LOBLAWS PLAZA: HRGS ALTERNATIVE PLAN
We created this alternative plan to help demonstrate the neighbourhood’s ideas for improving the current development proposal. The following schemes are derived from our community survey, letter to the City Planner, and neighbourhood consensus statement. They have been shared with the City of Toronto, the developer Choice Properties, and the Toronto Catholic District School Board. Our hope is that it will have a positive influence on changes made to the current development plan.
SCHEME 2
Scheme 2 was made by the HRGS Active Committee to address comments from the developer Choice Properties regarding scheme 1 below. Choice Properties prefers buildings without enclosed courtyards and as few changes to their 2022 plan as possible. This scheme was sent to the developer, City Planning, and the Councillor on February 20, 2024.
SCHEME 1
Our original alternative scheme 1 shifts the proposed street grid north and disconnects it from Ritchie Ave. This would allow the park to move south and serve as a buffer to the adjacent neighbourhood. The developer’s proposed office/Loblaws building—which they conceive of as an alternate school location should Bishop Marrocco High School join the development—has been moved to the southwest corner as was done in the previous 2018 proposal. This would make better use of its mid-rise scale adjacent to the modest houses on Herman Ave.
In our plan, towers have been located where they seem best sited according to the City’s Tall Building Guidelines. These guidelines also restrict building heights to a 45° angle coming off the outer edges of established residential neighbourhoods (indicated by dashed purple line). We believe this line should be moved north across the park to keep tall buildings from overwhelming it—the tower heights noted reflect this constraint.
By our reckoning, this plan would provide more than 90% of the developable floor area proposed by Choice Properties. Likewise, total park and publicly-accessible green space would be maintained, benefitting from greater connectivity and protection from car traffic. Also, a street along the northern edge would provide more flexibility for future development of the school site instead of the closed blocks proposed. In addition to these points, we continue to call for fulfillment of the developer’s previous commitments to affordable housing and a rail path bridge.