Is Liberty Village full? Residents push back against proposed 43-storey tower
Please see below article in the Toronto Star published today.
It was 2015 when Victor Leung decided to move to the growing neighbourhood of Liberty Village. Toronto was hosting the Pan American Games, Toronto FC made it to the playoffs for the first time and the Marlies were on their way to finishing first in the American Hockey League.
"Liberty Village had lots to offer when I moved, with a strong sense of community with the (residents' association) and district architecture," said Leung, who is now president of his condo board at 125 Western Battery Rd. "Not to mention, unique restaurants and a start-up hub."
What really sold him on the downtown west area, though, was the view from his 30-storey condo and the proximity to the grounds for festivals, sports events and conferences. He could be in the city without being in "concrete jungle" of the core.
But in recent years that's changed as more towers have sprung up, and Leung says his community is going from bustling to busting at the seams.
"I feel like Liberty Village is losing its identity with more and more condos popping up."
Leung is one of several residents pushing back against a mixed-use 43-storey tower proposed for Liberty Village’s north end, citing fears it would disrupt the existing neighbourhood’s character and services.
An online petition launched after the application went to city hall last October has garnered nearly 1,800 signatures from residents who argue the area is too full to accommodate such density.
“Liberty Village is already very condensed,” the petition organizer, Rose Lio, told the Star. “We don’t have enough road structure available to the people here already.”
As Toronto looks to increase its density, the blowback against the new development begs the question: how dense is too dense? Proponents of more development say Liberty Village is exactly the kind of transit-oriented area that could benefit from more density, while opponents say the neighbourhood is already full and cannot take on more residents without jeopardizing the quality of life.
Liberty Village, an urban enclave of highrise towers, former industrial buildings, shops and eateries, is nestled between Dufferin Street and Strachan Avenue on the west and east, with King Street West to the north and railway tracks to the south.
Between 2011 and 2016, the area’s population nearly tripled to more than 7,800 residents, and has only continued to grow. Almost 90 per cent of its housing was built between 2006 and 2016, compared to just 13 per cent for the City of Toronto, according to a 2022 city report that pegged the area's density as being 195 per cent higher than Toronto at large.
The petition argues adding another highrise building will only exacerbate the growing pains facing the neighbourhood, a lack of green space and infrastructure being chief among them.
“We need more green space in Liberty Village — not less,” the petition reads. “We need areas where we can breathe freely without feeling boxed into concrete structures towering over us.”
The highrise pitched by Collecdev-Markee Developments would see 588 rental units — ranging from studio to three-bedrooms — built on 3,300 square metres of land at 86 Lynn Williams St. and 70 Western Battery Rd., located north of Liberty Street and south of the railway tracks.
At 135.8 metres, the building will be taller than its immediate neighbours. Once finished, the building will be owned and operated by Shiplake Properties Ltd., a part owner of Collecdev-Markee.
Currently, the site is a surface parking lot and a former industrial warehouse building constructed in 1929. The project would demolish the north half of the warehouse and incorporate the second half, which is listed as heritage, into the tower's base.
Jennifer Keesmaat, chief executive of the newly founded Collecdev-Markee, said the site is precisely the kind of location where it makes sense to add new rental homes because of its proximity to the Exhibition GO station and the future Ontario Line.
"By any definition, this is one of the richest transit (areas) in the city, but probably in the entire country," she said, noting it falls within the city and province's goals to establish more transit-oriented communities.
Keesmaat said that while she doesn't believe the area is "too full," she can understand why residents don't want more cars in the neighbourhood. In addition to 110 vehicular parking spots, plans for the development include outdoor and indoor amenity space, ground-level retail and more than 700 bicycle parking spaces.
"Do we have too many cars in this city? Yes. Do we have too many people in this city? No," Keesmaat said, adding her team wants to break the association that new housing equates to more traffic.
She noted the technical issues raised by residents, such as the building blocking sunlight and creating a "wind-tunnel" effect, will be addressed by city staff during the review process. As for concerns around infrastructure, Keesmaat said her team has already made changes to the application in response to community input. For instance, the project will add a new publicly accessible road connection along the site's northern edge.
A 337-square-metre public park is also proposed for the site, although residents argue that is not large enough for a neighbourhood already suffering from a lack of green space.
“It’s just a small patch of grass,” Lio said. “It’s a parkette.”
The pushback has spilled over to the online petition and social media, where residents have voiced their concerns and dismay about the project.
"We barely have any green space and certainly do NOT need more sun and natural light blocked out for us," one commenter wrote on the petition.
Another said: "Already the traffic is awful, lack of grass, lack of sidewalk space. This would make it worse."
The situation illustrates a growing pain that needs to be considered as the GTA continues to build up, not out, said Richard Joy, executive director of the Urban Land Institute Toronto.
“We’re only thinking about residential density,” he said. “We’re not thinking about other critical social infrastructure required to make residential work.”
Liberty Village is a particular flashpoint because it’s already more dense than other neighbourhoods. “I mean, there’s practically no patch of grass for a dog to pee on in Liberty Village,” Joy said.
Karen Chapple, director of the School of Cities at the University of Toronto, said a study she is working on with the Canadian Urban Institute found Liberty Village lacks civic infrastructure — parks, benches, dog parks and bus shelters — more than any other Toronto neighbourhood.
"If it were done right, you could put another 43-storey highrise in there, but (the neighbourhood) is really suffering from the lack of planning it would have needed to make it work as a community," she said.
She said we want to accommodate a significant number of new residents, but "it just needs to be planned for and not to have ad hoc approval of skyscraper after skyscraper."
Deputy Mayor Ausma Malik, whose ward takes in Liberty Village, said in a statement that she is working with city planning to "seriously address" the concerns raised by the community and improve the application within timelines and legislation imposed by the provincial government.
Council has pledged to achieve or surpass to promote transit use and boost the local economy.
A city spokesperson told the Star the application is under review and that city planning would consider public feedback before bringing a recommendation forward to East York Community Council on April 3. A notice of the application has already been circulated and a public consultation meeting was held in December.
Malik said she shares the residents' concerns about the neighbourhood being strained by rapid growth and is working hard to make investments in the area's "livability," citing "multi-modal streets," which accommodate cyclists, pedestrians, motorists and public transit riders, planning a new public park and opportunities arising from the new Ontario Line station at Exhibition Place.
She also acknowledged the need to tackle traffic congestion and provide more public services and spaces such as child care centres, community spaces, and schools, noting the Liberty Village Public Realm Strategy is designed to help implement such improvements — a report on which heads to council in the Spring.
Leung said he's resigned to the idea that the development may proceed despite the overwhelming opposition from residents in his building and others in the area.
"You'll have to have your blinds down," said Leung, whose unit faces the proposed site. "The only view is a wall, or a glass wall, per se."
Lio stressed that she’s not against having a housing development next door but would like to see the proposed height come down and have density spread out more across the city.
“It’s very concerning that they’re building something that high, that quickly. They’re not allowing it on King Street, so why are they allowing it in Liberty Village?”