Will Bridle Path residents embrace a condo among their mansions?
THE GREEN LINE
DOCUMENTERS NOTES
Will Bridle Path residents embrace a condo among their mansions?
A developer wants to build a luxury six-storey building in one of Toronto’s wealthiest areas, targeted at those with “large homes in the neighbourhood” who want to switch to condo living.
The site of the development on the corner of Bayview and The Bridle Path.
: City of Toronto.
Morgan Miya
Curious luddite who firmly believes that community is everything and works towards keeping her neighbourhood of Little Jamaica healthy. Loves to travel the world within Tkaronto.
April 5, 2025
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A developer is proposing a condo — that could fit 150 units but will only include 56 "luxurious" units to fit the character of the “Granite Club neighbourhood”— in The Bridle Path.
City staff held an online community consultation on April 1 to discuss a proposal to build a residential condominium at 2425 – 2427 Bayview Ave. & 1 The Bridle Path.
The meeting kicked off with a presentation by community planner Rebecca Thompson and the development applicant team: Peter Smith, a land-use planner and partnerwith Blousfield Inc., Steven Kirshenblatt, the project architect, and representatives from LEA Consulting, Schollen & Co. Inc. and Times Group, the owner and developer.
The developers and architects are proposing a “high-end luxury building” with one-bedroom apartments with a minimum of 2,000 square feet to three-bedroom apartments with family rooms and dens up to over 4,000 square feet, Kirshenblatt said.
The presenters repeatedly emphasised to local residents that the building would fit into the community.
“ It's a much more high-end building that…my client and the Times Group is betting will be acceptable and bought by probably mostly your community to live in,” said Kirshenblatt.
"[The building is] targeted to maybe a lot of empty nesters and [people who own] large homes in the neighborhood that want to live…a condominium-type lifestyle,” he added.
LANDSCAPE PLAN FOR THE PROPOSED CONDOMINIUM.
: City of Toronto.
The building would house six one-bedroom units, 16 two-bedroom units and 34 three-bedroom units. It will include 115 parking spaces, which is a little over two spaces per units.
Smith said that the parking spaces are “more significant than what you might see in an average apartment building these days in the city.”
(For context, the City of Toronto amended a bylaw to include a maximum of parking spaces in new developments in 2022. The rationale given for this was that Toronto faced challenges including: “A climate emergency, decreasing housing affordability and increasing demand for mobility.”
The luxury condo proposal falls within Toronto’s Parking Zone C, which allows for the most parking spaces in the city. Current bylaws state that the maximum number of parking spaces for residential buildings are 0.9 for each one-bedroom unit, one for each two-bedroom dwelling unit and 1.2 for bigger units. With these calculations, there should be 62.2 parking spaces in the 56-unit building.)
Community members had concerns about:
- An increase in traffic,
- parking issues exacerbated by construction vehicles and upon completion, added traffic from residents of the new development,
- noise and vibration issues during construction, as well as potential rodent issues,
- loss of privacy and shadowing of surrounding properties.
One community member pointed out that the six-storey building is actually 7.5-storey tall.
In response, the presenters exaplined that the units will have high ceilings designed to ensure the luxury of the building.
“At six storeys, we probably could be building 150 units on this site,” said Kirshenblatt.
He added that the decision was made to create luxury units in keeping with the area's character, which he described as “one of the most exclusive neighbourhoods in Toronto.”
What’s next for this project?
The presenters said questions and feedback will be taken for further consultation and deliberation.
You can contact the community planner, Rebecca Thompson at Rebecca.thompson@toronto.ca and Peter Smith of Bousfields Inc. at info@bayviewbridlepath.com
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