755 Wonderland Road South - Westmount Mall redevelopment (Approved)

[CanadianTalk]

Originally Posted by CanadianTalk

To add to above, planning committee in a 4-1 vote, approved city staff's recommendation, which can be seen in the second picture in my previous post here.

Doesn't really mean that much anyway since the OLT will have the final say.

Goes to full council for a vote on June 27th.

Interesting. Council voted down the planning committee's recommendation in a very narrow 6-7 vote.

Usually if a motion fails at council, then councillors usually bring forward another motion to vote on, but they did not for this one. My guess is that when this gets to the OLT, that the City will not be expressing support for re-development at this site.

[jammer139]

Looks like the OLT appeal hearing is scheduled now for March 18 2024 for up to 5 days.




https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onlt/do...lii109154.html

[MolsonExport]

Quite possibly the laziest, ugliest redevelopment design in London's history.

[ssiguy]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Quite possibly the laziest, ugliest redevelopment design in London's history.

I totally agree. This is really unattractive and has horrible street presence. Why don't they just have the residential sections right up against Wonderland? It's not like Westmount is in dire need of parking seeing no one ever goes there.

[tyeman200]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Quite possibly the laziest, ugliest redevelopment design in London's history.

Agreed. Looks loke someones kid designed a bunch of buildings with minecraft, and lazily placed them in the parking lots.

I am still all for tearing down Westmount entirely, and having a real subdivision in there.

[haljackey]

Originally Posted by tyeman200

Agreed. Looks loke someones kid designed a bunch of buildings with minecraft, and lazily placed them in the parking lots.

I am still all for tearing down Westmount entirely, and having a real subdivision in there.

I think the big issue here is the 2 floors of underground parking. That's quite an asset for whatever goes on the Westmount site and it makes sense to build above or near that infrastructure. That's why things are so far away from Wonderland and Viscount roads.

The mall usually only opens P2 during peak shopping times in December, they have a gate that blocks it the rest of the year. So if you want to check it out now's your time. There used to be a car wash down there too during the mall's short heyday.

[GreatTallNorth2]

If money grew on trees, I would demo the entire mall and build a "town centre" with shops, mid rise and high rise, aka West 5 style.

[CanadianTalk]

The developer and the City have reached a settlement regarding this proposal at the OLT last month, which means the zoning changes have been approved.

https://www.omb.gov.on.ca/e-decision...EB-26-2024.PDF

10,000 sq m of office space will be allowed, and the maximum heights of the buildings are very similar to what is shown in the diagram below - with the property divided into three regions.

The blue region now allows for 8 stories (instead of 6). The red region allows for 12 stories, and the yellow region allows for 3 stories.

Ignore the black font under each region (I assume it was from the developer's first proposal).

[MolsonExport]

I can't believe that this qbert tetris monstrosity will get built. It is ugly enough to stop a clock.

[tyeman200]

Originally Posted by haljackey

I think the big issue here is the 2 floors of underground parking. That's quite an asset for whatever goes on the Westmount site and it makes sense to build above or near that infrastructure. That's why things are so far away from Wonderland and Viscount roads.

The mall usually only opens P2 during peak shopping times in December, they have a gate that blocks it the rest of the year. So if you want to check it out now's your time. There used to be a car wash down there too during the mall's short heyday.

True say, but isn't that underground pretty old by now? Is it still structurally sound and able to withstand all the construction around it?.

I have done service work on a large complex in Waterloo called the Barrel Yards. It is a massive high rise development that's been in the works for a while now. There is 2 28 story towers, 3 22 story towers, 1 18 story tower, a hotel, and more to be built.

The parking garage is absolutey massive, with 2 underground levels. I'd picture a development like this for Westmount instead, keeping the already separated movie Theatre and Asian Market.

[MolsonExport]

the Qbert complex rendering has the theatre demolished and replaced. Christ, it seems not that long ago that they built the theatre (I remember when it was on the second floor of the mall, near the food court).

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

the Qbert complex rendering has the theatre demolished and replaced. Christ, it seems not that long ago that they built the theatre (I remember when it was on the second floor of the mall, near the food court).

Newbie lol. How about when it was in the basement of the office building on the corner were Kelseys is now? lol. Those theatres aren't old at all, barely 15 years now. I wonder if the fact these plans came out as we emerged from Covid that maybe they thought theatres didn't have much of a future? I could see Cineplex wanting a new location anyway. London could use one of those 20+ screen megaplexes, maybe down where the casino was going to go. We were supposed to get one 25 years ago when AMC was planning a 24 screen downtown.