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voxpopulicosmicum

voxpopulicosmicum

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Didn't see another thread started yet, so here goes...

Just returned from the second of Adam Vaughan's two "pre-application development proposal presentations" this week. On tonight's roster were this site, the Joker site, 287/291 Richmond W / 117 Peter and 21-31 Widmer.

Greywood's proposal (designed and presented by BBB) for this 21,000 sf site is for a 38-storey building consisting of a 6-storey rectangular podium running west from John along Mercer with a glass clad 32-storey point tower with a square hat. The western three-fourths of the podium will be clad in red brick combined with large square windows and will contain 38 live-work units of approx. 1500-1700 sf. The eastern portion of the podium will be clad in limestone with punched out windows that are equivalent in size to those in the brick-clad portion. The eastern face of the podium on John will be of a larger scale with "upscale" retail tenants at ground level. The point tower has a floorplate of 8,000 sf (just over one-third of the site) and will be massed at the eastern end of the site atop the limestone-clad portion of the podium. A green roof with trees, a daycare centre and a skating rink is planned for the western half of the podium.

I've requested renders.
 
The site is a parking lot right now. I have been wondering when this lot will be developed.
 
To be honest....

I don't think Vaughan minds condos. I just think he has a problem with condos that are designed for either singles or couples but not families. That seems to be his main beef with them.
 
Just returned from the second of Adam Vaughan's two "pre-application development proposal presentations" this week. On tonight's roster were this site, the Joker site, 287/291 Richmond W / 117 Peter and 21-31 Widmer.
Click to expand...
Pardon my ignorance, but where do you find out about these presentations? On the City website I assume? I'll soon be moving into Vaughan's ward and would love to attend some future presentations.
 
Why exactly is this clown councillor of this ward? He seems to hate everything it's about...
 
Do 905-clubbers that frequent the club district vote for adam v? No. That explains everything. Besides, isn't Miss. supposed to be a "real" city now? Then why not spread the love (and bullets and noise) around with clubs in MCC?

But politics aside, I'm happy to see more innovative attractive buildings fill up eyesore parking lots and eliminate noisy obnoxious people!
 
Vox thank you for all the updates. This area is certainly going to change tremendously in the next few years.
 
Darkstar416 said:
Pardon my ignorance, but where do you find out about these presentations? On the City website I assume? I'll soon be moving into Vaughan's ward and would love to attend some future presentations.
Click to expand...

I signed up for the Councillor's e-mail list through his office. Try e-mailing Councillor_Vaughan@toronto.ca and asking to be added to the mailing list. I have to warn you, though, the updates aren't limited to development proposals.
 
Vox, your updates and information is very much appreciated. thanks for the posts!
 
gei said:
Why exactly is this clown councillor of this ward? He seems to hate everything it's about...
Click to expand...

I don't think you've got a good read on Councillor Vaughan. He certainly is in favour of reducing the number of clubs the KSSP area, and so are his constituents (see urbandreamer's comment about whether the clubgoers from Mississauga are part of Vaughan's constituency). As tkip posted above, his beef about condos (and Cityplace condos in particular) is that they are too small to house families. He worries that the lack of family-sized units in the area will result in transient populations who will flee to the 'burbs as soon as they have kids.

One of the strategies Vaughan discussed last night to combat ^that phenomenon was using Section 37 cash to subsidize some of the larger units so that the area maintains a diverse socio-economic mix of residents.

I'm very impressed with Vaughan's ability to get people talking to each other to solve and pre-empt problems. These "pre-application" sessions are innovative and interesting, and they lead to improved proposals. The original Joker site proposal, for example, was ho-hum. Vaughan (with some good urban design advisors behind the scenes) went back to the developer and said "Do something better." Four months later, Habitat Toronto was introduced. I suspect that Greywood/BBB will be re-working their proposal for this site in response to comments received at last night's presentation.

Finally, let's not forget that Vaughan has been in office for 1/4 of his first term, in a ward that seems like it has as much proposed development as the rest of the city combined. He has to deal with gang wars and 50,000 club patrons invading the ward every weekend. The local police (52 division) are in the midst of rooting out decades of corruption that extend to the highest levels of the force, with some high-profile trials to begin this month. He has been drafted as the mayor's unofficial guard dog to slap that douchebag Councillor Minnan-Wong when his stupidity overflows (which is always).

Vaughan is doing an incredible job.
 
Vaughan does seem to be a decent councillor, even if I wish his zeal to destroy Clubland were a little less...zealous. Important to keep in perspective that, as Vox mentions, the extent of development in his ward is staggering. I remember him saying something about 75 or so active applications. Kind of makes it look ridiculous when the likes of Jane Pitfield scream bloody murder over out-of-control development because someone wants to build a 6-story condo.
 
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