city building : Development News

Louise Russo Park is getting new playground equipment as part of a rash of playground and park improvements being funded in-part by soon-to-expire federal funds.

The equipment at former Flindon Park, re-named four years ago in honour of Russo, who was paralyzed by a fragment of a bullet meant for someone else at California Sandwiches in 2004, has been designed with disabled children in mind.

"It's a very old park," says Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti, in whose ward it is, "and it was at the top of the list to get a new, freshly built playground."

Mammoliti estimates that the cost of the refurbishment, which was officially unveiled yesterday, was about $110,000.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Giorgio Mammoliti


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Strathburn Park, 6 acres in the Weston and Sheppard area, got a $175,000 facelift this month, including a new playground, with money from developers and the federal government.

Though the contract was awarded last fall, construction didn't begin until May.

"This is the one community park in that residential area," says David Nosella, the city's supervisor of capital projects, describing the area as stably residential with exclusively single-family dwellings. "It serves the whole area from the 401 up to Sheppard."

According to Nosella, there was $100,000 set aside in the capital budget for improvements to the park, and the other $75,000 came from what's known as Section 37 funds, so-called for the city's program allowing developers height or density increases in return for tangible community benefits.

The project is one of about 60 being hastily completed across the city in the final months of the construction season before the deadline for the federal stimulus money expires in March.

The playground was officially re-opened yesterday.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: David Nosella

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CORRECTION: The original version of this story misstated the closest intersection to the park as Warden and Sheppard.

The Toronto Community Housing development known as Hydro Block, just off Baldwin Street, got a new playground and community garden this month thanks in part to a ward-specific program that collects 10 per cent of the value of all development to make improvements to the communities.

The $65,000 project was only half-funded by ground-breaking, when councillor Adam Vaughan was able to announce a top-up from his fund.

"We're the only ward that does it," Vaughan says, "but other wards are starting to look at it."

In addition to a new playground by Bienenstock Natural Playgrounds, the park got several large vegetable gardens, which will be tended by young people in the neighbourhood, who will be paid by TCH for their efforts.

"It was great to watch the kids more interested in planting seeds than playing on the slide," says Vaughan of the opening earlier this month. "But they've got both there now."

Home Depot also donated gardening tools and sprinklers.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Adam Vaughan

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Starbank Developments has run into some opposition to its plans for a 1.25-acre site at 1860 Bayview Avenue, the location of the former Brennan Pontiac Buick dealership.

"It's gone to committee twice," says Councillor John Parker, whose ward begins across the street from the proposed retail development, which Parker has been led to believe will include a Whole Foods grocery store. "The committee deferred its decision. The applicant appealed the deferral, which gave rise to the debate to whether a deferral is an appealable event. Before that was fully adjudicated, the applicant put forward another application in July, and that was refused, and that refusal has been appealed to the OMB."

As Parker describes it, the community's opposition to the plan is not an opposition to a new Whole Foods so much as the methods he says Starbank is using to get approval, Instead of applying for a re-zoning, which would trigger a public consultation, they are seeking a minor variance, which could avoid any input from the residents of the two affected wards.

Parker is interested in the development because of the increased traffic he expects any large retail site would generate in his ward as well as its neighbour.

Parker believes the project proposal is for 50,000 square feet on four levels, two underground. Starbank's website describes it as 80,000 square feet on two levels.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: John Parker

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The long-delayed Florian condo project, which has been displaying its hoarding at Bay and Davenport for almost two years now, has finally gotten to its third floor.

The high-end development, which offers a couple of suites at the 700 square foot mark but is focusing on much larger units of up to 4,000 square feet, is being developed by Diamante. To accommodate the larger suite sizes, the 25-storey tower will have only 100 condos.

"It's a very high-end condo," says Diamante spokeswoman and former Toronto Star Real Estate editor Ellen Moorhouse. "It's an extension of Yorkville, drawing Yorkville north. On Davenport there was a bit of a no man's land. Ideally now, Davenport will become a nice street to walk along."

Diamante, which also developed the 1 City Hall project, as well as Domus, hasn't settled on whether there will be retail included in Florian, but Moorhouse says that if there is, it will be "low-key."

The building was designed by Young and Wright/IBI Group Architects, with interiors by Brian Gluckstein and landscapes by Church Street firm Ferris and Associates.

Diamante is estimating that the building will be ready for occupants in the spring of 2012.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Ellen Moorhouse

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Options for Homes is launching its next low-cost, no-down payment homes at Bathurst and Lawrence in September.

The building will be 13 storeys high with 331 units ranging from studios to five-bedroom apartments, between 485 square feet and 1,675 square feet, with pre-launch prices of $155,425 to $309,200.

The complex, designed by Burka Architects and built by Deltera, is going up on lands sold by Asbury & West United Churchh at the corner of Bathurst and Saranac.

"We were up against some stiff competition," says Options for Homes spokeswoman Jessica Speziale, speaking of their bid for the property, "but the church wanted to do something good for the city, something good for the neighbourhood and wanted to make sure more families could own."

The oldest part of the church itself, built in the 1870s with a 1950s addition, will be demolished to make room for the mid-rise condo, which will include a sabbath elevator.

Speziale expects construction to begin next summer with completion the summer after that, in 2012.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Jessica Speziale

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Councillor John Parker is getting ever closer to his dream of getting another rink in Leaside Gardens.

After years of effort, both as a councilor and, before that, as a board member at Leaside Gardens, Parker has been trying to add ice capacity to one of the city's oldest ice facilities, built in 1951. And then, in June, a donor stepped forward anonymously with $525,000 to finance the planning for such an expansion.

"It supports three main community groups," Parker says, "the Leaside Hockey Association, the Leaside Girls Hockey Associationnd the Leaside Skating Club. Those three clubs consume pretty much every nanosecond of prime time ice at the rink. Now those clubs have outgrown it and are leasing extra time on other rinks at prime rates." Money that could Parker believes, could be going to Leaside.

The city has already bought the land the rink will eventually occupy, last February from the province for $1.2 million. The next two interwoven steps are to secure financing, which Parker estimates will exceed $10 million, and develop a plan. "But we're not going to know the costs until we have plans, and we're not going to have plans until we have a budget set aside," Parker says, "so we've been wrestling with that for a year or so."

The donation, approved by city council this past month, may prove to be the ice-breaker. At least, that's what Parker's hoping.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: John Parker


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The Stonegate Farmers' Market, a 13-stall weekly summer market run by the Stonegate Community Health Centre, has received a $1,400 grant from the city to beautify itself.

Since getting the grant, part of the city's Neighbourhood Beautification Program, some new signs were made up and some of the noticeably old tables were replaced.

The market is set up every summer weekend just west of the Humber and north of the Queensway on Park Lawn Road, which its administrator calls the "invisible dividing line between the neighbourhood's lower income apartments and higher income homes.

"We also had a competition," says Julia Graham, the Stonegate community health worker in charge of the market, which is currently in its sixth year, "where customers could vote on which stall was the nicest, and whichever vendor won would get a tent to set up their stall under."

In addition to a couple of tents, the grant money will also buy chairs for the many seniors the market attracts each week.
 
Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Julia Graham

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The paths in Tom Riley Park are getting much needed improvements thanks to some federal and provincial funding.

Berry Road Park Trail, Woodford Park Trail and Wedgewood Park Trail are all getting general clean-ups and maintenance, as well as new lighting. The paved paths are also getting re-paved.

"It's a key link along Mimico Creek," says ward councilor Peter Milczyn of the kilometer-long park. "It's a multi-use park, with recreation facilities as well, located in such a way that there are single-family detached neighbourhoods as well as high-density condominium and apartments along its perimeter, so it's a major park for the community."

Councillor Milczyn estimates the work will cost about $100,000 and be finished by fall.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Peter Milczyn

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Work has begun restoring the Lambton Kingsway outdoor pool, the first major restoration in more than 20 years.

Central to the north Kingsway community, which ward councilor Peter Milczyn describes as 90 per cent single-family dwellings.

"All the mechanical systems are being refurbished," he says. "Pumps, heaters, et cetera. Washrooms are quite old, too, and really need to be spruced up."

The deck is also being demolished and rebuilt and the pool itself is going to be enlarged. Work on that aspect of the project is expected to begin towards the end of this month.

The budget for the entire project is $1.195 million.

Councillor Milczyn expects the work to be mostly completed by the end of autumn, with finishing touches done by next spring in time for summer opening.

The funding is part of the federal-provincial infrastructure spending that has already been worked into the city's capital budget. According to the terms set out by the fund, the money must be spent by March.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Peter Milczyn

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A development that will add 62 new affordable rental homes for seniors and people with disabilities broke ground at 5 Deauville Lane in Flemingdon Park last week.

"It's really exciting," says Simon Liston, manager of housing development at the city's Affordable Housing department, speaking of the roll-out of about 1,000 units of affordable seniors housing funded by economic stimulus money, of which the Deauville project is a part. "It's the largest tranche of seniors rental housing we've had in this city for decades."

Many honourable folks turned out with their fancy shovels to mark the event, including the Honourable Peter Kent, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs (Americas) and the area's MP, the Honourable Kathleen Wynne, provincial Minister of Transportation and the area's MPP, and Councillor John Parker, whose ward the units are going up in, who is also no doubt quite honourable.

The architect for the project is Michael McKnight of Barrie-based McKnight Charron Laurin Architects.

The project is being funded by the Canada-Ontario Affordable Housing Program to the tune of $7.4 million, with an extra $550,000 worth of incentives such as fees and property tax waivers from the city.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Simon Liston

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"We're marching up to the altar, so to speak," says Waterfront CEO John Campbell of the latest and penultimate step towards opening up the Lower Don Lands to eventual development and incorporation into the city's cultural ambit.

City Council has finally approved Waterfront's plan to solve the area's flooding problem, a major obstacle to development.

"The river comes down now in a channel south and then turns 90 degrees west and goes out the Keating Channel," Campbell says. "The new flood protection builds a new river where it turns and goes farther south, out towards where the T&T is now. The river topology is going to change so you can allow for the flood waters to get out by an overflow into the Keating Channel and into the shipping channel."

There's no funding for the project yet, but Campbell suspects it will cost about $600 million. He estimates the work will take several years and probably be done by the end of the decade.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: John Campbell

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The city has received an application to develop a property owned by Joe Lebovic on a small plot of land underneath hydro wires at 3010 McCowan Road that has raised some eyebrows in Chin Lee's ward of Scarborough-Rouge River.

"We've fought against it because it's not proven either way whether it's safe or not," says Councillor Lee of the possibility that close proximity to hydro lines can deleteriously affect one's health.

The proposal is to re-zone the property as residential in order to allow the construction of 25, 3-storey townhouses on the 1.04 hectare lot.

The application is before the Planning Committee now. If it's approved, it will go to public consultation, at which point Councillor Lee plans to lead his constituents in their opposition.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Chin Lee

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Forest Hill is getting slightly more powerful this week.

According to Toronto Hydro spokeswoman Denise Atallah, phase III of a five-phase project "is intended to improve reliability and reduce power outages," which, she says, have been going on at a greater than average rate for as much as two decades.

Each phase is costing between $6 million and $8 million.

The project involves taking down the overhead wires from neighbourhood backyards and burying them in front of the properties, which will not only increase reliability, but provide better access to Hydro crews in the future, as well as make their jobs in this part of the city safer.

The work has been going on in various parts of Forest Hill since 2008, and all five phases will be completed by 2012.
Residents will experience controlled outages as wires are taken down.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Denise Atallah

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Toronto Hydro is improving the reliability of a stretch of Bloor from Montrose to Clinton and up to Dupont in order to safeguard the area against large-scale power outages.

Part of a multi-phase project focused on the downtown core, the project is meant to build in redundancies to the system in the area between two transformer stations at Dufferin and Bridgman, according to spokeswoman Denise Atallah, "in the event of a large-scale outage, the project is intended to re-route power to a different station."

The project, which has been on the go since April and is set to be completed in December, will cost about $6 million.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Denise Atallah

Do you know of a new building going up, a business expanding or being renovated, a park in the works or even a cool new house being built in the neighbourhood? Please send your development news tips to [email protected].