Lots of changes are happening in Leaside, or could happen depending on what happens at the Ontario Municipal Board. Currenly before the OMB is a proposal to replace the heritage- designated Talbot Apartments on Bayview Avenue with an 8-storey condo tower and condo townhouses.
On Thursdsay Dec. 10 at 6:30, a public meeting will be held at Leaside Library concerning another development site at 85 Laird Drive, part of which is occupied by a heritage rail maintenance facility. The site at one time was going to be used for a car sales facility but that plan went down with the demise of General Motors. First Capital is proposing to a 180,000 retail power centre for the site with 928 surface and below grade parking stalls. The city wants to maintain the area as an employment centre but the days of industry in this former industrial park seem numbered. I would love to see a Liberty Village type of development with loft condos, small offices, and some bars utilizing some of the heritage buildings.
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Hello Craig,
ReplyDeleteHow do you think the community can go about accomplishing this?
It seems from this (http://www.mytowncrier.ca/residents-wary-of-shopping-centre-plan.html) that Councillor Parker has already made up his mind favourably (although I'd love to hear otherwise) about something that (at 180.000 sq.ft and approaching 1000 parking) is far, far removed from Liberty Village.
The community is - very correctly, if you ask me - worried about traffic which is already horrendous around Laird, Eglinton, and Bayview - and seemingly worsening by the month. These 900+ extra (!) parking spots come on top of many 100s more that are either already there but not fully used (Laird & Wicksteed) or likely to be created elsewhere (north of Wicksteed; elsewhere along Lair; who knows where else). Not to mention everybody keeps mentiong the 'W' word (Walmart) as this is a SmartCentre area?
Let's note that all this development will come to full fruition right around the time they'll start digging up all of neighbouring Eglinton for a year or more to put in the LRT...
The meeting in Thursday was (IMHO) quite poorly announced (received my flyer on Monday) - and everything I hear around here is that people have already given up on getting their voices heard.
I'm not there myself, but most people indeed think this Public Meeting - with limited notice and right before the holidays - is a developer set-up...