500 Duplex AveNUE

500 Duplex Settlement Adopted by City Council

In March 2023 City Council approved a settlement of the zoning by-law amendment appeal for the proposed development at 500 Duplex Avenue. The developer’s initial proposal, detailed below, consisted of two new buildings: an 11-storey building fronting on Roselawn Avenue and a 15-storey building fronting on Montgomery Avenue, both attached to the existing 34-storey rental building. 

Neighbours came together to try to improve this proposal, especially for the tenants in the existing tower who were in danger of having bedroom windows blocked up to the 8th floor if the new buildings were attached to it, and of losing amenities that were very important to them. A 500 Duplex Coalition was formed, with representatives from the 500 Duplex Tenants’ Association, Eglinton Park Residents’ Association, Lytton Park Residents’ Organization, and Stanley Knowles Co-op. The Coalition partners worked together on strategy and priorities with the assistance of planner Terry Mills.

The settlement agreement resulted in:

• Separation between the Buildings
• Improvements for Existing Tenants
• Increased Setbacks
• Reduced Height, Density and Improved Massing
• a New Public Park

Mediation

The Coalition, City of Toronto staff, and the developer participated in three days of mediation. The developer listened to feedback from the Coalition and made changes to the development proposal based on these comments. All parties worked collaboratively to reach a satisfactory settlement. 

The mediation focussed on the following issues:

Buildings Separated

All partners within the 500 Duplex Coalition took issue with the fact that all 3 buildings would be attached up to the 8th storey of the existing tower. This would have created a continuous wall spanning the entire block along Duplex Avenue, appearing as a canyon when viewed from the street. We felt the greatest improvement that could be achieved would be to break the new buildings apart from the existing tower, creating 3 distinct buildings and breaking up the massing along Duplex Avenue. We are pleased to report that the settlement will result in a separation distance of 11m (36ft) between each of the new buildings and the existing tower.

Existing Tenants

Through the negotiations, significant improvements have been secured for existing tenants. The initial proposal involved attaching the new buildings to the existing buildings. This would have resulted in the removal of windows from north- and south-facing units where the existing building would have been attached to the new buildings, requiring the relocation of tenants from these units. The windows from these units no longer need to be removed as the buildings will now be separated above the first floor. The inconvenience to tenants has been mitigated.

Through a proposed connection on the first floor, existing tenants will have access to the amenities in the new buildings, free of charge. This includes a new swimming pool to replace the existing swimming pool which will be demolished to accommodate the development. It will also include the replacement of the existing convenience store within the building, which many residents rely on. Tenants have had input on the new amenities to be provided.

Increased Setbacks

The new buildings as initially proposed each had setbacks of approximately 3m (10ft) each from Montgomery, Duplex and Roselawn Avenues. The negotiated settlement doubles the setback of the south building along Montgomery to 6m (20ft), the setback of both new buildings along Duplex has increased to 5.2m (17ft) and the setback of the north building to Roselawn has been increased to 4.7m (15ft). By achieving greater setbacks on all sides, there will be more landscaped area around the buildings and more room to grow healthy trees. Additionally, there will be no underground parking beneath the increased setbacks to improve tree growing conditions. There will be a double row of trees along Duplex and Roselawn. A double row of trees is not possible along Montgomery due to the presence of utilities below the ground. Pushing the buildings back from the sidewalk both softens the visual impact and widens the buffer for the first-floor units, encouraging them to raise their blinds and eye the street.

Reduced Height, Density and Improved Massing

In addition to the changes noted above, the height of the south building has been reduced from 15 storeys to 12 storeys. Both of the proposed buildings now include more generous step-backs facing all three streets, with the upper floors terracing away from the streets. This will create an improved transition to the surrounding neighbourhood and mitigate the impact on each of the three side streets. The total density of the new buildings has decreased by 18%. The total number of new units proposed has dropped from 621 to 523, a reduction of 16%.

New Public Park

A new public park will be provided at the southwest corner of the site, fronting on Montgomery Avenue. The park will be 929m2 (10,000ft2), the equivalent of 10% of the site area. This is the same size as originally proposed by the developer. The Toronto Parkland By-law would have required a 15% parkland dedication; this became a moot point, however, when in November 2022, the Ontario Government capped parkland requirements for developers at 10% of a site for sites less than 5 hectares in size. The new public park will be City-owned. The new south building will be setback 5m (16ft) from the new park.

To read the Official Memorandum of Oral Decision from the Ontario Land Tribunal’s see OLT July 2023 Decision. The latest renderings can be seen here: 500 Duplex OLT Visual Evidence_2023June2