A new north downtown?
[attach]1759[/attach]Talk of development — be it in the form of a national urban park or housing — has been bandied about at Downsview for years.
“They’ve been talking about it since my bar mitzvah,” jokes 82-year-old Ward 10 councillor Mike Feldman.
Now it looks like Feldman and his constituents in the Wilson Heights area may be getting some new neighbours.
A triangular portion of the Downsview lands south of Sheppard between the Allen Expressway and Wilson Heights Boulevard has been fingered as a top priority for development with the launching of Build Toronto last month.
The city’s new arms-length development corporation has named this portion of Downsview in its top four priority developments.
According to Build Toronto’s CEO Lorne Braithwaite, the vision for a new subdivision here is in place.
“About a third of it (will be) commercial, which will be a mix of office and retail, and two thirds (will be) residential,” said Braithwaite.
The commercial section, he said, may be in the form of a pair of office towers and retail clustered around Downsview Station, while the southern portion will be home to 3,000-plus residential low and high-rise apartment units with smaller dwellings closer to Wilson Heights Boulevard.
The main hurdle for the developer is to find a good primary commercial tenant.
“The timeline is totally dependent, on the commercial side, on whether we’re able to secure a major tenant to lease the space,” said
Braithwaite, who added they had been in talks with heavyweights like Procter and Gamble. Although the home product giant
eventually passed, Braithwaite said the interest they showed bodes well for the future of this development.
What Braithwaite didn’t mention is that both the federal government and Bombardier, the transportation builder that operates its headquarters to the immediate west, retain legal covenants over the land.
“The feds had asked for dollars to remove (the covenant). Bombardier is saying ‘buy us out’,” said Feldman.
Feldman says he’s ready to sign off on the broader Downsview Secondary Plan, which includes this portion of land, when North York Community Council meets on June 22. He believes, however, the issue of covenants could be raised, contributing to a possible deferral.
Although Build Toronto’s primary mandate is to generate capital for city coffers, Braithwaite said there is a social component to their mission as well, and that will be reflected in the types and income levels of housing built here.
“I think it will be a mixture. Part of the (Build Toronto) mandate … is to provide a certain amount of low-cost housing in terms of rentals and also in terms of ownership,” he said.
A litmus test of local residents’ reaction to the plans indicates people are ready for change.
Pamela Yoshida has worked at the Toronto Buddhist Church’s temple at 1011 Sheppard Ave. since it opened in 2005. She says she’ll miss the open space, but says she’s ready for a change.
“I’ve heard that this was going to be the place to be. That it was going to be another downtown Toronto kind of place. I would hate to see the park behind us disappear, it’s one of the things I really appreciate about this area… but people is good, development is good,” Yoshida said.
