FinalDraft Article for Gleaner
Palmerston Area Residents’ Associationresponse to the Westbank proposal.
Jane Jacobs, possibly the most influential urban thinker of this century, lived in our area. She championed community-based approaches to planning. What would she have thought of the Westbank proposal?
Here she writes in The Death and Life of American Cities (1961):
“Cities need old buildings so badly it is impossible for vigorous streets and districts to grow without them. By old buildings I mean … a good lot of plain, ordinary, low-value old buildings ... Hundreds of ordinary enterprises, necessary to the safety and public life of streets and neighbourhoods, and appreciated for their convenience and personal quality can make out successfully in old buildings, butare inexorably slain by the high overhead of new construction.”
This quote is now fifty-four years old but a study conducted last year in San Francisco, Seattle and Washington D.C for the National Trust for Historic Preservation confirms it is still valid.
The Westbank development is well funded, huge and complex. While residents welcome a number of their initiatives – bicycle parking and storage, a small daycare, apartment units large enough to accommodate families, independent retail, a market – we are unsettled about other aspects.
Westbankwas proposing to “save” 16houses on Markham Street, howeveron September 25 of this year, Toronto’s Preservation Board passed a motion tolist 30 buildings – on Bathurst, Bloor and Markham Streets --as “heritage buildings” on this site. The Preservation Board also recommends positioningWestbank’s towers further away from the street to preserve the authentic and meaningful context that createsthe “village feel” of the street. Whether it’s the warmth of material, the human scale or the craftsmanship of bygone eras, old buildings attract people and are good for small business. Preserving more of the heritage architecture of Mirvish Village is crucial to any possible integration ofWestbank’s new buildings into our century old neighbourhood.
In August of 2014 the four residents associations that abut the intersection of Bloor and Bathurst conducted a survey of residents’“wishlist” for the site. Publicly accessible green space scored highest on the list, yetWestbank is providing scant park space, far below what city policy demands.
Markham Street, Westbank seems to suggest, will be their contribution to the public realm, a place where they might program vibrant street festivals, live music, and outdoor movies. Let’s not forget that the streetalreadybelongs to us as do the two alleyways Westbankintends to reconfigure.
In the past Honest Ed’s parking lot hosted the highly successful Toronto Fringe Festival and The Stop’s Night Market. PARAworked with these festivals to mitigate noise and disruption to the nearby residents -- win-win partnerships. Will partnership with residents continue? Westbank’s streetscape design is all cold, hard surfaces withoutnoise-muffling elements.
On the aforementioned survey residents overwhelmingly stated that the new development should not exceed 30 metres(9 storeys).The site is currently zoned for a maximum of 6 storeys. At its highest point, Westbank has proposed 29 storeys.A shadow study by the City Planning Departmentreveals that long swaths ofBloor and Bathurst Streets will have insufficient sunlight from September to March.
Not surprisingly, residents have questions about the increase in traffic the Westbankdevelopment will cause. With residential streets at capacity with permit parking and highly congested with drop-offs for Randolph’s classes, where will all the people attracted to the marketpark?(They won’t all come by bike and subway.) Where will the service trucksqueue up? Will trucks be rumbling down our streets at dawn? Will there be more CO2 in the air? How will the reconfiguration of the alleyways affect residents’ access to their own property?No answers yet.
The density envisaged by this proposal of 1017 units half of which are larger than 2 bedrooms is reminiscent of St. James Town – easily 2500 people in a single city block. The development will set the standard for the other 3 corners and forour area in general. How much increase in populationcan our infrastructure support?
The challenge in creating a future healthy urban environment in this neighbourhood is to integratenew, innovative development into our existing historic urban fabric. On this proposal Westbankhas yet to meet this challenge.