544 and 550 Queen Street East - Notice of Intention to Designate a Property under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act

Ltd. which were brought together as a single building complex in 1982-83 during its adaptive reuse. The former National Electric Heating Co. Ltd building, completed in 1910 as a three-storey structure with a parapet/false front above its third-storey cornice and added to shortly thereafter to complete the fourth storey, and its adjacent building, the former New Method Laundry Co. Ltd building, designed by Toronto architect J.A. MacKenzie, with its 1923 additions, represent a pair of significant examples of Edwardian Classicism style buildings in the warehouse/factory building type. The simplicity of their rectangular plan and flat roof form, symmetries found in the façade compositions, rhythm of unadorned brick pilasters with contrasting precast concrete details in the Edwardian Classism style, highlighting the main entrances as well as oversized industrial warehouse windows, exemplify the style as applied to this typology. The property at 550 Queen Street East was listed on the City's Heritage Register on December 16, 2020 and was first identified as a "Warehouse / Factory" in the King- Parliament Cultural Heritage Resource Assessment (2019). The nineteenth and early twentieth century warehouse/factory building type is a large building type, generally occupying a significant portion of a city block and reaching 2-4 storeys in height. Its internal post-and-beam structure is indicated in the elevations with regular bays of uniformly sized window openings. Typically clad in brick, its principal, street-facing elevation is usually elaborately designed with stone trim and classical-style elements which could be featured at the entrance, the windows, string courses and roof lines. Staff have completed the Research and Evaluation Report for the properties at 544 and 550 Queen Street East and determined that the properties meet Ontario Regulation 9/06, the criteria prescribed for municipal designation under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act under the criteria of design/physical, historical/associative, and contextual value. As such, the properties are a significant built heritage resource. The City Clerk issued a complete application notice on January 17, 2017. The application submitted to the City for the property municipally known as 28 River Street and 550 Queen Street East proposes to amend the zoning by-law, By-law 438-86, solely in respect of the property at 28 River Street in order to facilitate a 15-storey mixed-use building containing 162 dwelling units and 458 square metres of ground floor commercial space with a total gross floor area of 11,752 square metres. The application is not subject to a prescribed event under the Ontario Heritage Act as it dates prior to July 1st, 2021. On April 26, 27 and 28, 2017, City Council adopted the recommendations of Community Planning staff to refuse the application. The Applicant appealed City Council's decision to the Ontario Land Tribunal. The appeal was assigned Case No. PL170622 and is now filed as OLT-22-03289. On June 8, 2022, the owner/applicant submitted a "with prejudice" settlement offer to the City. The revised proposal expands the development site to include the property at 550 Queen Street East in order to facilitate an 18 storey (60 metre) mixed-use building with 465 m2 of retail facing River Street, a total of 1,405 m2 of office space and a mixture of live/work, townhouse and apartment style residential units (380 residential units) and includes 106 parking spaces. The proposed development retains and modifies the existing building listed on the City's Heritage Register. In June 2019, the More Homes, More Choice Act, 2019 (Bill 108) received Royal Assent. Schedule 11 of this Act included amendments to the Ontario Heritage Act. The Bill 108 Amendments to the Ontario Heritage Act came into force on July 1, 2021, which included a shift in Part IV designations related to certain Planning Act applications. Section 29(1.2) of the Ontario Heritage Act now restricts City Council's ability to give notice of its intention to designate a property under the Act to within 90 days after the City Clerk gives notice of a complete application. The designation of this property is not subject to Section 29(1.2) as the application was complete prior to July 1, 2021. A Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) is required for all development applications that affect listed and designated properties and will be considered when determining how a heritage property is to be conserved. Designation also enables City Council to review proposed alterations or demolitions to the property and enforce heritage property standards and maintenance.

2. If there are no objections to the designation, City Council authorize the City Solicitor to introduce the Bill in Council designating the property under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act.