New development planned for Mimico

I received a flyer in my mail about a new development plan for the existing Amadeo Garden Court apartment complex in Mimico. These are a group of buildings on the south side of Lakeshore at Douglas St.

There is some opposition to the plans as it may involve moving or altering some existing heritage buildings and landscaping. Overall though the plans are very exciting. New buildings, parks, access to the waterfront and commercial facing the Lakeshore.I hope an agreement comes fast that satisfies the historical people, existing tenants and the developers.

I always wondered what they were thinking back in the day when they built on the waterfront. "Look you can see the lake from here. Lets build a boxy apartment building so no one can see it or get to it".

 

Plans can be viewed here.

 

http://lakeshoreforum.ca/sites/default/files/Mimico%20Estates%208%2...


http://lakeshoreforum.ca/content/site-illustration

 

 

Tags: Amadeo, Court, Garden, Mimico, condominium, development, lakeshore, waterfront

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Angela Weller on October 6, 2011 at 3:12pm

Did I read this correctly?  They want to wedge the existing apartment load *and* 1,500 condos into that space?

 

Yikes.

 

History aside, that's a lot of shoebox-condos...

Permalink Reply by Aaron G on October 7, 2011 at 9:52am
Take in account the new buildings will be much higher then the existing apartments. The second link I put up while only an illustration shows this. I would think they would be the highest buildings in the immediate area.
Permalink Reply by Mark on October 11, 2011 at 5:34pm

Wow – I've lived around the corner from Douglas St. for 5 years and I never knew there were heritage buildings and a formal garden and fountain down there (I'm looking on google maps now)!  Here's some info about the history of the building and gardens. Are the houses being used for anything right now?

 

Things I like about this development proposal:

• Direct line of sight down the new road right to the water (right now blocked by a tower)

• Children's water play area

• Extension of the waterfront linear park / increased public access to the lake

• New, more attractive buildings

 

Things that worry me:

• Height of buildings (40+ stories is HUGE!). I think all developers nowadays request taller buildings because they know they will have to negotiate down to get approval from the city & community etc. But these will still be tall buildings even at 30 stories. The street view renderings on pages 5 & 6 of the PDF are somewhat deceptive in that they only show the shortest towers that are closest to Lakeshore Blvd. And those, at 10 stories, are already double what currently exists. Not sure how this would blend into the look of the neighbourhood.

 

Overall though, I would probably support this.

 

Thanks for all the info Aaron G!

(Is the 2nd link your own sketchup illustration?)

Permalink Reply by Steve H on October 12, 2011 at 11:10am

The City of Toronto website has the staff report from March 2011 recommending heritage designation

http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2011/pb/bgrd/backgroundfile-3679...

 

I also remember reading a summary of the community council meeting in the Guardian

http://www.insidetoronto.com/news/local/article/999431--heritage-de...

 

I'll see if I can get a response from Mark Grimes re the status of any reviews or revisions under the Mimico 20/20 plan

Permalink Reply by Steve H on October 13, 2011 at 4:51pm

I just received the following from Mark Grimes' office

-------------------

City staff are awaiting a report from our consultant, Urban Strategies, who is playing a lead role in the Mimico 20/20. We expect this report to be ready in December 2011. From there staff can then start looking at site specific issues such as the historically significant Mimico Estates.

 

I hope this information helps. If you have any questions please feel free to ask.

 

Best Regards,

 

Colin Johnston

Constituency Assistant

Councillor Mark Grimes' office

Ward 6

City Hall

100 Queen Street West, Suite C48,

Toronto, ON, M5H 2N2

tel:416-397-9273

fax:416-397-9279

www.markgrimes.ca

Permalink Reply by Aaron G on October 13, 2011 at 8:46am

No Mark I got the illustration from the website.

I know people that rent in the buildings there. The gardens and houses are nice. The houses are used for apartments I think.

I'm always on the side of population density and building up. I think of Mimico more of an urban area then suburban anyways.

I think on the North side of Lakeshore or close to the street the height would be too much but that south and back to the water would work fine. Your probably right though they will likely get chopped down to 30 floors.

 

 

Permalink Reply by TDP on October 13, 2011 at 8:51pm

I think this is a fantastic step forward for the whole area, I am only hoping that people can see past the 'change shock' which seems to be prevelant to areas such as ours which in the end only hurts positive growth of the community.  I recall seeing that the Official plan for the whole area currently occupied by those awful apartment buildings in Mimico calls for every second parcel to be new development- this was awhile ago so it may have changed. I certainly hope not. 

This is the same direction that Port Credit started and was (in my opinion) successful with.  I only hope that the City is smart enough to address the infrastructure needs all of these new condo's requires.  ie. transit, addressing traffic etc. etc. MR GRIMES are you listening????

Permalink Reply by Peter Kearns on October 14, 2011 at 11:48am

I agree that this is a great step forward.  Actually, anything that gets rid of some of the low-rise apartments along the Lake Shore is a huge step forward.

 

With the 10 storey buildings closer to the street, I don't believe you'll even be able to see the 40 (or 30) storey towers behind them from Lake Shore Blvd.

 

In terms of the infrastructure, the City Of Toronto charges developers a per unit fee that is "supposed" to help pay for additional services (roads, police, fire, sewage, water, transit, etc) that need to be provided because of the development.  It would be interesting to know how much of those fees actually go to provide these things.

Permalink Reply by Paul on October 15, 2011 at 9:27pm
Agree - this is a big step forward for Mimico. Let's hope there's more of the same to come.
Permalink Reply by Paul Chomik on February 5, 2012 at 2:42pm

The fees never cover the increased costs of infrastructure.

 

Taxpayers end up subsidizing the condo towers.

 

There are studies of studies that conclude high-density residential never covers its impact and taxpayers pay more to make up the shortfall.

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