Got a chance to scope those oh-so-secret designs for a 20-storey condo at 102 Shuter last Friday (March 6) (See my previous post Mangling Moss Park).
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Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to take away an artists drawings of the project because the plans are not officially public yet.
But let me describe it to you this way: “It’s big.” Not my words, but those of the city planner on the file.
So big in fact that there isn’t enough room on the proposed site to accommodate a ramp for the four-level underground garage.
The developer is proposing a car elevator – yes, just like the ones in New York – to lift and lower vehicles from the garage.
We’ll have to wait for the details on how that’s going to work during morning and evening rush hours.
But the elevator may not be the biggest obstacle to this plan.
The developer is asking for a rezoning of the site from low-rise residential. You’ll remember that this is where the historic Walnut Hall once stood, before it collapsed from neglect a couple of years back.
Back when there were plans to build over the old Georgians in 2000, the maximum height allowance was seven storeys, a good deal smaller than what’s being proposed.
The condos a little further west, mid-block on Shuter, are in the 12-storey range, and have a slightly bigger footprint.
Stranger things have happened, but it’s hard to imagine the smallish plot at 102, boxed in by townhouses on the north and a laneway on the west side, handling more than that.
