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Diamond Corp has proposed a twin residential tower complex fronting three side streets just to the southwest of Glencairn station on University Line 1. An assembly of seven lots, each with a low-rise, single-detached house, the TACT Architecture-designed proposal calls for one tower of 38 storeys and another of 40 storeys to rise from a shared 5-storey podium.
The site addressed to 15 Romar Crescent but also made up of 17 and 19 Romar, 18, 20, and 22 Benner Avenue, and 8 Stayner Avenue, is immediately west of Benner Park, which was created when what was then the Spadina Expressway and is now Allen Road was carved in the 1960s through this low-rise subdivision west of the Forest Hill area in North York. Occupying a narrow strip where homes were demolished for the expressway but not needed for the road itself, Benner Park is mostly used by pedestrians going between homes on connecting streets with Glencairn station.
To the south, slab-style apartment buildings in the 20- to 25-storey range have long risen along Ridelle Avenue, while single family homes have persisted on Stayner, Benner, and Romar, as well as on Viewmount Avenue a block to the north from which Glencairn station is accessed. In recent years, however, Viewmount between Allen Road and Marlee Avenue just to the west has seen four development proposals for towers of between 33 and 40 storeys on other lot assemblies. All, including the 15 Romar application, are taking advantage of provincial policy the encourages redevelopment with greater density near subway stations through Major Transit Station Area designations.
On the irregularly shaped 15 Romar lot, a Total Gross Floor Area (FGA) of 57,447m² is planned, all of it residential. (Ground floor commercial space is found in buildings along Marlee Avenue, a short walk to the west.) The proposed GFA gives a Floor Space Index of 13.63 times coverage of the 4,124m² lot. Indoor amenity space of 1,750m² (1.8m² per unit) and outdoor amenity space of 1,672m² (1.7m² per unit) is proposed, each under the 2.0m² per unit the City looks for. The City also looks for tower floor-plates of 750m² to minimize shadows around the buildings, which the 129.3m-tall South Tower meets, while the 135.3m-tall North Tower is proposed with a 795.2m² floor-plate.
The 15 Romar application would bring 966 units in total to the site, 74% of which are proposed as one-bedroom, 17% as two-bedroom, and 9% as three-bedroom layouts. (The City is normally looking for a minimum of 15% two-bedroom and 10% three-bedroom layouts.) Eight elevators are proposed to service the complex, giving a ratio of one elevator for every 121 suites. Quite high speed motors would be required to provide quick enough service for that number of suites.
With its proximity to Glencairn station, only 229 parking spaces are proposed in the three-level underground garage, 11 of which would be for guests. 655 spaces for bicycling parking would be built, with 104 of them provided for guests. North-South bike lanes are found on Marlee Avenue about 100 metres to the west, with East-West lanes on Roselawn Avenue a few blocks south connecting to portions of the adjacent Beltline Trail and the city's slowing growing cycling network.
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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