'CN Tower of Stouffville': Council approves 16-storey condo on Main Street

Topfar Developments Ltd. got an official plan amendment for tower on 5531 Main St.

Yorkregion.com
May 20, 2021
Simon Martin

Main Street in Stouffville is looking up -- quite literally.

Earlier this month, town council approved official plan amendments to allow for a 16-storey condo building with 309 residential units at 5531 Main St. On its website, Topfar Developments is advertising the project as the “so-called CN Tower of Stouffville.” Until the amendment, the maximum height allowed for the building was 10 storeys. Concerned Stouffville residents like Hilary Price believe the new building will set a precedent for Stouffville and similar towers will now proliferate around town.

She moved to Stouffville in 2001 for the country-close-to-the-city feel. “My biggest issue is what happens next time and the next time. I think it is the thin edge of the wedge,” she said.

Gary Jarosz lives across the road from the site in the Baker Hill development and certainly thinks the new height limit approved for the building is significant. “The proposed amendments are not minor in any way,” he said. “The maximum height is an increase of 60 per cent from the current plan.”

Council members and town planners, however, see the matter differently. “What this represents is growing up and not out,” Mayor Iain Lovatt said. “We have a choice on how we are going to grow.”

With a provincial growth target of around 100,000 people by 2041, Lovatt said things have to be done differently or the town will have “miles and miles of cookie-cutter homes.”

Ward 4 Coun. Rick Upton said the development represents good planning. Upton said he pushed for Topfar Developments to include 30 rental units and two bus shelters as part of the project. “Nobody likes change, but change is unavoidable and inevitable,” Upton said. “We must be proactive and plan for the future.”

In order to protect green space in town, Upton said, developments like the 16-storey tower are needed.

Lovatt has heard criticism about how the town is developing and he doesn’t agree. “95 per cent of Whitchurch-Stouffville is protected green space,” he said. “We have an urban area and we are going to grow our density down there.”

The tower was previously proposed to be 18 storeys high, but it was reduced to 16. Since the public meeting last year, there has been further discussions between town staff and Topfar that resulted in the height of the building being reduced to 16 storeys. The building will also step back to a four-storey and one-storey component on the south side of the property. The number of parking spaces was also reduced to 432.

Residents in the Baker Hill neighbourhood voiced their displeasure with the proposal earlier this year.

“I’m not happy about it. I think it would ruin the look of the town,” local resident Elaine Upper said. “It would look so out of place.” Upper said she wouldn’t even want to see the tower at 10 storeys.

“I’m against it. I don’t agree with it,” Joe Kargeradov said. “We are not in downtown Toronto. We are out in the suburbs.”

The change is a big one for Stouffville, which Topfar’s consultant made clear at a public meeting in 2020. “This development would represent the tallest building in Stouffville,” consultant Lincoln Lo said at the time.

It is one of many new higher-density buildings in the works on Main Street at the moment. There is the eight-storey LivGreen project at the old Lion location, as well as the six-storey affordable housing project just east of Metro.

Upton said there are also plans for future development at the corner of Ninth Line and Main Street, as well as the old Canadian Tire location across the road from the Esso Gas station. Developers also have several proposals in the works for development along the Highway 48 corridor, including on the Smart Centre property and on the north side of Hoover Park