Public meeting on redevelopment plans for Danforth Avenue heritage building slated

By MATTHEW STEPHENS

A public meeting on a proposal to build four-storey and eight-storey buildings, including a two-storey heritage building reconstruction, on the north side of Danforth Avenue between Dawes Road and Main Street will be held on Tuesday, July 8.

The meeting is set for 10 a.m. at Toronto City Hall’s Committee Room 1, and will take place prior to a meeting of the Toronto and East York Community Council which will make a final decision on the application for the site at 2720-2734 Danforth Ave.

The two proposed buildings will be organized around a central courtyard, with a total of 64 rental units and no vehicular parking.

Structural design will see the existing heritage building connected to an adjoining four-storey building used as the residential lobby entrance, with a street-facing amenity space at grade.

The rear of the building will have an exterior staircase connecting to the ground-level courtyard located at the centre of the development.

The heritage building at the site, at 2726 Danforth Ave., is the former Little York Hotel.

Dating to the mid-19th century, the building is a “rare surviving example of a pre-Confederation era building in the city and a unique remnant of the hotel/inn typology located near the historic intersection of Danforth and Dawes Road. The design, style and materiality exhibited at the upper-storey level of the original building typifies Georgian architecture while remnant structural members associated with construction methods that pre-date the mass production of machined lumber are still present in the basement,” said a 2022 city report on a heritage designation for the building.

“The adjacent two-storey main street commercial row building dating to c.1886 and located at 2734 Danforth Avenue is likewise representative of the mid- to late-19th century local streetscape, with brick-clad wood-frame construction and Victorian-era decorative wooden detailing,” said the report.

The proposal application was first submitted back in 2020 for a nine-storey mixed use development under planning and urban design firm Weston Consulting.

Developer Collecdev-Markee Developments has now taken over the project.

The plan proposes dividing the 64 rental units into 55 per cent two-bedroom, 42 per cent one-bedroom, and three per cent studio apartments. The proposal is expected to designate 10 per cent of the units as affordable.

Residents are welcome to attend the July 8 public meeting, or they can watch it by video conference. To watch the meeting online, please go to https://www.youtube.com/TorontoCityCouncilLive

Those wishing to speak at the meeting must register by email to teycc@toronto.ca, or by phone at 416-392-7033 no later than 12 p.m. on July 7.

Members of the public may also send written comments by email to teycc@toronto.ca, or by mail to Toronto and East York Community Council, 100 Queen St. W., 2nd floor, West Tower, Toronto ON, M5H 2N2.