Build Toronto is planning to construct a housing development in the Quarry consisting of approximately 200 low-rise homes surrounding a 4.5 acre park, according to plans unveiled at a community meeting on Wednesday.
The housing development would be located north of Gerrard Street, across from Blantyre Avenue and Coalport Drive.
Build Toronto’s plans also include proposed retail development located east of Victoria Park and south of the railroad tracks, where the Beach Fairway Golf range is situated now.
Build Toronto’s proposed development in the Quarry
Build Toronto is the City of Toronto’s arms-length development agency and it owns 20 acres of land in the western portion of the Quarry.
Artist rendering of high-rise towers proposed by Conservatory Group
Their development is not related to the controversial plan by the Conservatory Group to build seven high-rise towers on the eastern side of the Quarry.
The high-rise development is opposed by elected representatives from all three levels of government and virtually everyone who lives in the area.
Development priorities came from community
At the community meeting Build Toronto Senior Vice President Prakash David said the development was planned with the following priorities in mind that they’ve heard from the community:
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Prakash David, Build Toronto Senior Vice President, Residential and Retail Development, unveils Quarry plan at community meeting
Development in keeping with the character of the neighbourhood
- Preference for low-rise over high-rise
- Consideration for traffic flow
- Focus on green space and public realm
David defined “low-rise” as wood frame single family homes that could be townhouses, semi-detached houses and four-storey stacked housing.
He told the 100 residents who turned out for the meeting that Build Toronto cares about community building, quality urban design and environmental responsibility.
CCQLD: We’ve come a long way
Mark Brender, President of Concerned Citizens for Quarry Lands Development, said “we have come a long way from where we were three years ago” when Build Toronto was planning high-rise development and the community was essentially fighting on two fronts – against the City and the Conservatory Group.
Brender told the meeting that the CCQLD remains steadfastly opposed to the seven high-rise towers and hopes that Build Toronto’s more reasonable development in the west will influence the Conservatory Group’s plans for the west.
“Whatever happens on the Build Toronto lands will help set the parameters for the kind of community that could also be built on the other side. It’s safe to say that if a high-rise development were built on the Build lands, it would make the community’s case around fighting an inappropriate development on privately held lands that much more difficult,” Brender said. “The final plan is still a long way from being decided, but above all we need to ensure that whatever happens on the Build lands is a benefit to the community — and the same goes for privately held lands.”
Community feedback was given
The meeting was conducted with the help of a professional facilitator who organized members of the community into small groups and asked residents to provide feedback to Build Toronto on development objectives.
Working group sessions at Quarry meeting
The feedback was extensive but two messages were repeated by almost every group:
- The community does not want big box retail in the space reserved for commercial use east of Victoria Park.
- There has to be a traffic plan to ensure the new development doesn’t take an already congested area and make it worse
Other suggestions from residents included an idea to build walking bridges to connect the Quarry with the residential community on the Danforth and a request to ensure that the park land is practical and usable.
One group said that the land use mix (25% commercial, 50% residential 25% park) should be changed to reduce the size of the retail component.
Resident: Vision is too narrow
One of the more powerful speakers was Diana McLaren, who has lived on Queensbury for 35 years and was involved with the Birch Cliff Community Association decades ago when the community was fighting for environmental assessments on the site.
The Quarry Lands
She told the meeting that the focus on stopping high rises has led to a vision for the Quarry is far too limited and represents a narrow view of what a thriving community should be:
“We’re selling our public asset. That’s our land. It isn’t owned by Build Toronto, it’s owned by us – the people of Toronto. We’re recreating the kind of suburban community that we know is not sustainable. Single family houses, cars and stores, maybe even big box stores. We need a more diverse community. We don’t have any health services in our community. We don’t have any theatres or cultural spaces.”
Not “surface consultation”
Amy Marlene Robichaud who lives on Meadow Avenue said she was pleased to see the community “hyper-engaged”, even though there’s no consensus on what needs to be done in the Quarry. Robichaud said she was encouraged that it wasn’t a “surface consultation” and said Build Toronto
Working group session
and the City must continue the dialogue.
“There’s a resource or a roadblock in this community and the community would rather be a resource as long as its respected, continues to be heard and continues to have a meaningful opportunity not just to contribute to the process initially, but also to have feedback and follow-up happen. And that will be the determining factor if this really was a successful night. Did the follow-up that was promised actually happen?”
The facilitator took extensive notes during the meeting which will be used by Build Toronto to draft a summary report. The notes will be circulated to the community.
Rod Hines, from the City of Toronto’s planning department says the report will go to committe in February with further community consultation organized for March or April.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Feel free to scroll down and leave a comment.
I have lived on Coalport Drive for 27 years and when we first bought our house we were aware that there was to be building in the Quarry Area.
My major concerns are traffic congestion, as already it is very difficult to make a turn onto Gerrard in the mornings and evenings, the impact on our present school system and also sewage backup.
My 2 daughters live in the Danforth/Kennedy area and have had 2 or 3 sewage back ups in the last year ruining their basement and causing thousands upon thousands of dollars damage.
This started happening after the new development on Danforth Road between Birchmount and Warden and a second development at St Clair and Midland.
They have not only lost their belongings, basement ruined twice but also have had their house insurance increased after the first back up by 40% and possibly will not be insured for sewage after the second back up.
Obviously my greatest concern is sewage back up in our area. Are we going to be affected also as I understand the homes between Warden and Birchmount north of Kingston Road already have had problems with water damage and sewage back up.
I’m really sorry to hear about your daughters’ basement flooding. It sounds like one of the more extreme cases because it’s happened more than once. A lot of people have raised the same concern regarding the sewer system Sharon and I know the CCQLD is aware of the issue. If you take a look at the basement flooding map on our website you can see that the highest concentration of flooding this summer was indeed south of the new housing developments at St. Clair and Midland and St. Clair and Warden. The map is here: http://www.birchcliffnews.com/basement-flooding-map/
The issue was raised by several people at the flooding meeting on September 19th, and Toronto Water insists that the new developments were not the cause of the flooding because they present plans before construction proving their development won’t overwhelm the sewer system. Then someone asked if they were being monitored by Toronto Water to ensure they were following the plan…and the answer was…there is no monitoring. If you’re interested, we’ve done quite a bit of food coverage and you can check it out by clicking on the tab at the top of the website.
I am very upset that this community is losing the golf range. This past monday, its final day, there were people of all ages enjoying fresh air, some exercise, and a great deal of fun. There were plenty of kids there, and I know that my 8 and 12 year old boys will miss going to the mini-putt and trying to beat their old man! The golf range collected over 7000 signatures of people who want it to stay. I find it hard to believe that this many people are being ignored by our local counsellor, Gary Crawford, who has closed the door on keeping the golf range, and is going ahead with a mis-guided development of this land. I remember attending a large rally a couple of years ago, where our city counsellor Brian Ashton swore up and down that he would do everything in his power to stop development of the quarryands. Here we are, a couple of years later, and the city is now the culprit. There are serious serious problems with putting residential units on this land because of the amount of toxic garbage it contains. I attended the meeting to discuss Build Toronto’s plans, and most of the concerns voiced by those in attendance had to do with traffic, or the toxic contents of the quarry, which goes at least 8 meters deep! These concerns were glossed over by the Build Toronto people, who stuck to their corporate talking points, and tried to re-assure those in attendance that it would be no problem to remediate this site properly! We’ve heard this before from the private developers on the other end of the quarry. Oh yeah, that’s right, this neighbourhood is about to get stuck with a huge multiple tower complex at the other end of the quarry, and apparently there is nothing we can do about it. So how does the city help us out? How do they respond to the rally two years ago? How do they respond to the 7000 signatures collected at the golf range? They completely ignore them. It was a local organization (CCQLD) that got Build Toronto to show what their plan was. I was told by the golf range about the meeting, otherwise I wouldn’t have known about it! No real community consultation. No chance for keeping the golf range and the quarry undeveloped as a legitimate option to minimize the impact that the tower complex is certain to have. Its all about selling the land off to developers, so that the City can “maximize their asset” at the expense of our community, and the health of the people who will no doubt buy up the houses.
I would like to respond to Jon Beer’s post above and anyone else who wants to stay up to date with the Quarry Lands. Mr. Beer, you mentioned that the only way you knew of the meeting that took place was thru the driving range people. If you would like to keep up to date with what’s going on the Quarry Lands we welcome everyone to read our (CCQLD) updates that we post on our website at http://www.ccqld.blogspot.com and we also have a Face Book page: Concerned Citizens of Quarry Land Develepment. You are welcome to leave your comments on both pages. Also, you can join our group to stay updated as well and attend our yearly AGM’s, our contact info is on our blogspot website.
Thank you.
Karen Direkze
Board Member CCQLD
Whatever happened to a parklands study?? Mid-term, municipally, and I haven’t heard or read anything about this option. It was something Gary Crawford and other Ward 36 candidates included in their campaign programmes last municipal election. Has a parklands study been pursued? If not, why? And why hasn’t CCQLD pushed this option? Nothing should be moving forward until such a study has been done – whether Build Toronto or the Conservatory Group (not to mention terminating Beach Fairway Golf Range’s lease).
Also share Jon Beer’s disappointment on the loss of the driving range. So, people will have to jump in their cars and go how far to do this, now? And all that talk about staying active, fit, etc. – well, just talk. And we’re losing the range for what? – more retail space??? We have empty stores in the existing shopping mall at Victoria Park/Gerrard. At Shoppers’ World. And on nearby main street retail strips – along Danforth Ave., Kingston Rd. and even Queen St. East. Just makes the loss of the driving range and those unheeded 7,000 signatures even harder to take. Cheers for a liveable city!
Anyone know where this project is at? 5 years later. Looks like a landfill. No shovels in the ground…