Community Consultation Meeting held February 28

Although urbantoronto.ca applauds this development, local residents attending this community consultation meeting at Metro Hall raised several issues.

Owners of units at the condominium on 32 Camden Street were concerned that the south edge of the proposed building would be so close to the north edge of their own.  Interestingly nobody from the Fabrik condominium complained that the proposed building would completely block their west-facing windows.

Local residents remember 2011 when the Fabrik condominium, directly east of this site, found its rezoning application challenged.  Deemed too tall, City Council directed planners "to continue negotiations with the applicant for 431, 441 and 445 Richmond Street West with the goal of reaching a settlement that achieves an appropriate transition in building height to the prevailing built form and context in the West Precinct of the King-Spadina Secondary Plan Area". The "settlement" granted the requested height at the east side of the building as long as the west side of the building sloped downwards to “transition” as desired. Using the maximum height of the Fabrik building as justification for the maximum height of the 457 Richmond development should therefore be considered flawed. 

Residents pointed out that there was no accommodation for service/delivery vehicles, complicated by the fact that there is no parking curbside and that Richmond West bends at that point in the road, creating a blind spot.

457 Richmond West is currently a 2 storey warehouse building which the developers do not plan to preserve.  Though not designated heritage, this 1950s building is on the list of buildings in the King Spadina Heritage Conservation District (HCD) that have been frozen from demolition for a one-year duration, as described here.