Inclusion on the City of Toronto's Heritage Register - Geary Avenue Properties

The following six properties were identified through the Geary Avenue Planning Study and its related CHRA: 44 Geary Avenue 46 Geary Avenue 80 Geary Avenue 165 Geary Avenue 288 Geary Avenue, including 300 Geary Avenue 329 Geary Avenue The Geary Avenue corridor is an employment neighbourhood in Toronto's West End that has evolved from a mixture of industrial/warehouse space and automotive uses to one that is now a burgeoning hub for creative enterprises, offices, commercial and retail uses, in addition to light industrial and automotive uses. Rapidly increasing land prices, land use regulations, and development and growth pressures have raised concern for the continued viability of many of these small businesses and creative enterprises. City Planning initiated Geary Works: a comprehensive study and community vision with Economic Development and Culture in April 2019. Geary Works Planning Study and City-Initiated Official Plan Amendment and Zoning Amendment - Final Report were recently adopted by Council in July 2021. Geary Avenue is a 1.2-kilometer street located on the north side of the Canadian Pacific (CP) rail corridor, between Ossington Avenue and Primrose Avenue. The City of Toronto, and the Geary Avenue area within it, have been inhabited by Indigenous peoples for millennia. The streets that would become Geary Avenue were laid out in two separate subdivisions planned by different developers in the mid-1880s on farmlands northwest of the expanding city of Toronto. The area was annexed by the City of Toronto on January 10, 1910. Within five years of annexation, most of Geary Avenue east of Dufferin Street had been developed. Stores and houses located on the north side of the street while industry and a hydro corridor were located on the south side adjacent to the railway tracks. Industrial and commercial growth continued, and by 1975 an industrial survey of the Dufferin-Davenport area documented that approximately two dozen firms were located either on or abutting Geary Avenue. The area's industrial base was devastated in the 1980s and 1990s as businesses closed or relocated. The area is now in a period of transition, particularly west of Dufferin Street where newer creative and cultural enterprises have settled in the area. The six properties being recommended for inclusion on the Heritage Register in this report reflect the evolution of Geary Avenue from a neighbourhood main street to a location for industry over the first half of the twentieth century. They have been determined to have heritage value relating to their design, physical, historical and contextual values. Ranging from early commercial main street and industrial properties to industrial buildings from the late 1940s, the Geary Avenue properties have direct associations with important Canadian business histories, and with Toronto's beloved Santa Claus parade. The listing of non-designated properties with cultural heritage value on the Heritage Register extends interim protection from demolition and provides an opportunity for City Council to determine whether the property warrants conservation through designation under the Ontario Heritage Act should a development or demolition application be submitted. Heritage Impact Assessments (HIA) are required for development applications that affect listed and designated properties.