The East End of Toronto has always been a scrapper. Traditionally the eastern part of any city is where the heavy industry is located. The prevailing winds dictate that the east side of town will be where the messier parts of a city’s industry gather. The winds will push away the odours created by sewage processing plants, smelters, rendering plants and much more and leave west-enders and the central parts of the city to grow and flourish. The east end is where factories congregated and the working class could find affordable housing close to where they worked.
Over time Toronto’s east end community has grown. The rendering plant moved out of town. Canada Metals closed down and their buildings were filled by a burgeoning film industry. The soil from the “lead zone” created by Canada Metals’ effluents was re-mediated and the East End started to be recognized by their former names like Riverdale and Leslieville.
A Little History
What didn’t change was the unique character of this part of town. The city describes Leslieville in their document Potential Heritage Conservation Districts as follows:
Leslieville, influenced by the introduction of the streetcar to the area, developed as a residential neighbourhood in the late 19th century. The area’s older houses along Queen Street, and south to Eastern Avenue were built in the late 1800s. They include Ontario Cottages, Second Empire row houses and Victorian houses. Leslieville’s second generation of houses, north of Queen Street, was built in the early 1900s. This district includes modest detached and semi-detached houses as well as a large number of small bungalows. The Alexander Muir 'Maple Leaf Forever' Tree was a local landmark on Laing St. It was felled in a windstorm in July 2013 but there are numerous projects to use the wood from the tree for Canadian Heritage projects. Generally, Leslieville is located north of Eastern Avenue, east of Carlaw Avenue, west of Coxwell Avenue and south of the Canadian National Railway line. Dundas Street East intersects the centre of the neighbourhood from east to west with Greenwood Avenue intersecting the neighbourhood from north to south.
Guidelines or lack thereof
When the Avenues and Mid-Rise Guidelines were implemented by the City, they were removed from Ward 30 and Ward 32. As a result, there were no guidelines for development along the Queen corridor from the Don River to Victoria Park. A study was done in the Beach and the Queen Street East Urban Design Guidelines were implemented to run along Queen Street from Coxwell Ave to Victoria Park.
A study is now being completed for the Queen corridor running from the tracks at Jimmy Simpson to Leslie Street. The stretch between Leslie and Coxwell is our orphan area because it is split up between two Wards. The south side of Queen Street from Leslie to Coxwell is Ward 32. The north side of Queen Street from Greenwood to Coxwell is also Ward 32. Ward 30 is the north side of Queen Street from Leslie to Greenwood. This development as well as all the other proposed developments in the Segment Study fall between Leslie and Greenwood. Any developments on the south side (built in Ward 32) will impact the residents directly (shadowing, traffic, etc.) on the north side (Ward 30). Conversely, any developments on the north side (built in Ward 30) will also impact residents directly on the south side (Ward 32).
Leslieville doesn’t stop at Leslie street. So, Wards aside, all the development on Queen Street between Leslie and Coxwell is in Leslieville. Leslieville is an area that encompasses all the area starting at Jimmy Simpson, running along the tracks to the north, south to the lake, and east to Coxwell.
Where are we now
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Proposed building site encompassing 1327 through 1339 Queen St. East
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A development proposal has gone to City Planning and will be going up for community consultation on June 24, 2014. http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2014/te/bgrd/backgroundfile-69671.pdf This development would be located on the site of six houses located at 1327 through 1339 Queen St. East
Proposed building site encompassing 1327 through 1339 Queen St. East
The proposal involves the demolition of all the existing buildings on the site, including all residential rental dwelling units, with no replacement rental housing to be provided.
The developer proposes to construct an 8 storey mixed use building which would contain110 residential dwelling units and retail uses at grade. The proposed building would have a gross floor area of approximately 11,213 square metres, of which 685 square metres would be allocated to retail uses at grade. The overall height of this building is approximately26.3 metres plus 3.8 metre mechanical penthouse, and the proposed density would be 4.6 times the lot area. The applicant proposes to provide 106 parking spaces below grade.
The development also plans to build 14 stacked townhomes behind the 8-storey building fronting onto Memory Lane and Memory Lane would be used as the building's service corridor to access underground parking, and city services.
There is a Community Consultation meeting planned for June 24, 2014 at 7:00 p.m. at the S.H. Armstrong Community Centre, 56 Woodfield Rd. Anyone can request to be notified of this meeting and can provide comments on their thoughts regarding the development by going to http://app.toronto.ca/DevelopmentApplications/associatedApplicationsList.do?action=init&folderRsn=3515067
Just click on the box marked submit your comments and it will take you to the page where you can enter an email address to be notified as well as to let your views be known.
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