03-22-2017, 10:38 AM
Owen, I have indeed attended sessions on the guidelines. Yes, the aims are to create better designs, but some of the logic there is severely flawed. The guideline that the building setback must equal the height of any podium does not create good design, it pushes people into a less welcoming space, less like City Hall or 1Vic (which has definitely picked up since Settlement Co.'s opening), more like the towers on King in Northdale. Yes, while there is no formal structure of guidelines for developers, they were still all very much in attendance at sessions, picking up packages which were very detailed about what the initial proposals for the TBUDG were, and indeed they will and do feel pressure to work within or towards those guidelines, I've attended enough sessions over the last decade to see this play out across multiple councils.