DESPITE SIGNIFICANT REVISIONS to the plans for the five mixed-use buildings destined for a site near Yonge Street and Steeles Avenue, council and members of the community still aren’t sure the Liberty Development Corp. designs are appropriate for the community.
At a public meeting on Feb. 24, Steven Kirshenblatt, a partner with Kirkor Architects and Planners, presented designs to local residents. Plans include a reduced height and density for the buildings that will house more than 3,000 new people in the area. The idea, Kirshenblatt said, is to create a neighbourhood where people can work and live in the same vicinity.
“This development will create a new commercial retail centre for the community,” he said. “A new hotel is planned to serve visitors to the neighbourhood. It will provide an alternate form of housing for new residents that will allow for a much more sustainable future where people can live, shop and work without the need for an automobile.”
Kirshenblatt emphasized that the tallest towers in the development now meet the 100- metre limit set out by the Yonge Street and Steeles Avenue corridor study completed by the Town of Markham.
Those towers would be 31 storeys, with a nine-storey podium that would link them, and would front Yonge Street. A 22- storey office building and hotel would be constructed north of those towers. Two more residential towers, one 27 storeys and another 16, would front Meadowview Road and would be linked by an eight-storey podium.
The buildings will be constructed to a LEED silver level, the architect said, and there will be green roofs and an irrigation system that reuses rainwater. But some residents in the neigbouring community are concerned that the increase in traffic still needs to be addressed.
“We cannot accommodate any more traffic into the south Thornhill area,” said Marilyn Ginsburg of the Grandview Area Residents’ Association. She said the project was planned in conjunction with the Yonge Street subway extension, which isn’t guaranteed to be built.
She’s also concerned that the plans, with the tallest buildings on the south end of the property, will create a wall between her neighbourhood and the development.
“The problem with the design is that it closes it all in,” she said. “It ghettoizes it from the rest of the community.”
Coun. Valerie Burke said there are many positive aspects of the development, such as the three public parks and underground parking included in the designs. However, the architecture could use some work, she said.
“I’m worried about the architecture. I want to be honest. But it is just blue glass. There is no imagination, and these buildings are going to be there for a long time.”
Finally, the current sewer infrastructure cannot withstand any more sewage, she said, and needs a costly overhaul.
“This sewer infrastructure is not capable of handling that development.”
Liberty has already scheduled a hearing at the Ontario Municipal Board in May. Burke said staff and the developer are trying to resolve as many issues as possible before the hearing.
