amnesiajune said:
If the building was so important to keep around, shouldn't the city have given it that designation?
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This was the crux of the tripartite debate last night between Keesmaat, Cressy, and Greb:
- Greb: "identified in 2014 as having heritage value and identified in Midtown in Focus
- Keesmaat: "Yes, but many buildings identified in Midtown in Focus are not yet listed. There is a significant backlog."
- Cressy: "there are more than 400 properties on the list to review. With current staffing the list will only get longer."
 
The old BMO building, being set back the way it was, would have made for a nice little plaza and a nice complement to Montgomery Square to the south. Too bad it's too late now!
On another note, does anyone know how Toronto and Montreal's heritage protection laws differ? I've lived in Montreal before and it definitely felt like their laws were so much more stringent when it comes to redeveloping older buildings
 
ADRM said:
- Cressy: "there are more than 400 properties on the list to review. With current staffing the list will only get longer."
Click to expand...

Yeah but out of those 400 to review how many are over 100 yrs old, does this city not look at heritage designation by age and prioritize it?,
or do they just go around identifying mediocre 60s-70s stuff and throw it all into the mix??
 
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