The site at 1746 Weston Road and Wilby is going to be redeveloped. The current occupant is the Starfish Caribbean Market which has operated there for many years. A developer, imaginatively called A1 Development has proposed placing a condo on the site.

A year ago, the developer proposed a 25-storey building with 253 units that would, they claimed, …”fit harmoniously within the existing context of tall buildings along the Weston Road corridor in Toronto”. In reality all of the area’s buildings have several fewer than 25 storeys but never mind. A1 used an architect who created a quite nice design with a nod to art-deco curves.

This month, A1 announced a redesign of the building and has goosed the floor count up to 40 storeys. As for context (and harmony), Hickory Tower will be more than double the height of most high rise buildings in the neighbourhood and will squeeze in an extra 193 apartments for a total of 446 units. The art-deco design has been dumped for a more angular utilitarian look. No details have emerged about the size of the apartments but I wouldn’t expect generosity or an appropriate range of bedrooms.

What kind of an impact will about 950 new residents have on the area? Well for starters, there will only be 113 underground parking spaces with a less than generous 25 spaces for visitors. No doubt the residential side-streets will be flooded with parked cars. Despite the neighbourhood being well served by transit and the U.P Express / GO service, it’s not that walkable for groceries. There will be some retail on the ground floor but the developer will provide no customer parking. On the plus side, 447 bicycle spaces will be provided but cycling is still an unrealistic option in Toronto’s climate and disconnected bicycle network. Raymore Park will obviously be affected and a large increase in foot and bicycle traffic can be anticipated. The adjacent 232 condos at 10 Wilby will be occupied starting in spring of this year. Incidentally, there are 150 parking spots in that building.

How will the city view this latest iteration? Based on the sheer scale it will stick out like a sore thumb and based on the number of units, seems to be aiming at maximum possible profit. Generally, condos should allow spaces in bedrooms for children to study and the trend these days is for buildings to have fewer studio apartments while increasing numbers of two and three-bedroom suites. As for amenities, the area is not well served having been neglected for decades. Toronto’s planning department should reject it out of hand.

Read the urbantoronto.ca article here.