Why revamped Dupont Street will likely be more than just another condo mishmash: Hume
“The point was to create a neighbourhood that isn't just a bunch of buildings,” says Councillor Joe Cressy.

TheStar.com
Aug. 15, 2017
Christopher Hume

In most cities, growth is measured building by building. In Toronto, where demand for space is insatiable, it's neighbourhood by neighbourhood.

The latest example is Dupont St. between Spadina and Ossington. So far there's not much to see, but the ad campaigns have been launched and hoardings are up. At last count, there were 10 or so projects in various stages of evolution. Most are lowrise residential slabs with retail and commercial uses added to the mix.

But what makes “The New Dupont,” as developers have dubbed it, interesting is that it's one of Toronto's few preplanned precincts. The best known and most successful instance is the waterfront, which was divided into precincts and laid out long before the first development call was issued. In the case of Dupont, the city planners, prodded into action by local councillors and residents, roused themselves to produce a set of guidelines that give the corridor a serious shot at being more than another condo mishmash that adds up to less than the sum of its parts.

“The city and the community have done the hard work,” explains Councillor Joe Cressy. “The point was to create a neighbourhood that isn't just a bunch of buildings. What we've tried to do is articulate a clear sense of what we want in development. We looked at what was the appropriate height and scale, the appropriate amount of retail and the public realm component. It was a prime example of an attempt to embrace appropriate development and oppose ridiculous development.”

Industry's response indicates that it likes what it sees. Jim Ritchie, Tridel's vice-president of sales and marketing, calls Dupont “a new opportunity for intensification.” His firm, which has two projects on the street, sees it as the start of different type of growth. “We looked at it as a location that will be of more interest to end-users not investors. The size is much larger than the usual; the average unit will be between 1,000 and 1,500 square feet. There's not much of this sort of product available in Toronto. It's quite unlike what we'd do downtown.”

According to Ritchie, the typical buyer will be in his or her mid-40s and looking for something more than 600-square-foot box in a glass-and-steel tower. Clearly, the city's insistence on architectural excellence and enhanced landscaping, which Ritchie calls “the motherhood stuff,” is paying off. So, too, is the nine-storey height limit, which appeals both to buyers and neighbours.

Of course, not all developers were willing to accept the guidelines. Freed Developments has appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board for permission to build a 19-storey mixed-use condo/commercial complex. Freed also wants to build closer than regulations allow to the railway tracks that run parallel to Dupont.

The OMB verdict, which is expected any day, will have a profound influence on how development unfolds along Dupont. Given that two freight trains collided just a year ago near Dupont and Bathurst, the issues are far from theoretical.

That's why all eyes are on the OMB. As well as providing more ammunition for those who believe the board has to go, the situation is a reminder of how even the city's best laid plans are vulnerable to developers and provincial second-guessing. The beauty of the guidelines is that they present a unified vision; they accommodate neighbourhood demands and the economic, political and physical realities of the site.

Dupont, which combines residential on the south side with retail and an old industrial infrastructure on the north, offers a unique opportunity to smooth Toronto's entry into the modern urban age. For the most part, this transition has been clumsy, confusing and haphazard. Rather than solving the problems of yesterday, it has created a whole new set for tomorrow.