A dozen Toronto houses could be torn down for two huge towers

A quiet block of houses on a low-density Toronto street could be in for a major shakeup.

Gairloch Developments and Fairway Developments have filed plans with the City of Toronto to redevelop a group of properties spanning 59 – 81 Lawton Boulevard, a block home to a dozen house-form buildings.

All homes currently on site would be torn down to make way for the new residential complex.

The developers have signed on local firm architects—Alliance, known for its minimalist landmarks like the Four Seasons Hotel and Residences, to design a pair of high-rise residential buildings standing 38 and 43 storeys tall.

The towers are slated to rise to approximate heights of 143 and 130 metres, orders of magnitude taller than the surrounding low- and mid-rise urban fabric.

Despite a massive disparity between the proposal size and the existing built form on Lawton Boulevard, the proposal site's position a short distance north of St. Clair subway station puts it within a Major Transit Station Area (MTSA), opening the door for high-density development.

Though it may seem out of character when measured against its immediate surroundings, the broader neighbourhood includes a growing collection of approved and under-construction high-rise developments of similar scale as what is proposed on this site.

As the towers' height suggests, the on-site residential density is set to skyrocket from the 13 residences that exist today.

The site's residential density would increase by over 50 times, up to a whopping 706 residential units. The tenure of these units is not specified in planning documents at what appears to still be an early stage of the process.

Residents of Lawton Boulevard would undoubtedly be getting plenty of new neighbours if the proposal is approved, but they'd also be getting new public parkland. Just over 350 square metres of the site — or about 10 per cent of the land — would be conveyed to the City for a future public park at the south end of the property.

However, the plan would also bring a huge influx of cars to the area, with 266 parking spaces planned in the complex's four-level underground parking garage. 

In addition to bringing potentially hundreds of motorists to the neighbourhood, the plan also contemplates a sizeable bicycle parking component of 788 spaces.

The proposal will next be circulated among City planning staff and external agencies for review before it proceeds through the next stages in Toronto's planning and approvals process.