Trinity-Spadina Councillor Adam Vaughan is holding design charrettes in the community surrounding the old Canada Malting silos to determine the best use for the site - a use that won't include parking to service an expanding island airport.
"We have to do something," said Vaughan, following a community meeting Oct. 21 on the future of the site. "The neighbourhood is pretty clear that they want to see a development there - but not one that overwhelms the site with too much activity, because it's in a fairly confined area."Vaughan is worried because he's heard interest expressed in transforming the site, currently occupied by historic concrete silos formerly operated by Canada Malting, into a space that would include parking."I can assure you that's not a position that this city, this councillor or the neighbourhood, or even the culture department that has carriage over this property, thinks is good city planning," he said. "We will not pave to the water's edge to park cars. We won't build a parking garage and lose heritage."Vaughan is at work with the community to find a future for the site at the foot of Bathurst Street even as Toronto's executive committee gets ready to decide the future of the complex.Built in 1929, the silos are currently owned by the city and zoned for parkland. The question of what to do with the soaring concrete structures has been up in the air. Most recently, the city considered using them as a site for the Toronto Museum project.But in 2007, a structural study showed there had been significant deterioration of the site. And in the summer, the city's facilities staff had been prepared to recommend demolishing the site and retaining only symbolic remnants of the towers.Staff have been working to come up with alternatives, after the city's heritage division objected.So on Nov. 2, the executive committee will look at a phased redevelopment of the site that will include preserving two silos. The first phase would cost $12.2 million over this year and next. Additional improvements would cost about $9 million, and be paid for by redevelopment of a portion of the site.