Update on some of the items that are brewing in the West Queen West area.
West Queen West Neighbourhood Party:
We’ve been talking about this for a year now!
There are so many new residents in this area – the Steering Committee wants to organize a big ole – Lets Meet Each Other party.
We’re working on a local venue right now and hoping that we can organize something to happen in Feb or Mar.
Why: so many residents that have lived in this neighbourhood – prior to condos arriving – have been committed to making this area vibrant and liveable. Hey New Neighbours meet the folks who have been here for years.
Large Community Meeting:
Why: There are some major developments that are about to happen in YOUR neighbourhood.
The development proposals deal with these addresses:
11 Peel Avenue – Streetcar Development (thinking about a few 21 storey towers that span Peel to Queen)
440-444 Dufferin Avenue – Official City development proposal boards are up in front of the development site. 3 towers ranging from 24 storeys to 4 storeys are proposed. A community meeting run by the city looks like it will be happening soon.
Price Chopper Lands – Rumours fly every so often about the property being sold.
Active 18 has been requesting that the entire area North of Queen up Dufferin be treated with a Secondary Plan to control overbuilding like the Triangle South of Queen. The city has no money to do this work. We still believe it may be the only tool that we have to manage overbuilding. York Master of Environmental Studies students produced 3 Plans for this area (available on this site under documents). We are looking for help and ideas on how to get a Secondary Plan produced – one that will be accepted by the City.
Dufflets (Dovercourt and Sudbury) – technically in Mike Layton’s ward – although those are virtual boundaries – a proposal for a 13 storey building is in front of the city now.
When is this meeting going to happen?
We are looking into space that can accommodate a large community group – and is free.
Lisgar Park:
A few of the Active 18 Steering Committee members have been participating in the City of Toronto run ‘Working Group’ set out to give input to the hired Landscape Architects and Park Designers.
There have been a number of public meetings where the Landscape Architect firm (Victor Ford and Associates) have presented designs and have received public feedback.
The Working Group was shown “Design Number 6” – which seems to be moving along in the right direction.
In the fall, the City and Victor Ford Associates hosted a meeting with a number of Public Art Consultants to get a discussion going around how to integrate a changing programme of public art into the park space.
Active 18 has been lobbying the developer of 48 Abell for years to save and donate some of the beams from the old warehouse. We’re happy to say that 36 of the beams have been collected by Victor Ford and Associates and are being stored and assessed for best use in the park.
We have also all agreed that having a fully wired park will set the ‘stage’ for all the potential and as yet unknown projects that we hope will take place in the park.
Art Hub at Lisgar Park:
Active 18 has also been at the table – with the Developer, City Planning, Ward Councillor Bailao, City Culture, Levitt Goodman Architects, supporting a plan to build a new Not-for-Profit Arts Hub at the south end of Lisgar Park. This 30,000 square foot space will front the park and be home to 8 or 10 Arts advocacy groups, Film and Video Festival organizations, Artist-Run Media Training/Sharing groups, Galleries and hopefully a 200 seat cinema for alternative and experimental film and video.
Active 18 has long worked on keeping the west queen west precinct an active place for cultural production and consumption – and keeping the public realm an interesting and active place for people to live and work.