Item - 2017.TE24.90

The Toronto and East York Community Council requested:

1.  The Director, Community Planning, Toronto and East York District to report back to the Toronto and East York Community Council on the status of the requests made under TE11.81 by the fourth (4th) Quarter of 2017, including work completed by that date and emerging guiding principles for new development on properties fronting Bloor Street West, generally between Palmerston Avenue and Lansdowne Avenue.

2.  The Director, Community Planning, Toronto and East York District, to hold a community consultation meeting on the study in the 2nd quarter.

3.  The Senior Manager, Heritage Preservation Services to research and evaluate the properties on Bloor Street West, generally between Palmerston Avenue and Lansdowne Avenue, prioritizing properties between Ossington Avenue to Dovercourt Road, for inclusion on the City's Heritage Register and to report back to the Toronto and East York Community Council with the results of this evaluation by the end of 2017.

Bloor Street West from Christie to Lansdowne is designated a character area in Toronto’s Official Plan.  In 2015, Toronto and East York Community Council adopted motion TE 11.81 -Review of Development on Bloor West, between Christie and Lansdowne Avenue. Recommendation 2 of that motion requested a report on “the applicable policy framework in the area and consider developing additional urban design and built form guidelines, including an assessment of heritage resources, to be used to inform the review of current and future development proposals” to Community Council by the second quarter of 2016. The intent of the motion was to address development pressure and inform the City’s approach to development applications in this area, prior to individual development applications.

Recent reports of real estate activity along Bloor West between suggest that some properties are being consolidated for development purposes.