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OMB Hearing – 102 Shuter St. In 2008, the developers of the former Walnut Hall site made an applicationto the City for the construction of two residential towers of 22 and 20 storey each. The City rejected the application as violating the existing zoning restrictions and non-conforming with the Official Plan. Councillor Rae supported the application. His constituency was not consulted. The developers took the case to the OMB in late 2009. Council approved its opposition to the application and directed its legal and planning representatives to argue against the proposal before the OMB. The GDRA opposed the application and delegated Sophie Knowles to speak on its behalf at the hearing. Just before the commencement of the hearing, Councillor Rae, seconded by Councillor Vaughan, made a motion for the reversal of the Council’s opposition to the application. The threat of litigation was given as the reason for the motion. In an unregistered vote, Council reversed its position and supported the modified version of the application. The City’s legal expert was directed to argue for the application. The GDRA called the City’s planning and architectural experts as its witnesses. They testified against the application. The GDRA appreciated the integrity of the municipal experts. The OMB approved in principle the application for two14/12 storey residential towers. The final approval is to be granted pending submission of the proposal with terms and conditions requested by the City and OMB. Filming in the Garden District At the initiative of the Pembroke St. residents, meetings were held in May 2011 to enforce the Film and TV Office rules governing the use of our territory by film and TV crews. There is frequent abuse of those rules by the film industry – street parking is systematically requisitioned by film crews without any compensation to the parking permit holders. Blocked traffic, noise are added irritants to our community. The following measures must be implemented to prevent any community bearing an unreasonable burden from activities that in most cases generate profit for the company and/or the municipality. The Film & TV Office must keep records of the number of permits issued to film productions per city block. The By-law of 2 productions per city block will be enforced in the Garden District The Film & TV Office will only issue above the limit permits if the community agrees to host a production. The community must be represented by residents, homeowners, businesses, and above all, by HOLDERS of street parking permits. We hope the City, including the Film and TV Office, will enforce its own By-laws. In the past decade, occasional donations from film productions helped us maintain our green spaces, alas, these have but all dried out. Tall Buildings Forum - April 04, 2011 A number of the GDRA members attended the forum raised the following issues. Tall buildings should not be discussed without an overall urban context, and Toronto has not developed to date an urban strategy for its downtown.
Jarvis and Dundas – two major thoroughfares: NS – Jarvis from Lawrence to the Lakeshore EW – Dundas E&W, the second (after Younge) longest continuous urban corridor. What are the key present features of these two urban corridors? 1. Dundas, narrow and burdened with inefficient and costly streetcar transit. Its west downtown end has a decent mix of institutional, corporate, service, retail and residential facilities and services. Its east end is dominated by public and social housing, void of services and crime ridden. 2. Jarvis, a major vehicular traffic corridor without any allowances for pedestrian traffic in spite of major pedestrian activities/attractions like Allan Gardens, hotels, institutions (Jarvis Collegiate; Ryerson University, Provincial Court, public housing, group homes) - crime and vagrancy are serious concerns. 3. Jarvis/Dundas junction has large concentrations of transient elements – 2 hotels, 6 rooming houses and large volumes of public housing (Metta; Hazelburn; Pembroke Mews; Jarvis/Shuter – "difficult to house" cum day shelter, rentals (Jarvis heritage homes) and one condo, in short, a highly skewed socio-economic mix. What kind of urban development would help regenerate this junction in particular and this part of downtown in general, set new standards for the future? What is the rationale (except profit) for 46 floors on the Jarvis/Dundas corner –how does it fit into the existing streetscape? This particular junction must be viewed within a broader strategy for the Dundas East corridor. As uninspiring as Dundas Sq. is as a main downtown piazza, it is a starting point for Dundas East. What support will be provided to genuinely innovative architecture? To date, with very few exceptions, Toronto's residential architecture can be described as pedestrian at best, and mock period at worst. It lacks quality, imagination, and comfort. It's void of green spaces, public exchange features and street level interaction. What about ideas such as STAIRSCRAPERS (by the Barcelona based Italian architects) - tall buildings of the future! The very few new residential developments in the Garden District, be they rentals (Jazz) or condos (Shuter/Mutual; Merchandise Bldg.) have not spurred any growth of the service/retail sector, and have remained entities to themselves.
FRIENDS OF WALNUT HALL SAD AND SINISTER HISTORY OF HISTORIC WALNUT HALL Walnut Hall is no more. Abandoned and neglected for the last 30 years, this important piece of Toronto’s architectural history expired on this Victoria Day weekend, or as some would say, was put to death. Having sat on the auction block for some 8 years, it has been recently sold for $1.8 million to a residential developer. The neighbourhood, justifiably cynical about the intent to preserve this landmark, did not hold its breath as neither the new owner nor the city made any effort to announce the news for the preservation and redevelopment of this historic property. And then, on the sunny Saturday afternoon when the city emptied, the north wall of the building started to disintegrate. First slowly, then with some acceleration, the middle part of the wall crumbled. By 10 o’clock, city inspectors tried to reassure homeowners in direct proximity that there was no danger to their properties. When queried about the fate of the historic building, they reserved judgment until the investigation took its course. By 6 o’clock Sunday morning, a pile of rubble was what was left of the handsome building. For a city that took ages to enforce any protective measures when the building needed it most, first as a municipal property then as a federal one, the speed with which the building met its demise is surprising. The last few inspections pronounced the building safe. As such, it was used in recent film and TV productions – it was also visited by what appeared to be the new owner’s maintenance crew. During this extraordinarily speedy demolition, the new owner was mysteriously absent, apparently his name not known either to city inspectors or the police. The last decade in the life of this heritage property is both sad and sinister – it’s a tale of corruption and shady deals to secure extraordinary zoning allowances that in turn guaranteed the asking price in excess of $2 million for a partnership that included a former municipal commissioner of properties and an executive assistant to a former mayor. Having waived all conditions that would secure preservation of this architectural heritage, first the municipal Committee of Adjustment and then the provincial OMB signed off on a blatant manipulation of the Official Plan. The role former and current government representatives played in this saga is unsavoury, and as such has shred whatever confidence we as citizens have in the integrity and competence of our regulatory institutions including Heritage Departments. WALNUT HALL - Brief History
The property along Shuter Street, subdivided into lots, was acquired in 1853 by John O’Donohoe, a city alderman at the time. Designed by John Tully a couple of years later, Walnut Hall was constructed as a series of Georgian rowhouses facing Shutter Street.
1853-55 John Tully designs a Georgian style house complex known as the O’Donohue Row. |
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he area north of present King Street was once crown lands granted to William Jarvis. In due course, one of the first urban retreats, Moss Park was carved out of those lands, with Pembroke Street connecting it to another park-first, Allan Gardens.