At Monday August 10 Council meeting there is a report recommending approval of Official Plan Amendment (OPA) and Zoning Bylaw Amendment (ZBA) to enable the building of a condominium at the site of former Township Office at 2075 King Road. This project is exciting for several reasons. i) It represents a major change in residential options in King City. ii) The plans include commitments to green features in the amended zoning bylaw; and there is intent to include more green features as part of the site plan which will be done later. But, you don’t get such changes without “breaking the mold” of what has been done traditionally: the proposal is 6 stories. The report is comprehensive; the visualizations provided in the schedules are revealing. Some may not like “the look;” I believe there is significant improvement versus what we saw orginally. I don’t believe there is a real argument as to the appropriateness of this site for this degree of intensification: proximity to schools, library, major shopping, public transit. And,intensification is not an option if we are to preserve our open natural spaces where we grow our food and enjoy nature.
I have said that “the mold” for development in King City, particularly on King Road is being broken. I personally have struggled with acceptance of such change because it is so different. Part of the challenge for this specific project is that there are many properties in the immediate area on King Road which are in flux. In last year there have been public meetings for much smaller projects of townhouses or condos on north side of King Road within short distance of this project. Each of them has been different than King City’s tradition; and to add to the uncertainty of what King Road is going to look like in 10 years is the fact that neither of these ones have been approved yet and hence may change. The new King City Library is very different than the former one.
There was a public meeting for this project on November 18, 2019; in July there was a virtual presentation by Zancor of the changes made in response to the November public meeting; I was impressed how much had been modified. At that meeting they presented a lengthy list of green features that they were investigating/considering. I was also pleased to learn at that meeting that there will be a variety of different sized condos which means that we are increasing the range of residential options. At that meeting I identified concern that the inclusion of an indoor pool will lead to higher monthly condo fees which will impact the affordability of the project.
I encourage people to read the report and look at the visualizations in the schedules:
COW #2 – Appendices A to E.pdf
If you have comments submit them to clerks@king.ca by 12pm. Or on same timing register with clerks@king.ca or phone 905 833 4068 to make a verbal deputation to Council during the virtual council meetings at http://king.ca.
Looks really good. Important to have architecture that reflects our time in history, not some phony embellishments from a bygone era. Community gardens on the roof is also timely to include.