Toronto 815 Eglinton Avenue East | 114.45m | 34s | RioCan | Diamond Schmitt

The square footage of the commercial areas suggests either two-storey replacements of the current tenants or smaller retailers. I'd hate to lose the PetSmart, for selfish reasons: It's basically like a zoo to my 2-year old. Also, adding three new street connections to Eglinton has a high chance of creating a real traffic mess between Laird and Brentcliffe, if done carelessly. I'm assuming the one in the middle will be a traffic light and the other two will likely be right turn only. Thoughts?

PetsMart been a money loser for year, I would expect them to downsize for sure as their rent would go up; but condo folks like small dogs. CanadianTire would likely downsize as well, maybe to a Bay&Dundas size store or even an urban CanadianTire format,... hard to imagine CanadianTire leaving the area since there's so many new retailers locally now,... even though CanadianTire parking lot is usually mainly empty. Condo folks don't do DIY-hardward stuff since they pay for maintanence,... only houseware stuff would be useful to them and there'll be a Walmart across the street.

With regards to intersections, I would concur. The intersection along Eglinton Avenue East from Laird to Brentcliffe is about 390m apart; which tends to be too long for a (soon-to-be) densely populated area. If a new 25m wide intersection is placed in the middle (lining up with DonAvon Drive), the distance to each of the existing intersections at Laird and Brentcliffe would be around 182m each. A minor issue is the city's Transportation Services' guideline that 200m is the minimum requirement for the distance between two intersections in the city of Toronto,... anything less would need a variance from the local Community Council or City Council; thus this new intersection would likely need such a variance, community consultation meetings and will likely get approved with strong recommendation from city staff. In addition, this will avoid the need to put double left-turn lanes at Eglinton & Laird and Eglinton & Brentcliffe (which the city hates anyways).

I really don't see the other two proposed roadways being right turn only since the Eglinton Avenue East already has a centre left turn lane which is still needed to service all the driveways along the northside of Eglinton. Another arguement in favour of the new intersection in the middle at DonAvon Drive would be it slows down traffic and breaks up the flow of traffic so left-turning traffic from the other two new roadways have better access on and off Eglinton Ave East.
 
The average condo purchaser in this city nowadays, however, isn't a car owner. With the Crosstown just a short walk from this development, vehicular traffic would not be impacted here to the degree that a similarly scaled project in Richmond Hill would impact its surrounding streets.

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The average condo purchaser isn't a car owner would apply much more downtown where folks can walk to where they work, shop, dine, hangout, etc,... it likely would not apply here since this is Leaside and there's only so much you could do in Leaside before you want to escape,.... and one of the feature for this site is it's close proximity to the DonVallyParkway and Highway 401,... which are only for cars!

The rest of the statement sounds very familiar to me,... I've been hearing it for at least 25 years since I live in NorthYorkCentre,... "Most of the condo units have just 1-bedroom and condo buyers will take the Yonge subway since they live so close to Yonge Street. Local traffic won't be impacted at all!"

Even though most condos in NorthYorkCentre are 1-bedroom condos, there's an average of 2.5 people living in a NorthYorkCentre condo; thus someone might take transit and someone else might drive the car,.... especially since there's about 1 parking space for each condo unit and most condo dwellers are working age so they'll also be likely to drive during rush hour,... adding to local traffic congestion and transit capacity issues.

Since amalgamation in 1998, NorthYorkCentre (Yonge corridor between Hwy 401 to Finch Hydro Corridor) has seen over 60 new condo towers and only one office tower built,... it's now a vertical sleeping community. The Yonge Subway line has been at or over-capacity for at least 10 years. Local traffic congestion in North York Centre is worst in GTA,... On list of top 10 worst intersection for traffic congestion: Yonge Street between Highway 401 and Sheppard is #2, Bayview at Sheppard & 401 is #1 only because it gets all the traffic that has given up on Yonge-401 interchange.
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/20...fies_top_10_most_congested_intersections.html

The problem with NorthYorkCentre is the city never built enough infrastructure (road, transit, school, parks, etc,...) to adequately service the increasing local population,... and I strongly suspect the same problems will repeat itself here too.

Let's compare development along Eglinton from Duplex to SunnyBrook Park to NorthYorkCentre (Yonge corridor between Hwy 401 to Cummer/Drewry) since they're both around 4km:
- Until recently all development in NorthYorkCentre is limited to 100m (about 30 storeys), only HullmarkCentre (45 & 35 storeys), GibsonSqure (42 & 42 storeyes) and EmeraldPark (40 & 32 storeys) have exceeded that height limit. Some of the developments near Eglinton & Yonge have are just under 60 storeys; these developments also tends to take up larger footprints and have more condo units per floor; thus, much higher density.
- the rate of residential condo development/construction along Eglinton (between Duplex and Sunnybrook park) seems to be much higher than anything we've seen over the last 20 years of NorthYorkCentre condo boom.
- Politically, NorthYorkCentre mainly run through the middle of just one ward, an already Section 37 rich Ward23; now due to traffic congestion, Yonge subway capacity issues, lack of school space, etc,... there's lots of resistance to future developments not just from the single residential houses but also from residents in the condos; this makes it tougher for development in southern part of NorthYorkCentre, thus developer trying their luck northward where there's less local resistance (especially in ward 24). Eglinton corridor between Duplex to Sunnybrook Park run through the outer edges of 4 city wards (16, 22, 25 & 26),... 4 city wards eager to use Section 37 Community Benefit money for local projects paid for by developers.
- NorthYorkCentre was/is generally built with Service Roads of Doris Ave and Beecroft Road acting as buffers and limiting access points and thus limiting traffic penetration from high density NorthYorkCentre developments into surrounding low density single residential housing neighbourhoods. Eglinton (between Duplex and Sunnybrook park - nor any other part of Eglinton corridor) doesn't have any such Service Roads to act as buffer to protect the established surrounding low density single residential housing neighbourhoods. City Planning did consider such service roads but ultimately rejected the idea.

This development will bring in about 1500 units in addition to the proposed 1500 units at southwest corner of Eglinton & Brentcliffe,.... future proposal for southeast corner of Eglinton & Brentcliffe will likely bring in about 1500 units,.... the Mercedes-Benz land could bring in another 1000 units,.... all the sudden that's about 5500 units,... close to 15,000 new residents! That's one reason why my previous post suggested Section37 community benefit and development fees from these developments go towards a road connection between Leslie and Bayview Extension,.... to minimize impact of vehicular traffic on local streets in Leaside.
 
The supporting docs - including preliminary architectural plans are up:

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Quadrangle/Turner Fleischer. The C-Tire and Petsmart is retained (according to the plans)

AoD
 

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CanadianTire would likely downsize as well, maybe to a Bay&Dundas size store or even an urban CanadianTire format,... hard to imagine CanadianTire leaving the area since there's so many new retailers locally now,...

This has always been a crappy Canadian Tire. Never struck me as particularly large (excluding the showcase store, which is nice in the spring and at Christmas), and I would have guessed Bay/Dundas was larger, but maybe I am wrong.
 
A 2 level CT would face some challenges I think. I don't enjoy navigating the one at Bay/Dundas and my wife would pick Laird 1, Main 2 and Leslie-Lake Shore 99 in order of preference. As an urban-size CT - look at how the one at Pape/Danforth worked out.
 
Sunnyray is correct, IMO, that many potential purchasers will want to own a car in this particular location. That is certainly the case with me. We are beginning to look seriously at buying a Toronto or area condo after 14 years in Vancouver. It's not a case of needing to commute to work anymore but there are a dozen good reasons we would want to keep a car. Family in another Ontario city (including grandchildren, a major motivator!) a summer cottage, desire to attend church on Sunday AM when transit is terrible, etc. "Urban" doesn't mean not ever wanting to get out of the city. Others will have their own reasons.

I looked at this specific thread for two reasons. One is exactly as Sunnyray specified. This has good access to the DVP when we want to drive and to transit when we don't Not in rush hour, I add. It may also have shopping within walking distance, which we would like.

The other is nostalgia. I grew up in Leaside, spending childhood hours in the Don Valley. When my family moved there, Eglinton was a two lane street that ended at Brentcliffe. There was no bridge over that branch of the Don at the time.

It would be interesting to come full circle and return to the area... with a car.
 
This has always been a crappy Canadian Tire. Never struck me as particularly large (excluding the showcase store, which is nice in the spring and at Christmas), and I would have guessed Bay/Dundas was larger, but maybe I am wrong.

Friends who worked the CT head office will concur with you. For some reason this CT is considered very poorly run, by CT upper management. The fire they had a few years ago actually helped, as it allowed/forced them to re-do quite a bit of the store. It's usable now, but still misses quite a bit of the stuff other, bigger stores carry. That being said, I'd hate to see it go, as having a car-parts store that's walking distance can occasionally come in useful, such as when you drop a vehicle off for repairs or tire changes.
 
I expect that the LPOA (ie the Fripp/Kettle cabal) will leap on this by Tuesday with their typical earnest yet totally ineffectual gusto by lunch on Tuesday. It would be nice if some of the many real estate professionals living in the area took on the community's response to this application rather than the NIMBY kings at LPOA. Real estate professionals have the skill and intelligence to work with RioCan and Quadrangle in this situation to extract the maximum community benefit. We want major Section 37 contributions. For instance, the proposed community centre needs more pools and dance studios and ... LPOA lurches on developments in a totally misguided effort to shut them down or shrink them beyond the city's or the developers' capability/interest. But a reasoned and intelligent effort could leverage the RioCan's desire for goodwill and a successful project. SmartCentres would have given way more in Section 37 contributions during the rezoning of Wicksteed had the effort to stop the development not been so cockeyed and bungled. We now have an opportunity to really draw lifeblood from RioCan with a spigot. They want this so bad; we need to judo their energy to extract benefit rather that try to stop them and fail.
Much love to the Leasiders! We are all so lucky to live here, especially with the big big changes coming!
 
The problem is everything I read about the LPOA makes me think they still think we live in the Leaside village of the 1920s that is separate from the rest of Toronto, and they'll be damned if they don't do their best to keep it that way. I did the survey that they sent out to ask opinions about the Brentcliffe development, which I'm fairly pro on, and at the end you had to provide your name and full address! As a small business owner I can't alienate local customers just because we disagree on local development, so I didn't send in my survey. They are clearly trying to fish for consensus, rather than get real numbers. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who did that.

Maybe Leasider members of this board who view development more progressively should form our own LPOA-type of association. One that isn't dominated by 75-year-olds.

PS I love how it's "property owners", not residents. It's like back in the 18th century. If you don't own land, you don't get to vote! Renters sit down!
 
Sunnyray is correct, IMO, that many potential purchasers will want to own a car in this particular location. That is certainly the case with me. We are beginning to look seriously at buying a Toronto or area condo after 14 years in Vancouver. It's not a case of needing to commute to work anymore but there are a dozen good reasons we would want to keep a car. Family in another Ontario city (including grandchildren, a major motivator!) a summer cottage, desire to attend church on Sunday AM when transit is terrible, etc. "Urban" doesn't mean not ever wanting to get out of the city. Others will have their own reasons.

I looked at this specific thread for two reasons. One is exactly as Sunnyray specified. This has good access to the DVP when we want to drive and to transit when we don't Not in rush hour, I add. It may also have shopping within walking distance, which we would like.

The other is nostalgia. I grew up in Leaside, spending childhood hours in the Don Valley. When my family moved there, Eglinton was a two lane street that ended at Brentcliffe. There was no bridge over that branch of the Don at the time.

It would be interesting to come full circle and return to the area... with a car.

67Cup, I think you hit the nail on the head when you said to avoid the area during rush hour,.... transit and traffic. And I've already mentioned why traffic will be bad due to all the new high density development along the Eglinton in midtown, lack of parallel service road, no direct connection between Bayview extension and Leslie Street,... oh, and did I mention city is seriously considering converting one traffic lane in each direction of Eglinton Ave into protected bike lanes and wider pedestrian sidewalks,... closing one lane of traffic in each direction for EglintonCrosstown construction in midtown have given us an idea of what will happen to traffic,... oh, but that doesn't include all the new density from the new high density developments along Eglinton.

The new EglintonCrosstown is still an unknown,... it's an LRT line buried underground in midtown,... much like a subway line would be,... and distance between stations similar to distance between subway stations as well,.... and development is basically treating the new EglintonCrosstown as a new subway line,.... but it's not a subway! The capacity of an EglintonCrosstown LRT is significantly less than a regular TTC subway train. The EglintonCrosstown line could act as the relief line for the Bloor-Danforth subway line,... since the two lines are parallel and just 4km apart. It's likely during AM rush hour, the westbound EglintonCrosstown LRT car will be jam-packed with scarborough riders that by the time it gets to midtown, midtown passengers will be left at the station platform.

In addition, most of the buildings in this development should have direct EglintonCrosstown connection,... VS the Brentcliffe development which is 400m away and would depend on 2 neighbouring properties to allow underground connections (highly unlikely),.... The Brentcliffe development got chopped and lost about a third of it's units,.... 34-storey tower eliminated and 24-storey tower chopped down to 14-storey,..... I don't think this proposal would get chopped as badly since this development should have direct EglintonCrosstown connection and the proposed density isn't as high as the Brentcliffe proposal.

While RioCan is a large developer,.. their focus is on commercial retail development and not residential. Often when RioCan does mix-use development, the residential component is handled in partnership with another developer as in E-condo where RioCan partnered with Bazis and Metropia,... many posters know I would never recommend Bazis (EmeraldPark). Thus, condo buyers should figure out who the residential developer/partner is,....
 
The average condo purchaser in this city nowadays, however, isn't a car owner. With the Crosstown just a short walk from this development, vehicular traffic would not be impacted here to the degree that a similarly scaled project in Richmond Hill would impact its surrounding streets.

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Even CityPlanning isn't expecting the EglintonCrosstown to eliminate cars,.... CityPlanning car parking requirements for high density developments along Eglinton before and after EglintonCrosstown is basically the same,... only very small Bachelor (<45m2) & 1-bedroom units decrease their minimum and maximum requirements by about 1/10th per unit. Now with the EglintonCrosstown factored in,.... a new high density residential condo development in the Eglinton corridor will now require about 10% less parking spaces,.... in other words, CityPlanning is anticipating that for every 10 drivers in these new condo towers on EglintonCrosstown line,... only one will give up driving and utilize the EglintonCrosstown. Here's the CityPlanning before and after EglintonCrosstown parking requirements for developments along Eglinton Corridor.

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This has always been a crappy Canadian Tire. Never struck me as particularly large (excluding the showcase store, which is nice in the spring and at Christmas), and I would have guessed Bay/Dundas was larger, but maybe I am wrong.

It's actually a tiny store, but one of the most profitable stores in Toronto (And even top performer in the GTA at times). Not sure where @Therion heard it's poorly run from, as that is far from the case. The dealer has worked pretty closely with upper management to make that store work, as its sales are extremely disproportionate to its size, which has always been the challenge there.

It will be sad to see the showroom disappear, but I think some aspects of it will simply be carried over to the new store, as is being done in new builds across the chain.

I can't wait for planning to start on this one!
 

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