With a vote at Etobicoke York Community Council yesterday, Eau du Soleil by Empire Communities is a big step closer to approval.

The plan for the two-tower condominium development ran into a hurdle at the City's Planning Department where it garnered a recommendation for refusal. Between the time of Planning Department's report and the appearance at Community Council, Ward 6 Councillor Mark Grimes, the Planning Department, and the Empire Communities team worked together to find solutions to the problems identified in the planning refusal report. The solutions were presented as amendments to the application. The amendments were accepted, and the application is now heading for City Council in December for final approval.

Eau du Soleil seen from Lake Ontario, image courtesy of Empire Communities

The amendments mean a few changes to the plan that we are familiar with, as presented in the above rendering. Their effect will be, essentially, to improve the sunlight and wind conditions around the building. Here's what will change:

• The taller tower will now be 63 storeys instead of 66, with the shorter tower growing to 49 storeys from 46. The modified heights are meant to balance and decrease the shadows cast by the buildings.
• The archway space between the two towers will be increased in height to 11.9 metres (39 feet). This will allow for more light and a better visual connection through the arch, while decreasing the wind.

Eau du Soleil courtyard and arch, image courtesy of Empire Communities

The overall design by Zeidler Partnership Architects and Richmond Architects, otherwise, will remain the same. In the meantime, the amendments look to secure more aspects of the development. That includes:

• 268 public and commercial parking spaces on the site, to be underground instead of aboveground as per the original proposal.
• An agreement on appropriate Section 37 funds from the project.
• A detailed plan for the walkways and parks at the site's base, and how to pay for them (Section 37, and/or cash-in-lieu of parkland dedication).
• Input from representatives from the Humber Bay Shores Condominium Association and owners, to provide input on the design of the TRCA/City Park, as integrated with Eau du Soleil’s publicly accessible open space and walkways proposed on-site.
• Addressing any wind impacts associated with the development, to the satisfaction of the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning.

To make this all final, City Council still must vote to accept the recommendations of Community Council. That vote asks Council to send the City Solicitor to support the application at an OMB hearing, a hearing which was instigated by the developer when the City failed to respond to the application in time. It is likely that City Council will follow Community Council's recommendation, and it is likely that the OMB will support the application with the City behind it too.

UrbanToronto will keep you posted as the story develops. In the meantime, if you would like to know more about this development, still to include the tallest tower in Canada outside of a downtown area, you can visit our dataBase file for it, linked below. The dataBase file has many renderings and has a full run-down of the myriad features of this complex.

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