Harbord Village Residents' Association

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Re TEYCC 19.33

Preliminary Zoning Report

698-706 Spadina and 54 Sussex Avenue

University of Toronto/Daniels Student Residence

 

Dear Committee Members:                                                                                                 Oct. 9, 2016.

 

We are pleased see that many of the neighbourhood’s concerns are reflected in the preliminary planning report on the proposed University of Toronto-Daniels Corporation 568-bed student residence at Sussex and Spadina.

 

Residents of Harbord Village have raised a number of issues at both public preapplication meetings with the University of Toronto and Daniels Corporation, and in local meetings. While there have been many meetings, there has been little real engagement-- as illustration, despite community concerns about height, the community has seen the project increase from 18 storeys to 23.

 

At the outset of the rezoning process, we wish to flag the following concerns:

• E x c e s s i v e h e i g h t a n d d e n s i t y w a l l i n g o f f t h e l o w-rise residential community;
• Infrastructure pressures of 549 mostly early-year students --such as heavy
pedestrian street crossing on a major LRT route, visitor parking and dropoff
provisions, and onsite cafeteria servicing from a public lane;
• Better positioning of entrances to shield the community from population density
impacts;
• Excessive height relative to the right-of-way which should call for a mid-rise
building;
• Inadequate respect for the adjacent Heritage Conservation District;
• Zero provision for on-site greenspace on both sites, one of which is zoned
“neighbourhood”, in a community that is severely deficient in this regard;
• Concerns on wind and street level impacts on a corner that is already wind-swept;
• Preservation of the Victorian corner building presently used as a book-store and
apartment;
• Protection plan for existing tenants;
• Concerns surrounding laneway housing; and,
• Lack of adequate transition from the Spadina frontage to the neighbourhood zoned
townhouses.

We do not believe there is a planning rationale that would support approving the tallest building in the neighbourhood a block south of the Bloor-Spadina intersection. We do not agree that any neighbourhood zoned land be built on with no landscaped open space.

 

Residents remain hopeful that a better fit with the community can be negotiated, allowing for more consideration for actually enhancing the quality of life of the neighbourhood, including meaningful onsite community benefits. We remain hopeful more sympathetic and imaginative ideas can emerge as the rezoning application moves forward.

 

Respectfully,

 

Carolee O. and Sue D. Harbord Village Residents’ Association Board

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