STAFF REPORT

To: North York Community Council

From: Rob Dolan, Director, Community Planning, North District

Subject:FINAL REPORT

Zoning by-law Amendment Application UDZ-99-16

77, 79 83 Spring Garden Avenue and 153 Doris Avenue.

Zoning By-law Amendment Application UDZ-99-28

85,89,93, and 95 Spring Garden Avenue.

Oxford Hills Development

Ward 10-North York Centre

Purpose:

This report recommends approval to amend the Zoning By-law to permit 43 condominium townhouse units on properties known as 153 Doris Avenue and 77 to 95 Spring Garden Avenue.

Financial Implications and Impact Statement:

None.

Recommendations:

It is recommended that the application be approved, subject to the following:

(1)The R4 zoning on the site be amended to a RM1 to permit townhouses subject to the following provisions:

The only permitted uses shall be multiple attached dwellings.

RM1 Exception Regulations

(a)The maximum number of units shall be 43.

(b)The maximum Gross Floor Area shall be 8874 m².

(c)The building setbacks and distances between buildings be established as generally indicated on Attachment 1.

(d)The maximum height of any building or structure shall be as shown on Attachment 1.

(f)The minimum yard setbacks shall be as shown on Schedule

Attachment 1.

(g)There shall be no minimum lot area requirement.

(h)There shall be no maximum lot coverage requirement.

(i)There shall be no minimum street frontage requirement.

(j)Two parking spaces shall be provided per dwelling unit.

(m)The provisions of this By-law shall apply collectively to the

lands shown as Attachment 1 notwithstanding their division into two or more parcels.

(n)Section 6(7) of By-law 7625 shall not apply.

(o) Notwithstanding Section 6(9) of By-law 7625,

Exterior stairways, retaining walls and balconies may project into theinterior and exterior yard setbacks not more than 2 metres.

(p)Section 15.8 of By-law 7625 shall not apply."

(2)Prior to the introduction of the Bill in Council:

(A)The applicant will have obtained Site Plan Approval from the Director, Community Planning, North District with particular attention given to the comments of Civic Officials set out in Attachments 4 to 13 of this report.

(B)The conditions of the Policy and Development Division of the Economic Development, Culture & Tourism Department, attached as Attachment 6, shall be fulfilled.

(C)The conditions of the Technical Services Division, Works and Emergency Services Department, attached as Attachment 5, shall be fulfilled.

(D)The conditions of the Transportation Services Division, Works and Emergency Services Department, attached as Attachment 4, shall be fulfilled.

(E)The applicant shall have granted joint easements with adjacent property owners and in favour of the City with respect to the provisions of the private road network.

Background:

A previous Preliminary Evaluation Report for the application at 77, 79, 83 Spring Garden Avenue and 153 Doris Avenue was adopted by North York Community Council on July 15, 1999 (UDZ-99-16 and UDSP-99-073). Terraventure Group submitted a separate Zoning By-law application and Site Plan Approval application (UDZ-99-28 and UDSP-99-125) for the property to the east known as 85, 89, 93, and 95 Spring Garden Avenue on September 21, 1999. Oxford Hills Development purchased the property from Terraventure Group. A further Preliminary Report was adopted by North York Community Council on January 18, 2000 recognising that both properties are subject to the above referenced rezoning applications and that both the rezoning and site plan applications would be processed concurrently.

Comments:

Site Description:

77, 79, and 83 Spring Garden Avenue and 153 Doris Avenue are an assembly of lots located on the south-east corner of Spring Garden Avenue and Doris Avenue. The property presently is occupied by a single-family house and an accessory garage. 85, 89, 93, and 95 Spring Garden Avenue are presently occupied by four single-family houses.

Recently built single family homes are located on the north side of Spring Garden Avenue.

The property to the east has been the subject of a Rezoning Application (UDZ-96-01), Site Plan Approval Application (UDSP-97-183) and a subsequent Ontario Municipal Board hearing. The Site Plan Application has been finalised. An order from the Ontario Municipal Board regarding the zoning by-law has been issued which has the affect of permitting three and four storey townhouse units (see Context Plan, Attachment 3).

The property to the south and west, at 139 - 147 Doris Avenue has zoning in full force and effect that permits 24 townhouse units

Proposal:

The applicant proposes to develop the combined sites with 43 three and four storey townhouses with five units fronting Doris Avenue and nine units fronting Spring Garden Avenue.

 The pertinent statistics of the proposal are shown below:

Official Plan:

The property is located in the Downtown of the North York Centre and is designated Downtown Residential One (DR1) This designation permits residential uses up to a maximum density of 1.5 times the area of the lot. (See attachment "Official Plan")

The lands are also subject to Section 12.6, Downtown Site Specific Policies, of Official Plan Amendment 447 (North York Centre Secondary Plan), which permits residential uses, with a maximum height limit of 11 metres or three storeys, whichever is less, on Spring Garden Avenue and 18 meters or six storeys, whichever is less, on Doris Avenue and the interior of the site.

Zoning By-law:

The site is zoned R4 (One-Family Detached Dwelling Fourth Density) which does not permit townhouses. (See attachment "Zoning".)

Site Plan:

The Site Plan application has been reviewed by staff and will be approved following North York Community Council's adoption of this report. Site plan approval shall be consistent with the conditions outlined in this report and the draft conditions of site plan approval described on Attachment 14.

Comments from Other Departments:

The Policy and Development Division, Economic Development, Culture and Tourism has indicated that they will require an on-site parkland dedication of 108.69 m2 in addition to a cash-in-lieu payment to make up the shortfall for the statutory parkland dedication. They also require a landscape plan, at the applicant's expense, for the proposed dedication. In addition the applicant must execute a Tree Preservation Agreement and Limiting Distance agreement prior to entering into a site plan agreement (Attachment 6).

The Technical Services Division, Works and Emergency Services Department have provided comments related to roadways, storm sewers, sanitary sewers, service connections, and solid waste and recycling collection. The applicant will be required to comply with the requirements outlined in their memoranda dated July 13, 1999 and November 1, 1999 (Attachments 5). In particular, they have advised that because the applicant will rely on access through adjacent properties to the east and west to access the southern portion of the site, the applicant must verify that they have obtained permanent 8.5 metre wide rights-of-way for the private road looped to a public road. Failing this, a 12.50 metre pavement radius or equivalent hammerhead must be provided on the applicant's site.

The Transportation Services Division, Works and Emergency Services have responded by memorandum dated February 24, 2000 to the concerns raised at the community consultation meeting related to parking and sight-line concerns. The applicant will be required to comply with comments related to access and parking detailed in their memorandum dated March 2, 2000 (Attachment 4). Subsequent to these comments, Transportation Services Division advises that there shall be no encroachment onto the 8.5 metre wide private road and further that each driveway shall have a minimum length of 5.5 metres measured from the 8.5 metre road limit.

The Healthy Environments Division, Community and Neighbourhood Services has indicated they have no outstanding Public Health requirements pertaining to soils on the site (Attachment 7).

The Fire Department have advised verbally that the westerly private road parallel to Doris and the private road parallel to Spring Garden Avenue will require a 12.5 metre centreline radius at the north-east and south-east corners to facilitate turning movements for fire trucks. This requirement can be accommodated and will be secured as a condition of site plan approval.

Community Consultation:

A community consultation was held on December 1, 1999. Councillor Filion and Councillor Gardner were in attendance in addition to the applicant, his architect, and planning staff. Approximately 13 members of the public attended. Following are some of the concerns and comments that were raised:

-that overnight parking and parking in general will be a problem on Spring Garden and the maximum parking rate is not adequate for this area.

-the look and quality of this development should be co-ordinated with neighbouring townhouse developments in terms of improved landscaping, street lighting and other streetscape improvements.

-the through private road from Doris Avenue to Kenneth Avenue should be examined with the possibility of a road configuration that allows traffic to only go southbound at Kenneth Avenue.

Comments:

(1)Land Use:

The proposal which is located within the North York Centre Secondary Plan, consists of residential townhouses that conform with the permitted uses of the Official Plan and are an appropriate form of land use for this area. Townhouses are a suitable built form that provides an appropriate transition between the stable residential uses to the east and higher density uses in the North York Centre to the west.

(2)Urban Design:

In response to community concerns about the co-ordination within neighbouring townhouse developments; the entire block east of Doris Avenue and south of Spring Garden Avenue has been consolidated under three separate ownerships. The resulting benefit has been a shared, more efficient traffic system with parking restricted to garages and driveways at the rear of units. The public streetscape is improved with units fronting onto public roads that incorporate more soft landscaping by reducing multiple driveways and curb cuts. Similar approaches to parking and orientation of units has been achieved with adjacent developments that were recently approved by the City.

An objective in the approval of the townhouse development to the south was the acquisition of a parkland conveyance along the frontage of Doris Avenue to enhance the service road buffer area and act as a linear landscaped connection to Hollywood Park to the north. A 108.69 m2 strip of land along Doris Avenue frontage has been incorporated into the site plan conditions to provide for a continuation of the northerly extension of the linear park.

3.Parking and Access:

Community members were concerned that parking in general will be a problem on Spring Garden and the maximum parking rate in the Official Plan was not adequate for the area.

The Transportation Services Division, Works and Emergency Services have advised that 2 parking spaces, including visitor parking, are required for each dwelling unit. While the applicant's proposal now consists of two parking spaces per unit for units fronting on Spring Garden Avenue and Doris Avenue and one space for each interior unit, the applicant has agreed to revise his plans to meet this requirement.

4.Spring Garden Cul-de-sac:

Concurrent with the development of the properties affected by UDSP-97-183, east of the subject property, is the relocation of the existing cul-de-sac at the west end of Spring Garden Avenue at Doris Avenue to the east end of Spring Garden Avenue at Kenneth Avenue. The new cul-de-sac is intended to discourage downtown traffic from entering the neighbourhoods to the east.

5.Reopening of Greenfield Avenue:

A suggestion raised by area residents concerned the reopening of Greenfield Avenue east of Doris Avenue.

In response, the Transportation Services Division of Works and Emergency Services advised by memorandum dated February 24, 2000 that the City does not own any right-of-way east of the intersection of Doris Avenue and Greenfield Avenue. All transportation studies conducted for the North York Centre, did not include such a link and its need was never identified. Finally, the transportation plan for the Centre has as one of its main objectives, the separation of development generated traffic from the adjacent stable residential area.

In addition, the North York Centre Plan contemplates access from lands in the City Centre area to the Service Roads, and determines specific roads to connect to the neighbouring residential areas. A through connection from Doris Avenue to Kenneth Avenue at this location does not meet this policy.

6.Access:

A private road from Spring Garden Avenue provides access to the garages and 12 of the interior condominium units. Seventeen of the interior condominium units are accessed by a private road traversing the southerly portion of the property which will continue through the lands to the east and west. Once completed all access will be provided to Spring Garden Avenue and Doris Avenue.

7.Pedestrian Walkways:

Two 1.5 metre walkways on the north and south private roads are connected by a mid-block pedestrian walkway. This ensures a continuous connection between the southern portion of the property to Spring Garden Avenue.

8.Private Road Plan:

The southerly portion of the proposed private road (8.5 metre width) extends through adjacent properties to the east and west. The roads are intended to be aligned to connect with the road portion of this site allowing future residents unrestricted access over the entire block as shown in the context plan (Attachment 3). The applicant will be required to seek reciprocal rights-of-way through the Committee of Adjustment thereby allowing access over three development sites.

Council policy discourages freehold housing on private roads. All 43 units in this proposal require access from a private road, therefore condominium ownership will be required. Proposed changes to the Condominium Act enable common elements such as common private driveways to be registered as a common elements condominium. These changes to the Condominium Act are expected to be in force in the very near future. Should this occur, the applicant may proceed to register the shared common elements as a separate condominium description.

   Conclusions:

This proposal conforms to the density limits, permitted uses and height requirements set out in the Official Plan. Issues relating to parks dedication, landscaping and urban design have been resolved.

Undertaking concurrent site plan and rezoning review has accomplished a development that has secured the extension of the linear park on Doris Avenue, minimised the number of curb cuts, provided protection to the mature trees on Spring Garden Avenue, and allows for the orderly integration of a private road system with adjacent development. The result has been a comprehensive development of the block that is a good fit in the neighbourhood.

Approval of the rezoning application is therefore recommended.

Contact Name:

Dennis Glasgow

Community Planning, North District

Telephone: (416) 395-7109

 ____________________

Rob Dolan

Director,

Community Planning, North District

List of Attachments:

Zoning map

Official Plan map

1. Site Plan

2Elevations

3Context Plan

4 to 13Comments of Civic Officials

14Draft Site Plan Conditions