Toronto Church of Scientology | ?m | 8s

70Challenger said:
Better not, it should be saved and incorporated in a new build like it’s neighbour.
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It should be saved. It was actually a decent piece of international style architecture. The problem is that over a decade ago, it was determined to be in terrible enough structural shape that it was unsafe to live or work in. Since then, it's been broken into many times, exposed to the elements and exactly none of the restoration work required to deem it safe for occupation has happened.

The city should have shut down the CoS' no-seriously-we're-really-gonna-fix-it nonsense years ago and claimed (and subsequently restored) the property for local services (community centre, school, etc.). As it stands (or nearly doesn't any more), demolition is probably the inevitable future. If anything remains standing it's likely only to be facade.

UtakataNoAnnex said:
...but here I go: Is this building listed as a heritage structure somewhere?
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ACO and the city planning department both want it preserved…

ACO Toronto - 696-700 Yonge Street

www.acotoronto.ca www.acotoronto.ca

…but as far as I can tell, nothing solid has yet come of it.
Yeah, it's listed:

City of Toronto's Heritage Property Search Detail

A source for published information on Toronto Heritage Buildings.
secure.toronto.ca

Which means even more of a restoration headache for Scientology were they ever to find a whale with a big enough purse to make their Ideal Org. fantasies come true.
 
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Richard White said:
Has that ever stopped demolition?
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That's a yes and no answer. But that's not what is important here...

...rather this building is still there in all it's worse-for-wear entirety despite it likely not having much of an appeal, because there are reasons it's still standing.
 
It should be noted, that the website dedicated to this project hasn't been updated in 8 years.

Building an Ideal Org in Toronto!

News and Information about the Toronto Church of Scientology Building Project
torontoideal.org torontoideal.org

And they were looking for PWYC donations for the project last Christmas through the sale of glass unicorns and dog bandanas.
 
zang said:
It should be noted, that the website dedicated to this project hasn't been updated in 8 years.

Building an Ideal Org in Toronto!

News and Information about the Toronto Church of Scientology Building Project
torontoideal.org torontoideal.org

And they were looking for PWYC donations for the project last Christmas through the sale of glass unicorns and dog bandanas.
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Thank you for providing the link. I just joined the church of scientology!
 
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emphur said:
Not sure if this pertains to their renovations or something new, but building permits were applied for back in February. I have a feeling the movement on Bauhaus on King is the reason, as once that building comes down, they'll need to move, but that's just a theory.

View attachment 314463
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Since all this chatter made me look.........

Revised permits were issued here............one year ago, in October '21:

1667051323074.png
 
Northern Light said:
Since all this chatter made me look.........

Revised permits were issued here............one year ago, in October '21:

View attachment 435787
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They’ve spent the last decade filing new permits to buy themselves time. It’s now an at-risk heritage property. Unless they’ve paid the previous property tax debt (plus whatever’s accrued since), there’s almost no chance they will ever be able to do anything. In the meantime it’s slowly becoming a literal hazard to the community.

The city needs to finally say enough’s enough and seize the property.
 
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I noticed they opened a new centre on O'Connor just west of Victoria Park. Probably cheaper real estate out that way
 
What I don’t understand is that this building really has no spiritual value…realistically I think if the city were to make a reasonable offer - ie maybe forgive the taxes and transfer ownership to the city…and in exchange the city builds a shelter or affordable housing and a community center - and maybe offers them access to the space for some period of time…it could be a win win for everyone…restoring the site - while maybe a win for the historical society - is going to require them selling to developer - and there will be no public benefit…
 
georgevicbell said:
What I don’t understand is that this building really has no spiritual value…realistically I think if the city were to make a reasonable offer - ie maybe forgive the taxes and transfer ownership to the city…and in exchange the city builds a shelter or affordable housing and a community center - and maybe offers them access to the space for some period of time…it could be a win win for everyone…restoring the site - while maybe a win for the historical society - is going to require them selling to developer - and there will be no public benefit…
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For no reason I can really explain, I recently started following a YouTube channel, Growing Up in Scientology, by an ex-second-generation-Scientologist. In a recent video, he explained that *closing* an "org" as they call it, is actually "illegal" for the church. So they are not going to do anything with that building until forced to by the courts, and in all likelihood, the courts will have to take the building away from them to make progress.
 
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