Birch Cliff residents will soon get a chance to review plans to build a 10-storey condo with ground-level shops along Kingston Road just east of Victoria Park Avenue.
With 169 apartments and 1,800 square metres of retail space, the building would extend to the corner of Blantyre Avenue, replacing the 75-year-old Alpine Hotel that closed in June of 2011. A public hearing about the plan is scheduled for July 4.
Ward 36 councillor Gary Crawford says he hopes the new building brings more business to Kingston Road, taking it one step closer to the vibrant ‘Main Street’ feel of nearby Queen Street East and Danforth Avenue.
“Revitalization and development is happening,” he said. “It will change within the next five years.”
Crawford said that although it is still early, he hopes construction on the proposed condo can start while the reconstruction of Kingston Road is still underway, minimizing traffic problems. Major roadwork is expected to continue on Kingston Road from Victoria Park Avenue to Birchmount Road until November of 2014.
In a related move, the Scarborough Community Council voted in the final touches to the Kingston Road revitalization plan last Wednesday.
The plan, which has been in the works since 2005, revises the zoning along Kingston Road to allow for three areas of unbroken ground-floor shops and higher density buildings with heights of up to eight storeys. Many parts of Kingston Road had been zoned as a highway—a hold-over from the years before Highway 401 became Toronto’s major route east.
Speaking as a long-time resident of Scarborough and previously of the Beach, Crawford said he is confident Kingston Road can attract new business because he has seen other east-end neighbourhoods do the same.
“When I moved into the Beaches 30 years ago, you couldn’t find a coffee shop on Queen Street,” he said.
For the time and place of the public hearing on the 1092 Kingston Road development proposal, visit www.toronto.ca.
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