Plans to build a 45-storey condominium tower right beside the Royal Alex Theatre got a thumbs-down from Toronto and East York Community Council today - despite what local councillor Adam Vaughan called an "astonishing" design bringing numerous benefits to the area.
"I think this is one of the most astonishing designs to come forward in the past few years and it has many, many characteristics that are beyond supportable," said Vaughan of the plans by developer Brad Lamb and architect Peter Clewes. He praised the building's forecourt, and the way in which it preserves and enhances access to the Royal Alex theatre next door.But Vaughan didn't end up supporting the proposal - because he said the unusually high density would create a precedent for the smaller warehouse buildings surrounding it."What's been happening in this area is that EMPAC has been looking at this area and have decided that all the heritage buildings here have a right to 20 times coverage. The four and six storey buildings here have been seeing their assessment jumps and can't generate anything near the $23 million in additional tax bills. That's incenting the demolition of buildings. It's bankrupting the owners in this area."Vaughan said he wanted to ultimately work with the developers, which would be putting the building up on a surface parking lot. But under current conditions, he couldn't."This is the type of building I would like to build, but to approve this building would be to unleash forces on this neighbourhood that I don't think it could survive."Representatives of the owners spoke to the community council and argued the project was going forward with the blessing of the Mirvish family, which owns the Royal Alex. As well, lawyer Eileen Costello said it would be impossible to construct a kind of point tower like the development at 224 King St. W. anywhere else."This development in and of itself doesn't create a precedent because they can't do what we're doing on our property," she said. "The property next to it is 11 metres in width. You can't do a point tower on something that wide... We're not knocking the dominoes over on King. We're showing how you can recognize and embrace heritage properties."