Collaborative Forest Hill projects hailed

[attach]7482[/attach]Two unrelated Forest Hill developments — one recently approved, one about to begin construction — illustrate that builders, residents and city hall don’t always have to be at odds with each other.

Crews will begin work this month on Hill Condos, a nine-storey, 84-unit building with three levels of underground parking at 935 Eglinton Ave. West.

The project, on a site still known locally as the China House (though it’s been a parking lot since the popular restaurant was demolished two years ago), has the support of both local residents and city staff, the builder says.

“We worked with the city from the beginning,” said Tyler Hershberg, a principal with owner BSäR. “If you know that stretch of Eglinton, there’s beautiful residential north and beautiful residential south, but the avenue itself has been somewhat neglected and the streetscape is not particularly attractive.”

Hill Condos, Hershberg believes, is the type of development that will fit in with the new streetscape planned to accompany the Crosstown LRT, which will soon be making its way across Eglinton Avenue.

Meanwhile, at 829 St. Clair Ave. West, the Rockport Group plans to replace an existing structure housing a fried chicken outlet, commercial building and bakery with a nine-storey mixed-use building that was designed with the St. Clair Avenue Study’s height, setback, angular plane and density guidelines in mind.

On Jan. 22 the Committee of Adjustment’s Toronto and East York panel approved Rockport’s proposal, allowing the company to begin selling units in The Nest condominium.

Rockport CEO Jack Winberg says his company’s collaborative approach is no accident.

“We want to enhance the communities in which we work,” he said. “To me … that means doing our homework and consulting with the people who are affected so they’re not shocked by what’s being done.”

The result: happier communities, city staff – and developers, Hershberg says.

“I think a lot of developers were concerned that there would be very vocal opposition to any kind of density in the area, and we had the opposite experience,” he said.