A rezoning application to permit a 48-storey apartment building on the northeast corner of Eglinton Avenue West and Duplex Avenue was recently rejected at North York Community Council. City of Toronto staff wrote in a final report that the plans would overintensify the site and that it didn’t act as a transition to adjacent lower-scale uses.
After lowering the height of the original 53-storey proposal in May, Premium Properties Limited appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) when the city failed to respond. The application was to go on to Toronto City Council for final consideration late last month.
Local councillor Karen Stintz said that the current plans require significant revision. She pointed to the density, which is 22.9 times the area of the lot, as well as to traffic concerns relating to the use of a car stacker. The mechanical device parks vehicles in a way that increases parking capacity, and in this case, would accommodate five levels of underground parking.
“This [would be] the most dense building in the entire area,” Stintz said.
Bruce Engell, a lawyer for the applicant, said his client redesigned the building to address concerns about the original proposal and remains open to “meaningful” dialogue.
“Certainly the applicant is of the view that it’s an appropriate development in the growth centre. That’s where this kind of development is supposed to be,” Engell said.
Tom Cohen, president of the Eglinton Park Residents Association, cited a handful of design issues and described the proposed apartment building as being far too big. “If you put this building in, at two times the height of the Berkshire, which is the [22-storey apartment] building on Duplex, it just eats the sky,” he said. “It makes a very, very different impression on a residential neighbourhood from the much-discussed tall Minto tower.” The Minto lines up with other buildings to cast a single shadow on Orchard View Boulevard, Cohen explained.
