Item - 2018.TE29.17

The Toronto and East York Community Council recommends that:

1.  City Council direct the City Solicitor and City staff, as appropriate, to attend the Ontario Municipal Board hearing, and to oppose the Zoning By-law Amendment application for 421 Roncesvalles Avenue in its present form for the reasons set out in the report (December 12, 2017) from the Acting Director, Community Planning, Toronto and East York District.

2.  City Council authorize the City Solicitor and City Planning Division staff to continue discussions with the applicant on a revised proposal which addresses the issues set out in this report, including:

a. reducing the proposed height and massing to avoid overdevelopment of the site and to limit the negative impacts on adjacent properties;

b. improving the interface between the proposed building and the existing heritage building on the site;

c. improving consistency with the Council-approved addendum to the Avenues and Mid-Rise Buildings (April 20, 2016); and
 

d. determining the appropriate amount of on-site vehicular parking required to accommodate the proposed development.

3. In the event that the Ontario Municipal Board allows the appeal in whole or in part, City Council directs the City Solicitor to request that the Ontario Municipal Board withhold the issuance of any Order(s) on the Zoning By-law Amendment for the subject lands until such time as:

 
a. The City Solicitor, in consultation with the Acting Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning and the owner have provided draft by-laws to the Ontario Municipal Board in a form and content to the satisfaction of the Acting Director, Community Planning, Toronto and East York District; and,

 
b. The owner addresses the outstanding items in relation to servicing outlined in the memorandum from Engineering and Construction Services dated April 25, 2017 to the satisfaction of the Chief Engineer and Executive Director, Engineering and Construction Services.
 

c. The owner provides a cash payment into the Municipal Parking Fund in lieu of any parking shortfall on-site from the Zoning By-law requirement. of parking payment to the satisfaction of the General Manager, Transportation Services, if the parking supply is less than that required by the existing Zoning By-law.

This Zoning Amendment application proposes to redevelop the property at 421 Roncesvalles Avenue and 61 Howard Park Avenue with a seven-storey commercial and office building which will incorporate the existing two-storey heritage building. The development is proposed to have a height of 26.1 metres (30 metres including the mechanical penthouse). No vehicular parking spaces will be provided and a total of 38 bicycle parking spaces are proposed.

The proposed development would represent overdevelopment of the site, in terms of built form and density and would create an unacceptable form of development. The proposal also does not conserve the cultural heritage value of the existing heritage building as it results in a form, scale and massing that visually subordinates the heritage building. The proposal also does not conform with the Official Plan built form policies for midrise development nor does it satisfactorily respond to the Avenues and Midrise Buildings Guidelines.  Issues raised by the proposal include:

• The proposed scale and form does not address matters of Provincial interest as outlined in Section 2 of the Planning Act, is not consistent with the Provincial Policy Statement and does not conform with the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe, 2017;
•  
  The proposal is not consistent with policies and development criteria contained within the City of Toronto Official Plan, particularly those related to Avenues, Mixed Use Areas and heritage conservation;
   
• The proposal is not consistent with policies contained within the Ontario Heritage Act related to design, associative value and contextual value;
   
• The proposed height of seven-storeys (30 metres) is not in keeping with the existing and planned context of Roncesvalles Avenue, south of Howard Park Avenue, which contains primarily two and three storey commercial buildings, a number of which have heritage designations;
   
• The proposal is not consistent with the Avenues and Midrise Buildings Study and the Avenues and Mid-Rise Buildings Addendum (April 20, 2016) which identifies Roncesvalles Avenue as a Character Area thereby recommending a maximum height which equals 80 percent of the width of the right-of-way (16 metres); and
   
• The proposal does not adequately justify the lack of on-site vehicular parking.

The purpose of this report is to seek Council's direction for the City Solicitor and other appropriate City staff to attend an Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) hearing in opposition to the applicant's current development proposal and appeal.