RECOMMENDATION:
That a Public Meeting be held with respect to Official Plan Amendment
(OP 04 006802) and Zoning By-law Amendment (ZA 04 006805) applications submitted
by IBM Canada Limited to permit a new Toyota automobile dealership at 3300 Steeles Avenue East.
PURPOSE:
IBM Canada Limited (the current property owner) has submitted
applications for official plan amendment and rezoning, on behalf of Don Valley North
Automobile Inc. (prospective purchaser), to permit a new Toyota automobile
dealership at 3300 Steeles Avenue East.
The purpose of this report is to provide preliminary information on the
official plan amendment and rezoning applications, and to recommend that a
statutory public meeting be held with respect to the applications.
BACKGROUND:
Property and area context
The 2.339 ha (5.78 acres) property is located at the northwest corner of
Steeles Avenue and Victoria Park Avenue (See Figure 1). The site contains a significant number of
trees, hedges and shrubs along the perimeter of the site. There are no structures or buildings situated
on the property. The existing grades within the site are significantly higher
than the surrounding lands (as high as 2.5 to 3 metres higher near the centre
of the site).
To the north of the site, across Torbay Road, is a vacant parcel of land
also currently owned by IBM Canada Limited but conditionally sold to Don Valley North
Automobile Inc. as a package deal involving the subject lands (A dealership
representative has indicated that once the dealership takes title to this
property it will be reviewed for potential office development and/or put on the
market for sale). To the west, abutting the subject property,
is an industrial building fronting onto Torbay Road and an office building fronting onto Steeles Avenue. To the east,
across Victoria Park
Avenue is a
high quality office building currently occupied by the Maritime Life Assurance
Co. and TD Waterhouse.
To the south, across Steeles Avenue, are more commercial office buildings (See Figures 2 & 3).
Proposal is for a new Toyota automobile
dealership
The applicant has submitted applications to amend the official plan and
the zoning by-law, as well as a site plan application, on behalf of Don Valley
North Automobile Inc. to permit a new Toyota automobile dealership having a
total gross floor area of 9474 m2 (101,983 ft2).
The existing Don Valley North Toyota dealership at 3120 Steeles Avenue east, located about 200 metres to the west of the subject
site, has been at that location in Markham since 1972 and currently contains a combination Toyota and Lexus dealership.
The applicant has indicated that due to sales volume, customer service
and corporate requirements the dealership management intends to expand their
operation by constructing a freestanding dealership building in close proximity
to the existing dealership. The new
building is intended to accommodate the Toyota component of the operation and would be served by
approximately 170 employees. This
dealership would include a showroom/sales offices, a service centre, an
automatic car wash for customers, as well as a basement area of approximately
1427m2 (15,360 sq.
ft.) to be utilized for general storage, and storage of demonstration vehicles.
The existing dealership building is proposed to be refurbished and used solely
as a Lexus dealership.
Official Plan and Zoning amendments are
required to permit the proposal
The Official Plan designates the subject property “Business Park
Area”. The intent of this designation is
to accommodate a mix of high quality business activities including corporate
head offices and research facilities. In
order to accommodate the proposed dealership an Official Plan amendment is
required. The applicant proposes to
re-designate the lands to “Business Corridor Area”. The Business Corridor Area
category does not permit retail uses involving accessory outdoor storage and/or
display or merchandise and therefore, to accommodate a car dealership, site
specific permission to permit such use is also required.
The subject property is currently zoned Select Industrial and Limited
Commercial [M.C.(80%)] under By-law 108-81, as
amended. The current zoning permits a
variety of industrial, office and limited commercial uses, but does not include
permission for automobile sales and service uses. A site specific zoning amendment is required
to permit the proposed uses.
POTENTIAL BENEFITS OF APPROVAL OF THE
PROPOSAL:
The proposed use would provide the following benefits:
·
Commercial
development and assessment.
·
The massing,
design and materials, at the Steeles Avenue and Victoria Park intersection, do attempt to address the built form
context of prestige office buildings in the area.
·
New vehicle
storage compound is proposed to be located off site.
CONCERNS/ISSUES:
The proponent has been in discussion
with staff from time to time over a number of years in regard to their possible
interest in acquiring the subject lands for automobile dealership use. Planning staff have consistently discouraged
the proposal at this location. We have
advised the proponent, and the current owner of the lands, that the planned
function of the site in the Official Plan is for Business Park use, and
that we wave serious concerns with redesignation or rezoning to permit a retail
use with outdoor storage and display.
The following
is a brief summary of concerns/issues raised to date. These matters, and any
others identified through the circulation and detailed review of the proposal,
will be addressed in a final staff report to be presented to Committee at a
later date:
As
stated above, the lands are currently designated Business Park Area in the
Town’s Official Plan. Business Park
lands are intended to be used for high quality business activities such as
corporate offices and research facilities.
The Steeles Avenue corridor in this vicinity, inclusive of the subject
property, is generally considered as a prime location for office and business
park uses. The current existence of both mature and newer office/business park
development in the area, reflected by the various companies on the north and
south side of Steeles Avenue, including various prestige computer and insurance/finance firms in close
proximity, enhances the value and prestige of the property for a prospective
office/business park employer.
The Town's supply of serviced/ready for development, vacant business
park land is constrained. Furthermore,
available lands in the area south of 14th Avenue, east of Woodbine Avenue and west of Kennedy Road are in even shorter supply and this property presents one of the last
remaining opportunities for prestige office development in this mature, high
quality business area. According to the Town's
vacant land inventory, the property is the last significant vacant
office/business park site with frontage on Steeles Avenue, along this corridor.
The Economic Development staff indicate that
while current office vacancy rates may discourage the construction of
speculative office buildings at this site in the short term, this would not
preclude a large prestige single user with build to suite needs from occupying
the subject property, given its prime location.
The potential loss of Business Park lands is a serious concern, and requires
consideration in a Town wide context, as well as within the context of the
character and status of this immediate area.
Site plan and elevation details need to be
addressed as a condition of any development on these lands
The subject lands are at a highly visible
corner location in a prestige Business Park area. Any future use and building(s) on the site
must demonstrate a high quality of architecture and urban design.
The proposed building is a three storey structure, consisting of two
storey high curtain wall glazing and a one storey high aluminium fascia at the
top, along the Steeles Avenue frontage, anchored by four storey high glazed circular tower
elements. The three storey high
structure with two storey high glazing is continued around the east side of the
building facing Victoria Park Avenue for more than half the building
length. The rear (north) portion of the
building, as viewed from Victoria Park Avenue, has a lower height with precast
concrete panel exterior, with a glazed semi-circular tower element.
The proposed building is positioned close to Steeles Avenue, providing a strong street related presence. However, after a short distance from the
intersection the building has been set back to accommodate three rows of
parking and two driveways with limited landscaping along the Victoria Park
frontage. This is inconsistent with the
extensively landscaped site across Victoria Park Avenue occupied by Maritime Life
Assurance Co. and TD Waterhouse. The
applicant has agreed to investigate opportunities to bring architectural
elements that are tied architecturally to the building, such as roof elements
with colonnades, closer to the street line to visually break up the parking
area, as a condition of any future development approval on this site.
The proposed site plan shows a full moves access off Victoria Park, and
a right-in and right-out access from Steeles Avenue. The location
of the Victoria Park Avenue access must be finalized in consultation with the
Engineering Department and the Steeles Avenue access must be approved by the City of Toronto. The plans
also show two additional accesses off Torbay Road, both of which will be gated for security purposes.
Compatibility of outdoor
storage and display with prestige office area
Outdoor storage or display of vehicles is of concern, particularly in
relation to views from
Steeles Avenue and Victoria Park Avenue. The
applicant has indicated that the proposed outdoor vehicle storage at the site
will involve ongoing display of used vehicles, as well as demonstrators and
flow through of new vehicles that are ready for pick-up by customers. A fenced/secured area at the rear of the site
will contain the vehicle storage as well as some employee parking and service
compound parking areas. Employee parking
is also provided for along the west property line, on the west side of the
building. Customer parking is to be
provided adjacent to the southerly section of Victoria Park Avenue on the east side of the building.
While the site plan and elevation details would need to be addressed as
a condition of any development approval, it should be noted that such review is
completely independent of the larger issue of land use policy regarding the
appropriateness of the proposed use at this prime Business Park location.
Tree preservation and on-site landscaping will be reviewed
as a condition of any development
As noted above, the perimeter of the site contains a significant number
of trees. The applicant has submitted a
tree inventory which shows a large number of healthy trees and, under typical
situations, investigation of the opportunities for tree preservation is a key
component of the site plan review process.
However, in this instance the applicant has indicated that due to the
need to remove fill and re-grade the site all the existing trees would have to
be removed. Staff would require a soils
report and/or other consultants report to justify such action prior to development
of this site for any land use.
A preliminary review of the landscape plans have indicated that the
currently proposed 3 metre landscaping strip separating the vehicle storage
compound from the public realm is insufficient to adequately screen or mitigate
the aesthetic impact of the large storage/parking area. In addition, while extensive landscaping in
the form of interlocked paving is shown on the proposed landscape plan, much of
this paving is located on public boulevards and would have to be approved by
appropriate Town departments.
As part of the landscaping efforts the applicant proposes to re-locate
two bus shelters onto the subject property with enhanced waiting areas and
grant any necessary easements to the appropriate authorities such as York
Region Transit and the TTC. However,
such efforts remain to be reviewed with the relevant authorities.
Proposed development has
surplus parking
The parking by-law requires that the proposed automobile dealership be
calculated at a rate of 1 parking space per every 25m2 of the net floor area, plus 1 parking space
per 100 m2 of basement area. Based on the information
provided in the application, the development will require a total of 276
parking spaces, whereas, 345 spaces are proposed for a total surplus of 69
spaces. Appropriateness of this surplus
parking will have to be reviewed having regard for on
site landscaping and buffer requirements.
Potential site constraints
Sanitary Sewer:
Sanitary services are available to serve this site. However, the capacity of the downstream
sanitary sewer system is limited and some sections of the sewer in this general
area surcharge during peak periods. The
introduction of additional sewage into the system during peak periods may
exacerbate the situation. The
Engineering Department’s 2004 budget includes funding to assess the severity of
the situation and to investigate possible solutions. The timing and the cost of any required
improvements remain unclear at this time.
In the meantime, any new development in the area may be required to
implement measures to avoid negative impacts to the system.
The applicant is proposing an expensive temporary servicing scheme that
involves the installation of a private pumping station and holding tank that
would only discharge sewage into the existing sanitary sewer during off peak
periods.
The existing soil may require remediation:
As noted above the existing site grades are significantly higher than
that of surrounding properties.
Submissions included with this application indicate that consulting firms
have confirmed that the site contains a significant amount of native fill
material and organic material and that some gravel, brick and glass is also
present. The applicant’s submissions
also indicate that consultants have recommended that remediation of the
existing soil conditions (ie. removal of the fill) is necessary to facilitate
best engineering practices for building construction. The applicant has yet to submit a detailed
soils report for the Town’s review.
CONCLUSION:
This report identifies loss of Business Park Lands as serious concern
relative to the merit of these applications.
Whereas other issues/concerns identified in this report may be addressed
through the development review process, the main land use issue will
remain. While it would be appropriate
for Committee to schedule a Public Meeting to receive public input on the
proposal, the applicant and Committee are advised, going into the Public
Meeting of the staff concerns.
FINANCIAL
CONSIDERATIONS:
No financial impact at this time.
ENVIRONMENTAL
CONSIDERATIONS:
The issue with respect to the proposed tree removal at
this site has been addressed in this report.
ACCESSIBILITY
CONSIDERATIONS:
Accessibility considerations will be reviewed as part
of the site plan approval process.
BUSINESS UNITS
CONSULTED AND AFFECTED:
The
application was circulated to all Town departments and external agencies, and
their recommendations/comments will be incorporated in the final report.
It would be appropriate to hold a Public Meeting to obtain comments on
the application for official plan amendment and zoning by-law amendment.
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Valerie Shuttleworth, M.C.I.P., R.P.P.
Director of Planning & Urban Design
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Jim
Baird, M.C.I.P., R.P.P.
Commissioner of Development Services
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FILE PATH:
Q:\Development\Planning\APPL\OPAPPS\04006802
Don Valley North Toyota\Toyota - Preliminary report.doc
ATTACHMENTS: Figure 1 – Location Map
Figure
2 – Area Context and Zoning
Figure
3 – Aerial Photo
Figure 4 –
Site Plan
Figure
5 – Elevations
AGENT: Mr. Mike Everard
Augusta
National Inc.
34
Melchior Cresent
Markham, Ontario
L3R
9A4
Tel:
905-944-9709
Fax:
905-944-9710
Cell:
416-464-0145
Figure 1
