At a Toronto and East York Community Council meeting on May 14, Coun. Josh Matlow presented a request to designate 1909 Yonge St., the original J. J. Davis General Store and Post Office, a heritage site.
Matlow remarked that usually, when a City of Toronto councillor tables a motion to grant a building heritage designation, it’s a sign that the site has been eyed by a developer looking to create a new condo project. However, Matlow says he simply wanted to take the proactive step of protecting the building, constructed in 1894 as one of the first structures of the original Davisville Village.
“I’m not just speaking as a councillor, this is my neighbourhood,” said Matlow. “I don’t think that it’s unreasonable to suggest that a developer eventually will want to build at the corner of Yonge and Davisville, so let’s be proactive and protect it.”
The Yonge Street and Davisville Avenue area still consists mostly of low-rise retail stores, but development in the surrounding area is increasing. Only 600 metres away from the former general store lies the Art Shoppe, the furniture store at Yonge and Hillsdale Avenue at which Freed Developments has applied to build a pair of mixed-use buildings at 26 and 37 storeys. Matlow says that it may only a matter of time before development hits the Davisville village area.
A heritage designation would force property owners to apply to the City of Toronto before undertaking any structural alterations to any identified heritage elements. Community council has recommended that the city’s director of urban design examine and evaluate the property.
With a long queue of properties in Toronto awaiting evaluation, the property may not receive heritage designation for some time.
“The property has no status right now, so [developers] can certainly make an application,” said Sherry Pederson, preservation co-ordinator for the City of Toronto. She said that evaluations are often slow, due to sheer volume and a lack of staff: “We only have one person [researching], so really it is a matter of when she can get to it.”