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Auto Mall on Eastern?

You may noticed the twitter feeds on the side panel on this site talking about the latest brilliant idea for the Old Film Studio site on Eastern. Astriking out as a possible Smart Centre, then location for the new TTC Railyard, and then most recently its temporary role as a G20 Detention Centre, it seems the latest idea for that spot is to build an Auto Mall, and apparently this time, no re-zoning or formal planning approval is necessary, so this might actually happen.

I'm wondering what people think of this?

Here's the link to the Globe and Mail article for reference:

http://tinyurl.com/2fz8ldt

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Permalink Reply by Greig on August 4, 2010 at 11:44am

This is obviously a very bad idea. Yet another attempt by Smart Centres to parachute suburban development into our downtown neighbourhood.

In fact, I don't think Smart Centres is even serious about this - they've thought 'What's the worst possible use for this land that fits existing zoning?' and came up with 'Auto Mall! There, that'll show those whiny Leslieville brats!' It's clearly a cynical and contemptuous maneuver designed to get people thinking that maybe a Walmart and big box mall isn't so bad after all.

If I had to choose, I think I'd choose the auto mall, actually. It won't siphon off the Queen st shops' customer base, won't cause the kind of traffic congestion the Smart Centre would, and it's much more temporary and 'undo-able' than a big box mall.

The auto industry isn't exactly on fire. The Suzuki dealer at Broadview and Eastern just closed. All the high-end dealers seem to like the Don Valley corridor (see Audi, Mercedes, Volvo, BMW) and the big auto makers are reducing their dealers, not adding more, so I really don't see Smart Centres attracting any tenants for this scheme.

So let's call their bluff and let them build it! It will inevitably fail, and someone can pick up the land at a bargain and do something worthwhile with it.

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Permalink Reply by ceedee123 on August 4, 2010 at 9:45pm

I think it would be a great thing and I hope it gets built- why not attract more potential shoppers and diners to our neighbourhood? We can't hold off development and I don't know why anyone would want to. We are a neighbourhood in transition and need new development, stores and people to come our way. This is a great start.

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Permalink Reply by Pat on August 4, 2010 at 11:50pm

Auto malls are mostly about parking cars for sale: not so much about bringing large quantities of people into the neighbourhood. Pretty poor use of land. We should have the ability to decide what kind of development goes in. I'm not interested in development for the sake of development: I want it to add to the community. We've already got car sales at Eastern and Broadview... I don't think that turning the film studios into car sales adds significant money to the city's coffers, or has a suitable density of employment.

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Permalink Reply by Vanslackery on August 5, 2010 at 8:49am

The important thing to note on the auto mall development is that the current buildings will be salvaged and retro fitted to suite a new purpose. With the strengthened Canadian dollar and the large studios on Commissioners the unfortunate reality is that the film industry will not return to Eastern as it was in the past.

I agree with a previous poster, an auto mall is a destination and does bring people to an area. People of all walks of life purchase automobiles and for many the decision is an exciting and well thought out one that turns into an event for celebrating. Local business should benefit from this. Car sales do not compete with stores along Queen.

A poor use of land? Would you rather look at new cars on display on your way home from work or a vacant boarded up spray paint covered plot of land reminding local residents of what used to be? Embrace the past but move towards the future.

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Permalink Reply by Allie on August 5, 2010 at 11:07am

Given that the development is within the current zoning, the owners of the property have every right to move forward. I might have hoped for a different result which would have brought new people to the area, but I don't own the land and they aren't requesting any City approvals for zoning changes so community input is not required. I suspect that the traffic will go in and out using Lakeshore so the impact to the neighbourhood will be minor.

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Permalink Reply by Allie on August 5, 2010 at 11:13am

"We should have the ability to decide what kind of development goes in"

We as in the community? I would disagree in that the property owners do have their own property rights and are proceeding based upon current zoning. As a residential property owner I can paint my house a violent purple and my neighbours may not like it, but it is within my rights to do so. An owner of a commercial lot is very likely to put in a commercial development and it shouldn't be a huge surprise when they do.

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Permalink Reply by Chris B on August 5, 2010 at 12:33pm

I agree with Allie. That property is privately owned and as long as its use is consistent with current zoning, there isn't really much we can do about it. If there is a strong desire to have more say over how these lands are used, the best vehicle to do so is through zoning and by-laws - That space could have zoned differently and the whole angst goes away, but it wasn't.

Also keep in mind that the City is not exactly riding a great track record of smart planning and development. For all the talk, what efforts have the City actually put forth to bring these "high paying" film or tech jobs to that location? So far, whenever the "City" has proposed an idea, its just been to use that location as a dumping spot for something no other part of town wanted - Exhibit A: TTC railyard (until outside factors scuttled that plan), Exhibit B: G20 Detention Centre (although that may not have been the City's call). All this is to say that for all the talk, the City's actions have shown little interest in actually trying to develop that space in a smart way.

At the end of the day, this is far from the worst outcome. Car dealership do not generally bring massive traffic to neighborhoods, do not keep crazy hours, and for the most part, are not eyesores - a dealership that looks like the BMW/Mini dealership on Eastern would be no more of an eyesore than a mini office tower built on that land employing all those "highly paid" film and tech workers. Personally, I question whether there is actually demand for more car dealerships in the city, since as has been mentioned previously, many manufacturers are shrinking rather than expanding their dealer networks, but that's beside the point.

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Permalink Reply by Cecil parry on August 5, 2010 at 8:43pm

As I said on the Yahoo forum, while this is not what I hoped for for that space it's really not that bad of an out come. As others have said, car dealerships will bring people and new business into the area and this will be of benefit to the existing businesses along Queen. Car shoppers take time out to go for lunch and dinner while considering their purchases and they will bring people into the hood that would have never had a reason to come down here before.

Car dealerships employ a surprisingly large amount of people and the jobs are often well paying.

I for one welcome out new automotive overlords.