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The City of Toronto is reviewing a revised zoning application to permit a 17-storey residential building on an underused site at 11 Pleasant Boulevard just across from the St Clair subway station. Three years after its first submission, Resident (formerly "Plaza Partners") is proposing a new design by BDP Quadrangle that will bring additional units and a language of arches to the Deer Park neighbourhood.
The 525 m² site is located on the south side of Pleasant Boulevard, just east of Yonge Street. It is currently occupied by a one-storey “Circle K” convenience store and a surface parking lot. In February 2021, Plaza Partners submitted a Zoning By-law Amendment application to permit the redevelopment of the site with a 14-storey residential mixed-use building, comprised of 72 residential units and 65 m² of retail space on the ground floor.
Immediately to the east of this lot is a municipally owned Green P parking garage (pictured above in grey with black voids at each level) which is built over the Yonge Line 1 subway. The garage lot is said to be in play for redevelopment, possibly to be combined with the Resident holdings at 11 Pleasant Boulevard. Development industry speculation posted in our thread for this site is that this resubmission advances a plan that could be pursued should a combined redevelopment of the two adjacent lots not come about for any reason.
Since the initial submission, the area the site is found within has been designated as a Major Transit Station Area (MTAS) where greater densities are encouraged by the Province. Other nearby proposals, also within the MTSA and all on larger sites, are working their way through the planning approvals process, and are illustrated in the Block Context Plan below, including:
- 29-39 Pleasant Boulevard: approved at 35 storeys (121m); proposed at 50 storeys (172m);
- 1366 Yonge Street: proposed at 41 storeys (135m);
- 1406-1428 Yonge Street: approved at 50 storeys (155m); and
- 33 Rosehill Avenue and 44 Jackes Avenue: approved 29 storeys (99m); proposed at 35 storeys (112m).
In their Planning Rationale, the developers justify the intensification of the 11 Pleasant project citing "its location within a strategic growth area, and its proximity to six existing frequent and higher-order transit services." Now, the team’s revised proposal, submitted in early-July, consists of a 17-storey residential building, with an overall height of 62.75m (inclusive of a wrapped mechanical penthouse). The development includes a total residential gross floor area of 5,817 m² (for a net density of 11.07 FSI), along with 87 residential units. The proposal no longer includes a retail space on the ground floor.
New architectural elevations from BDP Quadrangle feature large arched windows of various sizes and indicate that coloured metal / terracotta cladding will be used, with further detail to be provided in the Site Plan Approval submission. To the east, the proposal provides for a party wall condition that would have no light, view or privacy impacts on any future, adjacent redevelopment.
Across floors 2 through 17, the building would house 87 (up from 72) residential dwelling units, in a mix of 7 studio (8%), 50 one-bedroom (57%), 21 two-bedroom (24%) and 9 three-bedroom (10%). Both the ground and mezzanine floors include a total 133 m² indoor amenity space at the north end of the building (along Pleasant Boulevard). The Mechanical Penthouse floor includes additional 140 m² indoor amenity space and an 83 m² outdoor terrace at the building’s south end.
Given the proximity of the site to existing transit infrastructure, zero residential or visitor parking spaces are proposed. However, 136 bicycle parking spaces are included.
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: | BDP Quadrangle, Bousfields, Counterpoint Engineering, Resident, RWDI Climate and Performance Engineering, STUDIO tla |
