Plans for the ‘Big Hole’ get official hearing
by Carole Stimmel

The rezoning application for a proposed development of 2055/2057 Danforth Avenue had its first official public consultation meeting on March 3 at the Terry Fox Community Centre. However, because of local interest in development of what neighbours refer to as ‘The Big Hole’, Councillor Bussin had already arranged a number of pre-consultation hearings, one for the general public on Nov. 2, 2009 to get a look at the general scope and direction of the application and one of Feb. 17 for residents and stakeholders living close to the site to discuss specific details and possible refinements.

The application proposal by JFC Properties requests permission to construct a 12 storey mixed-use building with retail stores at grade, 141 residential units and a two-level underground garage with 120 parking spaces.

Leontine Major, the senior planner for the area, told the audience of about 70 that since the application was submitted, TACT Architects have been working with the city to satisfy the concerns of the planning department and other city agencies. Major said that the proposed project required a rezoning for the site because it would exceed the current density permitted by three times on the front portion of the site, and the current height limit by 24 metres.

While the proposal might seem to be oversized and out of character for a street consisting mostly of two to three storey buildings, Prish Jain, from TACT Architects, told the audience that the site of the former Woodine Building Supplies was unique on the Danforth because of its size and because the property also included access off Woodbine.

Jain said that some of the earlier proposals for the site called for low-rise residential units covering the entire property. This would have resulted in a ‘house behind a house’ – a development style that inevitably results in loss of setback and privacy for both new and existing homes.

The current plan trades off development of the southern portion of the site for additional height on the Danforth. Under this proposal, the southern half of the site, which abuts single family residences on Moberly and Woodbine, would be used for access to the underground parking and a drop-off/pick-up area, but the majority of the space would be garden with a large number of trees used to buffer neighbouring backyards.

Only a small portion of the building would be 12 storeys. The structure, both to the north (directly on the Danforth) and to the south would be four-storeys, stepping up to six and eight storeys with a centre core reaching 12 storeys.
The proposal calls for three retail units, similar in scale and size to other retail outlets on the Danforth. “[The frontage] was designed to emulate patterns in the neighbourhood,” said Jain.

Jain said that, since the original application had been submitted, a number of modifications had been made at the request of the planning department and in response to the concerns of immediate neighbours.

Jain said that portions of the building would be further stepped back. Additional trees had been added to the landscape design and the vent for the underground garage had been moved to help satisfy some of the concerns of neighbours expressed at the Feb. 17 meeting.

At the March 3 meeting, immediate neighbours had questions about details such as what materials the fence around the site would be made of and how high the retaining wall and fence would be. The architect said that, as long as all of the neighbours agreed on the height and treatment of the fence, they would do their best to accommodate them. However, he told them, that while he could understand why they would want an eight-foot fence at the moment, once the property was developed, the area of concern would be a garden.

“You might not want such a tall fence then,” he pointed out.

While some neighbours had moved on to minutiae, others could not get their minds around the overall height of the building.

“It’s huge,” said one woman. “It’s going to have a great impact.” Another said that they “liked Danforth’s low density."

Major told the audience some hard truths. “You will see streets like Danforth changing.” She said that with Toronto expected to grow by two million people, the city is studying new zoning bylaws for avenues such as the Danforth. This would allow eight to nine storey buildings to be constructed as-of-right along streets such as the Danforth and Queen.

Bussin said that there was still time to have input on the project before it went to council for a vote.