{"id":1114,"date":"2006-08-31T11:58:10","date_gmt":"2006-08-31T15:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=1114"},"modified":"2006-08-31T12:08:40","modified_gmt":"2006-08-31T16:08:40","slug":"queen-and-portland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/08\/31\/queen-and-portland\/","title":{"rendered":"Queen and Portland"},"content":{"rendered":"

The large parking lot at Portland between Queen West and Richmond<\/a> is one of the last major undeveloped sections of Queen Street West, and as such holds great potential to contribute or detract from this vibrant street.<\/p>\n

Rumours have swirled around this site for years, but this Tuesday (August 29), there was a meeting at the back of the Cameron House organized by long-time local activist Deanne Taylor where we finally heard some hard information.<\/p>\n

The lot has been purchased by RioCan, a large commercial developer. They have been in talks with various types of retailers, probably including Home Depot, about building a store there. The as-of-right zoning for the area is, on the Richmond side, 23 metres (about 7 storeys) plus 3 meters set back; on the Queen side, 13 metres (4 storeys) plus 3 metres set back. The probable plan would be two storeys of retail along Queen (cheaper to build than 5 storeys) and a residential tower along Richmond.<\/p>\n

The good news is that there is a city-owned laneway (a continuation of graffiti alley) that bisects the property east-west, separating it into two lots. The city has, fortunately, not yet sold it off. This laneway gives the City and the community some real leverage in making sure that the developer builds something that enhances rather than detracts from the neighbourhood. The key is making sure the city does not sell it off for a quick buck, but rather uses it as leverage to make sure the development is a postive one. (Three candidates for local councillor — Adam Vaughan, Helen Kennedy, and Chris Ouellette — were at the meeting, and all appear to be onside with this idea, which is promising).<\/p>\n

Another potential lever is the Queen Street Heritage Conservation District Study<\/a>, which has just been published and is up for approval this fall. This is an excellent study, and if implemented it could be used to push developers to build something that fits into Queen Street (such as narrow storefronts that encourage independent businesses).<\/p>\n

One idea that was discussed in the lead-up to the study was to make this strip of Queen West a well-designed wide-sidewalk zone, amenable to patios and sidewalk displays, like the very successful strip on the north side of Queen between Soho and Spadina. Such a plan would create a focus and destination area for this section of Queen West. (The area would be shaded on hot summer days, but would receive the evening summer sun, so it could well be attractive). There could perhaps be a little plaza at the corner of Queen and Portland. It would be a reasonable tradeoff for the city giving up the public space of the laneway, and it would create a new and vibrant public space in Toronto.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The large parking lot at Portland between Queen West and Richmond is one of the last major undeveloped sections of Queen Street West, and as such holds great potential to contribute or detract from this vibrant street. Rumours have swirled around this site for years, but this Tuesday (August 29), there was a meeting atContinue reading “Queen and Portland”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4006,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,20],"tags":[1050,3195,3196,750,3200,3198,3197,1434,428,316,2426,3199,19],"class_list":["post-1114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-neighbourhoods","category-urban-design","tag-adam-vaughan","tag-chris-ouellette","tag-deanne-taylor","tag-helen-kennedy","tag-home-depot","tag-large-commercial-developer","tag-local-activist","tag-local-councillor","tag-portland","tag-queen","tag-retail","tag-riocan","tag-toronto"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nQueen and Portland - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/08\/31\/queen-and-portland\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Queen and Portland - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The large parking lot at Portland between Queen West and Richmond is one of the last major undeveloped sections of Queen Street West, and as such holds great potential to contribute or detract from this vibrant street. 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