The South Bayview Bulldog

Residents from Ward 22 and Ward 26 jammed the little meeting room in the Leaside Library on McRae Drive tonight for an information session on the proposed nine-storey development on the west side of Bayview Ave between Soudan and Hillsdale Ave (inset top). Many people stood all evening. The Brown Group has yet to make an application of any kind to the city and the company’s moderator Adam Brown offered this as evidence of the firm’s sincerity. Design features and setbacks notwithstanding, the meeting was deeply opposed to the idea of a nine-storey building on Bayview. Josh Matlow (Ward 22) took the floor briefly and said nine storeys is the maximum that will be permitted in the new world of an LRT-equipped Eglinton Ave. “It is only reasonable that we would wish to build down from there as we move away from Eglinton,” he said. There was brief uncertainty as to present zoning until Geoff Kettel said the land was “neighborhood” — a designation that would permit no more than three, perhaps four storeys. Mr. Brown was insistent on the company’s desire to have peace with residents. He seemed to modify his opening assertion that the Brown Group did not intend to negotiate on the height of nine storeys. The building plan as it sits calls for stores on Bayview with as many as 30 residential rental units overlaid by as many as 170 “sales units” that would be sold. The most expensive of these units would be in a three-story box of glass sitting atop the six floors below. It was these three glass floors that drew the most criticism. An underground parking garage would contain 240 spaces for cars and 190 racks for bicycles. The building would be graded in the form of steps on the west side. At present, it rises at an angle of 45 degrees. At the front, the angle is more like 80 degrees. Brown Group proposes to build a block-long service lane behind the structure with a wall-like fence separating the property from residences to the west. In addition, the developer has purchased two homes, one each on Hillsdale and Soudan, on the outside of the fence as a barrier to the disruption caused by construction. Commercial store fronts would extend along Bayview and around each corner onto Hillsdale and Soudan, a characteristic that Brown said would provide “an animated retail space.” A number of residents spoke in favour of retail space on the west side to complement the stores on the east side of Bayview. Also present at the meeting were Jon Burnside (Ward 26), Vanessa Rose of Mr. Burnside’s office and Patrick Rocca. The meeting heard that there are many steps and many more meetings before a plan could be approved.