Yorkregion.com - Thornhill - September could be D-Day for giant condo proposal
September could be D-Day for giant condo proposal
Business
May 03, 2008 09:34 PM
By: David Fleischer
Warren Kirkness knows big changes are coming to the Yonge Street and Steeles Avenue neighbourhood where he has lived for 45 years. The only question is when.
“I’m just observing to see how far it’s going to go. I imagine it will end up like North York,” said the Meadowview Drive resident, one of several area residents appearing at an Ontario Municipal Board pre-hearing about a huge development proposal in Thornhill.
At issue was Liberty Developments’ plan to replace the Hy and Zel’s plaza, at 7151 and 7161 Yonge, with a mixed-use community housing 3,000 residents in high-rise condominiums.
A decision could be made by the end of September, since the board turned down a request by Markham and the region to delay it until November so they could further study the proposal.
A study of the entire area was initiated because of Liberty’s proposal, to see how it fits in to the crucial corridor that includes a longstanding residential neighbourhood.
That neighbourhood is plagued by aging infrastructure and flooding problems.
No residential sewage capacity is available in the area until at least 2011, but Liberty wants to proceed with the commercial and retail part of the site.
In 2006, the town requested reports on issues such as servicing and transportation from Liberty. Most have been handed in, but staff still need to evaluate them.
“We’re really working in the dark,” Markham’s lawyer, Catherine Conrad, said.
Liberty countered its proposal was submitted two years ago and the public already had a chance to see the most recent plans in February.
“It is incumbent upon the town to decide whether they support or object to the development,” Liberty lawyer Susan Rosenthal said.
As for Mr. Kirkness, who lives across from the site, the project is important for the precedent it will set.
He is already fielding calls from Liberty’s real estate people, offering to buy his home and he’s thinking about selling and moving closer to his cottage.
“I can see it coming and if (moving) is what we have to do, that’s what we’ll do,” he said.
How has Yonge/Steeles project changed?
• Plans for two 39-storey towers have been reduced to 32 and 24 storeys while a pair of 32-storey towers have been reduced to 22 and 27. They will house 1,300 units between them.
• A 10-storey office beside a three-storey office at the site’s north end has changed to a 20-storey tower of which 10 storeys are a hotel.
• 270 surface parking spaces have been reduced to 56, with another 2,630 underground.
• Retail uses occupy most of the ground floor levels of all four residential buildings. Also planned is a two-storey plaza with a landscaped roof garden.