Scarborough City Centre : Development News

Good news for urban winter sports enthusiasts: a new chairlift at Earl Bales Ski and Snowboard Centre drastically reduces lift wait times.  

"Four people can go up on every chair. They used to wait about 20 minutes at the bottom, and now the most they'll wait is 10," says Jeff Carmichael, recreation supervisor at the centre, which is located at Bathurst and Sheppard.

"We are really focused on customer service," Carmichael says. "If someone went down the hill in a minute or two and had to wait 20 minutes to get back up the hill, it wasn't an entirely positive experience."

The old, two-seat lift had been bought used in 1992 from Horseshoe Valley and had itself replaced a T-bar. According to Carmichael, the new lift has been in the capital planning process since 2004-05.

The seats, longtime city skiiers will be happy to hear, are now padded as well. Day passes are $30.

The $2.3-million park enhancement began operation on Dec. 31 and was officially opened by the mayor and Councillor Norm Kelly on Jan. 4.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Jeff Carmichael

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The suburban slabs are about to get prettier, and possibly happier.

Last year, the United Way issued a report called Poverty by Postal Code 2: Veritcal Poverty, in which they asserted that poverty is especially intransigent in the citys outer areas, and most particularly in the high-rise apartments there.

After interviewing 2,800 residents of such towers, the United Way determined that though most of these towers were solid structures and an asset to the city and its residents, there were both long- and short-term problems that needed to be resolved. Broader issues—like long-term housing strategies and neighbourhood-improving by-laws—take broader and longer-term approaches. But there were other complaints residents had that could be fixed pretty quickly.

"Residents told us they needed community space," says United Way president and CEO Susan McIsaac. "They wanted space where children could play, they wanted buildings that looked nicer, they wanted to reclaim some of the common space that had been lost to storage."

So they set aside $800,000 to make the slabs more livable, and this week, the costing is being figured out so that changes in the first two neighbourhoods in Rexdale (at a cluster of towers centred on 2667 Kipling) and Orton Park, can be completed within 12 months. Similar improvements to two other pilot areas, yet to be determined, could be done within 12 months of that.

An NFB production, called the Thousandth Tower, has also been produced in tandem with this tower renewal.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Susan McIsaac

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The French public school board broke ground this past weekend on yet another new school, this one in Scarborough.

"Finally after many talks and actions, we were able to put our hands on this lot that was separated from the TDSB," says Conseil Scolaire Viamonde's director of education Gyslaine Hunter-Perrault, referring to the 15-acre property that was divided into 10 acres for single-family home construction and about five acres for the French school board.

The design of the small, one-storey school, which will initially have about 200 students with a capacity of 300, is based on Carrefour des Jeunes, a school the board had built in Brampton about a decade ago. The architects are Robertson Simmons.

Like all its recently built schools, the new École élémentaire Laure-Rièse, named for the late Swiss-born professor at the University of Toronto's Victoria College, will include various ecologically conscientious elements. Hunter-Perrault says the question of whether they'll apply for LEED status has not been decided, since the application costs several thousand dollars, money which might be better spent elsewhere.

The school will replace the current Laure-Rièse on Morningside Drive, which had become over-crowded.

Construction started this week, and the school is scheduled to be ready for the beginning of the school year in 2013.

The lot is on Alton Towers Circle, near McCowan, just south of Steeles.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Gyslaine Hunter-Perrault

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Centennial Arena in Scarborough got a $50,000 boost last week when Lowe's presented the city with a cheque to fund its renovation.

Part of a nationwide marketing scheme and partnership with Hockey Canada, the North Carolina-based home improvement chain gives out two such cheques a year to hockey arenas across the country.

Lowe's has been operating in Canada since 2007.

"The key upgrade is the installation of what's known as a low-emissive ceiling, a 'low-e' ceiling," says Rob Richardson, manager of partnership development for the city's Parks and Forestry department. "It's a reflective ceiling that adds a number of benefits to the facility, most importantly its energy efficiency. Some of the side benefits are that it also increases the lighting levels. We're hoping it may have some additional benefits to the sound in the arena. Arenas are notorious for echoey sound."

Part of the Lowe's program is to encourage community involvement in the project, so on June 2 and 3, neighbourhood volunteers will clean up the arena and paint hallways and locker rooms.

Richardson says all the work will be done by the end of summer, and that there will be a re-opening celebration in September.

The mayor was represented at the handover ceremony last week by councillor Mike Del Grande, who told Yonge Street, "It's always great to have private interests collaborate to help the city in which they do business."

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Rob Richardson, Mike Del Grande


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The ever-expanding French public school system is taking over two formerly English-language schools in Toronto.

The two schools, both primary, are the former St. Josaphat Cathedral school west of Symington between Dupont and Davenport, and the McCowan Road Public School just north of McCowan and Eglinton. As of September, they will be known, temporarily, as École Dundas-ouest and Scarborough sud, respectively.

"Viamonde doesn't select a name until part way through the opening year," says Miguel Ladouceur, the director of building maintenance and planning for the board, known as the Conseil scolaire Viamonde. "We allow the school community to determine the name."

For the first year, Viamonde will be sharing the former Josaphat with its current occupants, Toronto Catholic District School Board, who will be leasing part of the building from them until they find new spots for their students. The former McCowan will be leased from the Toronto District School Board for the first year, while certain city planning technicalities are worked out.

According to Ladouceur, major renovation work will wait until the summer of 2013.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Miguel Ladouceur

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An Aboriginal childcare centre in Scarborough has made it to the list of finalists for the Toronto Green Awards.

Designed by Levitt Goodman Architects, the Scarborough Child and Family Life Centre was built on land owned by Native Child and Family Services of Toronto, who worked with the architects to come up with the various recognized amenities and features.

The building has been shortlisted in the green design category.

"We've been working with them for about 10 years now," says Levitt Goodman associate Danny Bartman, who worked on the project with firm partner Dean Goodman. "We recently completed their headquarters and College and Bay.

"One of the main things is because they are the building owners and operators, they were interested in geothermal heating and cooling. Although it required an increased capital investment, it saves them about $10,000 a year on operating costs."

In addition to the geothermal system, Levitt Goodman worked with civil engineers Fabian Papa and Partners to construct of swale  to contain the rain, roof and other site water in order to, as Bartman puts it, infiltrate it back into the water table. The riverbed snakes along the playground they also constructed, which consists of earth berms, log bridges, sand mountains and teaching gardens featuring traditional plantings to teach the children about their heritage.

The 7,000-square-foot, two-storey building was built on the Kingston Road site between May 2010 and October 2011.

The winners of the various categories of the Toronto Green Awards will be announced on April 13.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Danny Bartman

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Nominations opened this week for the 2012 Green Toronto Awards, though the most interesting category from the 2011 edition has been dropped.

Last year, the awards expanded to include a green homes category, aimed at individuals who had done something remarkable to or with their own homes.

"It wasn't our strongest category," says Jessica Chow, co-ordinator for the city-sponsored awards. "We don’t know why. We noticed a lot of them were, 'Oh, I recycle in my home.' It wasn't really what we were after."

So this year, it's been folded into the more general green design category, where individual homes will now compete with eco clothing, green roofs and other design innovations.

Nominations can be submitted here until midnight on Feb. 6. Winners will be announced in March.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Jessica Chow

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The public will get another opportunity to consider and either approve or oppose the plan to add 162 three-storey townhouses to a plot of formerly industrial land in Scarborough.

The final report requesting the rezoning required to add considerably to the residential density at Ellesmere and Midland is being submitted to Scarborough Community Council and the interested public on Nov. 2.

There have been several changes to the proposal since Yonge Street first reported on the project in April, including the addition of what’s known as a "common element" laneway, owned jointly by the townhouse proprietors.

The report has been submitted by the Goldman Group and Monarch Group for a plot of industrial-zoned land owned by Goldman Ellesmere Developments Inc.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Carly Bowman


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Scarborough has a new community centre.

The Warden Hilltop Community Centre, at 25 Mendelsson St. near Warden and St. Clair, opened last week in a ceremony presided over by the ward’s councillor, Michelle Berardinetti.

Designed by a team led by Paul Cravit in conjunciton with project manager Abdul Kaderali of CS&P Architects and built by Maystar Construction, the centre, which cost about $9 million to build, has a large gymnasium as well as space for a preschool, a dance studio, a weight room and a teaching kitchen.

"We wanted it to be something that had an impact on the community and on the setting," Kaderali says of the one-storey building that began construction at the end of 2009 and was completed in July.

It was also designed to comply with LEED Silver environmental criteria, with several green features, including geothermal heating and a movement sensor-activated system of lights.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Michelle Berardinetti

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As of this week, the University of Toronto's Scarborough campus has a little more space for its swelling student body.

The Instructional Centre cost $78 million, of which $70 million came from the federal and provincial governments, will add 13 classroom, 7 labs and 90 offices to the university's suburban campus, whose undergraduate enrollment has grown from about 5,000 in 2001 to 10,400 for the coming year.

Construction began on the 150,000 square foot Diamond and Schmitt-designed buildings in September, 2009, and people started using the buildings last March.

"Once we had occupancy, there was still the moving in the furnishings, getting all the classrooms set up," says UTSC's chief strategy officer Andrew Arifuzzaman.

"It's put us on a firm footing for growth as we move forward," he says.

The centre also has a restaurant facing Military Trail at Ellesmere, which is open to both students and the community at large.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Andrew Arifuzzaman

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A community centre being expanded by a religious organization devoted to a recently deceased guru with millions of followers worldwide has received a big boost from the provincial government.

The Sai Baba Centre is an Indian-based operation organized around the teachings of Sathyanarayana Raju, aka Sri Sathya Sai Baba, who claimed to be the reincarnation of another spiritual leader who died 8 years before Raju was born.

The community centre, which received the $489,300 grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation's Community Capital Fund, is meant to serve the South Asian community in Scarborough with health, youth and various other social services programs.

According to the centre's president, Mohana Thirukesan, the building at 5321 Finch Avenue will be expanded by about 40 per cent from its current 28,000 square feet. The centre has no payroll, relying on about 500 volunteers, doing good works such as providing hot meals to shelters, visiting the elderly and teaching youth "human values based on Baba's teachings," says Thirukesan. The expansion will allow the volume of these free services to increase, offering lessons to 900 youth, for instance, instead of the current 700.

Sai Baba's teachings took principles from Hinduism and Islam, and its logo, which includes the motto "Love all, serve all, help ever, hurt never", also includes the Star of David.

Upon his death in April, Sai Baba, whose miracles involving conjuring had recently been debunked, was found to have been in possession of, among other things, 500 pairs of shoes, 750 robes and hundreds of kilograms of gold, silver and gems.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source:

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A public meeting was held Monday to discuss the rezoning application that would see the construction of a new neighbourhood at Ellesmere and Midland.

The Goldman Group and the Monarch Group submitted the applications -- there are three of them in total -- earlier this year to rezone the 3.7 hectares of land. If the application is approved as is, the plot will be developed into 162 town houses, significantly increasing the density of this part of Scarborough.

The meeting, part of the approvals process, was attended by Councillor Michael Thompson.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: City of Toronto

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The corner of Ellesmere and Midland may have a lot more going for it if three applications currently under consideration get approved.

Submitted by the Goldman Group and Monarch Group for a plot of industrial-zoned land owned by Goldman Ellesmere Developments Inc., the application to amend the zoning bylaw, the plan of subdivision and the site plan approval, all submitted in February, are geared to make way for 162 new townhouses of up to thee storeys.

The corner lot will, if things go according to the developer's plan, also include a new series of public streets and lanes to accommodate the townhomes.

One application they didn't have to submit was to amend the official plan. According to city planner Carly Bowman, who takes care of central Scarborough, "it's zoned mixed use, and mixed use contemplates the type of use that's proposed." If they get approval, and the development ends up being successful, we can expect other density intensifying projects to move into this still fairly sparse part of the city.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Carly Bowman

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Beginning this week, Victoria Park Avenue between Kingston and Winston roads will have reduced northbound capacity until July.

The east boulevard is being dug up in order to replace the water mains, which is expected to cost the city $430,000.

According to Salima Jivraj, a senior engineer with the city, "The water main was identified for upgrade as the existing water main was considered substandard in size, and therefore was planned for upgrade."

The project is one of several commencing this month and next, part of the annual spring fling of road works.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source; Salima Jivraj

Do you know of a new building going up, a business expanding or being renovated, a park in the works or even a new house being built in the neighbourhood? Please send your development news tips to bert@yongestreetmedia.ca.
paul baron - century21 - paul.baron@century21.ca 416 849

The LCBO is re-locating and expanding its Eglinton Square store.

Due to open Dec. 9, the new space, at Eglinton and Lebovic, near Pharmacy, will be a standalone shop, in keeping with the LCBO's current program of moving out of mall spaces.

The new shop will have 8,600 square feet of shopping space, compared to Eglinton Square's 3,700, which will be able to house roughly double the number of products, as well as a full-time "product consultant."

"With the increase in population over the years and changing tastes, [including] increased interest in premium products and home entertaining," says LCBO spokesman Chris Layton, "a new larger store with a full range of services was warranted to meet our current and future needs in this community."

The old store, which has been at Victoria Park and Eglinton since 1983, will close for good at its regular time this evening.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Chris Layton


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