St. Lawrence Market Neighbourhood — an ongoing battle for thoughtful development
I live on King Street East, in the St. Lawrence Market Neighbourhood of Old Town Toronto. The neighbourhood is located between Yonge and Parliament Streets and Lakeshore Boulevard to the south and Queen Street to the north.
I moved to this neighbourhood about two years ago and am nestled in a sweet location between all the conveniences one could want as a resident in Toronto. The King Streetcar runs right at my doorstep, St. Lawrence Market is a mere four-minute walk away and the Distillery District another ten — my morning walk down Lower Sherbourne Street to the waterfront has become a meditative ritual during the pandemic. The neighbourhood is vibrant with parks, local eateries, bars, small bookshops, boutiques and art galleries, plant shops and fitness studios. Close to the financial and entertainment districts, yet away from the hustle and the crowds, St. Lawrence Market Neighbourhood has a “community-feel” to it, something that I didn’t quite experience when I formerly lived in a high-rise in Toronto’s financial district.
Contributing to the community-spirit is the fact that St. Lawrence Market Neighbourhood has pre-dominantly been a mixed-used neighbourhood. Marked by iconic red-brick facades, the neighbourhood contains low and medium-rise buildings, lofts, condominiums, and cooperative apartments alike. Interior streets boast three storeyed townhouses, surrounded by medium-rise apartments. David Crombie Park along the Esplanade joins the north and south ends of the community and provides invaluable amenities to residents (park, playground, basketball court, walkable promenade).
Largely devoid of tall skyscrapers, Old Town Toronto is ripe for new high-rise development, signs of which are visible around the neighbourhood. A walk around the neighbourhood will lead one to notice several large blue City of Toronto notice boards of proposed change to zoning by-laws to allow constructions of tall residential buildings. Within a 300-metre walk from my home are 5 new proposed high-rise developments, all on the same street.
Many of these proposed development applications are slated to replace local businesses and amenities in the area. The COVID-19 pandemic has been hard on small businesses in the neighbourhood, many never recovered. The streets are quieter, and many shop-windows are boarded up and hold “For-lease” signs.
The neighbourhood is also slated to lose the only grocery store (No Frills) in the area that serves everyone east of Jarvis St. and south of Queen St. East, including the Distillery District and Corktown Neighbourhoods. The proposed 39-storey new redevelopment will replace a Dollarama, a CIBC branch, an LCBO, in addition to the No Frills grocery store.
On May 5 2021, the city of Toronto adopted amendments to zoning bylaws to restrict heights of new development in the King-Parliament area. Along Queen St. E, buildings will be capped at either 25 or 30m, and in Old Town Toronto, building heights will be capped at 12, 16, 60, 72 and 90 metres, depending on the type.
Architecture critic Alex Bozikovic called this a “profoundly bad policy” in a series of tweets.
Both the King-Parliament Secondary Plan and the zoning by-laws have been appealed to the Ontario Land Tribunal and are not currently in full force and effect. Almost all new development proposals in the neighbourhood stand over 90 metres in height.
Residents of the St. Lawrence Market Neighbourhood are not necessarily anti-development. However, many have expressed concerns over increasing traffic levels in the area, impacts on heritage structures in the neighbourhood and the lack of amenities to serve the population. These sentiments were echoed in the public community consultation meeting for the proposed 40 storey condo at 234–250 King St E. held on April 2021 that I also attended. 75% of the units in this proposed development are studio or 1-bedroom. Community members in the consultation also expressed frustrations that the high proportion of 1-bedroom and smaller units will cater to investors and not end-user families who want to stay and thrive in the neighbourhood long-term.
The St. Lawrence Neighbourhood Association (SNLA) advocates on behalf of the 35,000 residents of this neighbourhood and has championed many causes to protect heritage and ensure responsible development in the neighbourhood. One such cause of importance is the First Parliament Historic site located at Front Street East and Parliament Street, spanning a full block.
The First Parliament Site was the location of the first and second Parliament buildings of Upper Canada, built in 1797 and 1820 respectively. Community members have engaged with the City of Toronto for years to plan the use of the site. In 2018, the City of Toronto embarked on a project to create a Master Planning to develop the site for mixed community use, including a library, expanded parkland, a significant affordable housing and more.
In April 2021, the Province of Ontario announced plans to privately develop on the parts of the First Parliament Site, which includes the addition of five new towers, with two 46-storey towers on the north site and three towers of 46, 25 and 24-storeys on the First Parliament site. In addition, the Province is set to expropriate the entire First Parliament site, whose major portions are owned by the City of Toronto to facilitate the construction of the Ontario Line station. These plans threaten to undo the years of work that the City, residents and stakeholders have put into to create the Master Planning proposal for the site.
In the interview with City News below, SNLA representative Suzanne Kavanagh expressed frustrations at the lack of progress with their meetings with Infrastructure Ontario and that SNLA is seeking a heritage interpretation in the development of the site that is “not just a plaque”.
St. Lawrence Market Neighbourhood BIA also put out a media release on December 2021 titled “Condos can be built anywhere, there is only one first parliament site”, expressing disappointment at Infrastructure Ontario’s most recent proposal of the site.
Despite challenges and concerns, the St. Lawrence Market Neighbourhood has never been immune to development. The three images below taken from the same vantage point in 2005, 2015 and 2020 depict changing skylines and construction cranes.
Concluding Thoughts
As a condo-dweller myself, I cannot say that I am entirely opposed to the idea of new development. A path towards solving the housing crisis is to create new supply. However, concerns about an increasing supply of high-rise residential condos where majority of living spaces are designed under 500 sq. ft., without considerations and planning for amenities in the neighbourhood and the preservation of historic elements are more than valid. When St. Lawrence Neighbourhood was first designed and constructed, it was lauded as an example of the ideal urban neighbourhood — with high-density mixed use buildings, set at both market and affordable co-operative structures of ownership and rentals, allowing for an influx of middle-class families to live and thrive in an accessible community. A similar thoughtfulness is imperative in the design of newer additions to the community. Only restrictions to the building height won’t achieve this — new developments and redevelopments must align with the long-term planning of the community and the city, instead of random ivory towers every corner.
