The West End of Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»is said to be one of the most densely populated neighbourhoods in North America. Some residents want to keep it from becoming even more crowded and are hoping a proposal by Devonshire Properties Ltd. to rezone and add more buildings to the waterfront Beach Towers complex won't be given the greenlight.
"There's a lot of opposition to this project because the Beach Towers is this iconic landmark in the West End," said community activist Maya Lange of the four-building highrise complex at 1600 Beach Ave. "It's a prime example of modernist architecture and has won awards for its design. It just seems like another example of the Vision councillors wanting to do everything they can for the developers instead of the people who live here."
Devonshire Properties initially sought permission in 2010 to build a fifth tower without success. It now wants to build luxury rental mid-rise apartments and townhouses squeezed in between the towers under the city's Short Term Incentives for Rental Housing (STIR) program, a time-limited program encouraging the development of new housing to help deal with the city's lack of rental housing.
An application seeking rezoning of the Beach Towers, which is listed under Category A on the post-1940s heritage register, was denied earlier this summer by the Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Heritage Commission, but the battle is far from over.
"Where it stands right now is the rezoning was turned down, but they asked the developer and the architect to make changes to the proposal and it's sort of in mid-process right now," said Lange, who helped create a website dedicated to protecting the site.
Brent Toderian, the city's director of urban planning, pointed out a decision from the Heritage Commission is not the final word on the matter.
"The key thing to understand is that the Heritage Commission does not approve or deny applications, they are an advisory body to council," said Toderian. "The official recommendation to council comes from staff."
He said he expected the developer will try again in a few months, and that Devonshire Properties had previously been told a mid-rise development might be an acceptable compromise after the application for a new tower was shot down.
"We suggested to the applicant we might be willing to support a mid-rise building at the corner and also we thought there was particular merit to improving the design relationship along Beach," said Toderian, adding that council would also need to get advice from the Urban Design Panel before making a final decision. "If you walk along that building edge condition, you'd probably agree that is rather harsh and doesn't do a good job of activating the public realm, as we say, in an urban design sense. Improving that with residential housing frontages really improves that."
The next rezoning application is expected to be heard in early fall.
