Many Toronto development proposals have been growing larger with greater density via resubmissions of late — meanwhile, 1 Adriatic is going the other way. BV Realty Partners has resubmitted Official Plan Amendment and Zoning By-law Amendment applications for a site just east of Islington Avenue and south of Highway 401. Significant drops in the heights of two towers only entail a small decrease in total units, however thanks to an additional tower now proposed.
The site is a consolidation of detached dwellings, municipally referred to as 1-19 and 2-20 Adriatic Road, at the northeast corner of Islington Avenue and Lemsford Road. Just 400m south of Highway 401, the site is bisected by Adriatic Road to form two halves that originally totalled about 9,648m² in area. When UrbanToronto last wrote about the project, 2 Adriatic Road was the lone holdout in the developer’s acquisition of land parcels along the street; with its addition the area of the site is now 10,383m².
A year later, the initial proposal from April, 2022 has gone from three towers to four, with each designated a block in the development scheme. Part of the review of the initial proposal revolved around flight procedures related to nearby Lester B Pearson Airport, and based on feedback, the tower heights had to be adjusted. The previous three building designs were 19, 34, and 38 storeys; the resubmission has all three at 22 storeys or 72m, with the new fourth tower standing 17 storeys or 61m.
The new tower is located in the southwest corner of the site, that area originally served as a POPS (Privately-Owned Publicly accessible Space) and public park adjacent to 2 Adriatic Road, which is no longer the case now that the parcel is owned by the developer. As a result of the additional building minus the shorter versions of two of the other towers, the total number of proposed units on the site has decreased only slightly from 1,044 to 979.
Each building would be generously serviced by three elevators; this would place them all well below the threshold of 1 elevator per 100 suites, decreasing wait times for residents. It also means an additional elevator compared to the 11 of the original proposal which had more total units.
Architects superkül have kept the 6-storey podiums for the larger buildings, while what was previously the 19-storey tower has been redesigned to include three additional storeys and a larger L-shaped podium. The new fourth tower has an L-shaped podium of four storeys fronting onto open space. The proposed parkland has been removed based on City staff advising it would not be required.
The total amenity space has been increased from 3,811m² to 4,310m². The indoor amenities proposed have decreased, but this is made up for by the significantly increased outdoor amenities at 2,321m².
The design of the block structure has remained mostly the same, and would utilize a new private road for access. The road would extend from Islington Avenue directly opposite Monogram Place, providing access to Islington via a traffic-light-controlled intersection, and connect to Adriatic Road. Three levels of underground parking would be accessed via the cul-de-sac at the north end of the site.
For drivers, the revised proposal would keep the residential parking spaces to 581, while decreasing visitor spots from 119 to 51. For cyclists, the total number of bicycle parking spots is increased from 785 to 950, of which 69 would be for short-term use. For pedestrians, the site is 125m from the Westhampton bus stop served by the TTC’s 937 Islington Express bus route that connects to Islington station on Bloor Line 2.
UrbanToronto will continue to follow progress on this development, but in the meantime, you can learn more about it from our Database file, linked below. If you’d like, you can join in on the conversation in the associated Project Forum thread or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.
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CORRECTION: A previous version of this story failed to cite the new developer that has taken on this site. The new developer is now listed.
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