Long rumoured but only recently revealed, Sunnybrook Plaza, the first suburban strip plaza built in Toronto, is being proposed for redevelopment.
This collection of stores with a parking lot out front was opened on the northeast corner of Eglinton and Bayview in 1952. It signalled the emergence of car-oriented shopping plazas, rather than main street strip (to the sidewalk) stores.
For Leaside it also represented the filling in of the last gap in the town’s built form.
According to Urban Toronto the RioCan plan is to build two towers, one of 19 storeys (66 metres high) and the other of 13 storeys (50 metres high), with retail at grade.
Part of the Eglinton Connects study, the Bayview/Eglinton area has been designated as a special policy area under the Official Plan for mid-rise development. However this proposal appears to be a good deal higher than envisaged in the city’s Mid-Rise Building Design guidelines (6 to 12 storeys).
While Bayview will have a station on the Eglinton LRT, there is no higher order transit existing or proposed for Bayview itself, unlike Yonge or Don Mills. Therefore it is a mid-rise not a high-rise site, but of course developers always attempt to push the envelope.
