Toronto Karma Condos | 165.8m | 50s | Lifetime | a—A

Automation Gallery said:
Wow..49 storeys for the College and Yonge area..bet you that in the next decade Yonge, College to Bloor will be the next Bay street .
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Somehow, I seriously doubt Yonge Street will ever resemble Bay Street's high-rise canyon. At least I hope it never will. I envision Yonge redeveloping primarily as low to mid-rise buildings with appropriate stepbacks at upper levels and the odd highrise at significant intersections. The blocks between Bay and Yonge, however, may be another story.
 
skorji said:
Somehow, I seriously doubt Yonge Street will ever resemble Bay Street's high-rise canyon. At least I hope it never will. I envision Yonge redeveloping primarily as low to mid-rise buildings with appropriate stepbacks at upper levels and the odd highrise at significant intersections. The blocks between Bay and Yonge, however, may be another story.
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At a planning meeting I attended City Planner Will MacRae stated that what's been approved along Yonge Street downtown with Uptown, Blu, 5 St. Jospeh Street & the St. Nicholas Street project won't be happening much more under revised City Planning. There may be an exception or two but it won't be the norm.
 
dt_toronto_geek said:
At a planning meeting I attended City Planner Will MacRae stated that what's been approved along Yonge Street downtown with Uptown, Blu, 5 St. Jospeh Street & the St. Nicholas Street project won't be happening much more under revised City Planning. There may be an exception or two but it won't be the norm.
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But only one of these was directly on Yonge ... so he's referring to the whole inner core now ? What's the norm, anything under 20 floors ?
 
greenleaf said:
I think the planning department is hoping to address this with the Downtown Tall Buildings Study, which is not approved yet, but perhaps will be by this time next year.

Looking at this study, large swaths of Yonge would remain under 5 stories.

Map:
http://www.toronto.ca/planning/pdf/Tall-buildings-map-downtownvision.pdf
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that's going to put a big damper on developers plans, or anyone who wanted to make big $$$ selling land along Yonge between Carlton and Bloor.

looks like they have bigger plans for Church and Jarvis streets, but limited to 35s.
 
greenleaf said:
I think the planning department is hoping to address this with the Downtown Tall Buildings Study, which is not approved yet, but perhaps will be by this time next year.

Looking at this study, large swaths of Yonge would remain under 5 stories.

Map:
http://www.toronto.ca/planning/pdf/Tall-buildings-map-downtownvision.pdf
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What does it mean for those white spaces between the highlighted areas? Are they unrestricted on height (for example, theoretically, can someone propose building a 60 story building north of College between Bay and Yonge?
 
greenleaf said:
I think the planning department is hoping to address this with the Downtown Tall Buildings Study, which is not approved yet, but perhaps will be by this time next year.

Looking at this study, large swaths of Yonge would remain under 5 stories.

Map:
http://www.toronto.ca/planning/pdf/Tall-buildings-map-downtownvision.pdf
Click to expand...

Yes, that sounds familiar but I was left with the impression that although the study is not officially approved, he may have an inkling that it's likely to be the working model (or close to it) going forward hence why he made the comment.

cdr108 said:
that's going to put a big damper on developers plans, or anyone who wanted to make big $$$ selling land along Yonge between Carlton and Bloor.

looks like they have bigger plans for Church and Jarvis streets, but limited to 35s.
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I can't speak of Jarvis Street but the presentations I've seen for Church Street above Wellesley (the general study area & surrounding areas for the 580-596 Church Street proposal) are considerably more rigid, depending on the exact area as heights can vary depending on exactly where a proposal may be located. Unless outside forces intervene (political, OMB etc.), most areas ripe for development are likely to be low-rise at best on Church St. (see map below or refer to the more detailed map link above).

Excerpt from the Tall Buildings report: "The lowest height range along High Streets is an As-ofright Height of 47 metres (15 storeys) and a Maximum Height of 77 metres (25 storeys). This is applicable to parts of Church and Jarvis Street, the east end of Front Street, and the eastern and western segments of Bloor Street. The prevailing character in these areas is generally lower in scale than other High Streets, and should continue to be developed at this scale."

Below, on Yonge from just north of College to just south of Bloor you'll see it is marked as a "Secondary Plan Area", not as a "High Street" or "Secondary High Street", same as Church Street from about Alexander Street to about Charles Street (re: the 580-596 Street St. proposal).

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge, then click again on the image for full size.

 
I think too many restrictions, will put a damper on a great market,... where projects are driven to compete with one another,...... to catch the buyers eye, is too make money....height brings cache', it speaks to ego....
'I live in the landmark known as..________.
Tall is a bold but simple way to catch an eye,...even architects....Cesar Pelli designed the Petronas towers cause the height intrigued him.
Sometimes regulation can, and should be left out of the equation, and the market will dictate more often than not whats gets built.
All towers should be revued,... but blanket policy can stagnate proposals, and designs before they reach the market, a case by case method would seem to be a better mode of regulation.
Also with density and property values so interwoven, and the risk taken on by developers, more should be done to encourage the worlds best, to come here, and when they do, a stupid blanket 25 story law, seems ridiculous and like lazy policing . Height is part of the value and seems wrong to blanket a good design.
A ridiculous building will not sell, and government builds some awful buiildings cause theirs no risk for such a project. Let demand dictate, not some beauraucrat from anywhere else but the streets they make rules for. If you want to live and walk in the city, that fact is not understood by a mall shopping, cul de sac living, off ramp runway living suit, working for a paycheck. Density, is always the best "long term " choice. The sustainability of the 20 th century metropolis, lies entirely on their ability to escape sprawl, and embrace community, block to block. not township to township.
 
CITY_LOVER said:
What does it mean for those white spaces between the highlighted areas? Are they unrestricted on height (for example, theoretically, can someone propose building a 60 story building north of College between Bay and Yonge?
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It's hard to say. I presume this was left blank in the study to give some areas some leeway or to not allow anything about 5 stories in these areas. As I understand the study, the density/building heights of Yonge Street and the Church Street around the village are intended to be maintained as they currently exist.
 
Toronto, even compared to the 905 is very residential condominium friendly even given the prices today which some may argue all low internationally - anyway the point is we shouldn't be making such decisions based on what suites developers even though yes to a certain degree it effects what they'll build.

Having said that I think this high restrictions are apprioprate in some areas - not all though, we'll need to wait for more details.

Something else to keep in mind - we've had some of these in place for a long time and as we know the OMB and the like can change things quickly.
 
From Councillor Wong-Tam's email newsletter:

9-21 Grenville:

o Proposal: Rezoning Application

o 49-storey condominium residential application

o Protection of heritage building at 21 Grenville

o Issues to be considered include: setbacks from sidewalk and height

o Open House and Community Consultation:

o Date: February 9, 2011

o Location: YMCA - 20 Grosvenor Street

o Time: TBD
 
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