Morguard Investments recently submitted an application to build an 83-storey, mixed-use building at 50 Bloor St. W., the site of the Holt Renfrew Centre. The move came in spite of a request from the local councillor that the developer hold off on filing the application.
An official plan amendment and zoning bylaw amendment have been requested to permit the development, which would include a tower with 600 residential units, an eight-storey podium dedicated to commercial and office uses, and 620 underground parking spaces.
The proposed height is 277 metres. According to the city planner handling the file, the site is currently zoned for up to 61 metres.
Coun. Kristyn Wong-Tam doesn’t intend to schedule a public meeting until the current proposal is revised to better reflect what the city can seriously contemplate. Although she liked the way retail was treated in the plans, she raised concerns about public realm — particularly in light of the recent multi-million-dollar Bloor Street transformation — and servicing.
“There was great discomfort around the massing and density and height,” she said.
Ian Carmichael, co-president of the ABC Residents’ Association, said he believes the area’s taller buildings belong on Yonge Street and Bloor Street, but he also believes the city needs to develop a secondary plan to identify what heights are appropriate and where.
“Because our planning process is based on site-specific planning, we have zoning, but zoning means nothing really,” he said. “The problem always is, now that you have an 80-storey building on Bloor, is a 40-storey building on Bay [in a residential neighbourhood] now appropriate?”
Once the application is finalized, city staff will provide Toronto and East York Community Council with a preliminary report, which will set in motion the public consultation process. Interview requests to Morguard Investments went unreturned at press time.
