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The Scarborough Bluffs are one of Toronto’s hidden gems and well worth the trek out east. In recent years, the neighbouring Cliffside community along Kingston Road has been primed for development after a period of decline. With the goal of a vibrant mixed-use community in mind, Equiton has submitted a Zoning By-law Amendment application for 2257 Kingston Road to the City of Toronto. The proposal would transform the current plaza west of Midland Avenue into residential building.
On the southwest corner of Kingston Road and Ridgemoor Avenue, the site is home to a plaza standing one to two storeys. The rectangular site is about 4,091m² in area, with frontage along Kingston Road of around 80m. The plaza is setback about 22m from Kingston Road for a surface parking lot.
The application characterizes the property as under-utilized, and the design by Icon Architects proposes replacing the plaza with a 13-storey residential building standing 43.31m high. The design calls for east and west wings that would be approximately 21.9m apart. This intensification would mean 318 residential units and about 24,141m² of Gross Floor Area, of which 805m² would be commercial.
Four commercial units are proposed for the ground floor fronting Kingston Road, along with the residential lobby. The ground floor would also include indoor amenity space, with the eighth floor featuring both indoor and outdoor amenities, for a total of 1,475m² throughout the site.
The mid-rise building would have a four-storey street-wall along Kingston Road, with it stepping back 2.5m at the fifth floor and 1.5m at the 13th level. The proposal utilizes larger step-backs on the neighbourhood side, as seen below, to better transition to the neighbouring low-rise homes.
Two levels of underground parking would house 221 parking spaces, with 32 allocated to visitors and 8 for retail. In addition, the design proposes 246 bicycle parking spaces, with 28 being short-term. Vehicles would access the parking garage via the main driveway from East Haven Drive.
Kingston Road is the area's major east-west arterial road, that takes on a 45° turn from the city's arterial grid to parallel the shoreline of Lake Ontario to the south. In the east it merges with the 401 to provide access to eastern municipalities of the Greater Toronto Area. For those taking transit, this site is serviced by bus routes that connect to the Danforth Line 2 subway. Another travel option is via Scarborough GO station, about 1.4 km to the north, which provides service to downtown Toronto or further east towards Oshawa.
The proposal argues that the design is in line with policy directions that promote the redevelopment and intensification of under-utilized areas like this site, and that the residential building would be an opportunity to revitalize the area and further develop Cliffside.
UrbanToronto will continue to follow progress on this development, but in the meantime, you can learn more about it from our Database file, linked below. If you'd like, you can join in on the conversation in the associated Project Forum thread or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.
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| Related Companies: | Bousfields, Counterpoint Engineering, Icon Architects, RWDI Climate and Performance Engineering |
