It's no more newsworthy to report the death of yet another condominium project in Toronto today than it is to note that dog bites man. But man bit dog on Queen's Park Crescent yesterday, with a commendably fatal result. News that the University of Toronto has purchased No. 90 from the Royal Ontario Museum means a definitive end to the museum's controversial plan to replace the mothballed McLaughlin Planetarium with a 46-storey residential tower.
"This is a win-win-win for the U of T, the ROM and the public," said university president David Naylor. The museum gets $22-million to help pay off the $84-million left owing to the provincial government after its $270-million expansion, the university gets badly needed room to grow and the public gets relief from a persistent threat to despoil a treasured landscape.
The museum tried twice to develop the site, withdrawing the first proposal shortly after a heated public meeting revealed public opposition that, according to ROM director William Thorsell at the time, was "too deep and broad" to overcome.
Eighteen months later, however, Mr. Thorsell said the museum was considering several proposals to redevelop the planetarium for residential use. Considering the small size of the site, just south of the museum proper, another tower was the only foreseeable result.
Although proponents cited public opposition, resistance from the university next door was likely more influential in stalling the museum's scheme. The $22-million the university has agreed to pay to re-acquire 90 Queen's Park Crescent, which it transferred to the museum free of charge in 1967, is roughly the same as the net profit ROM once hoped to make by speculating in residential real estate.
"In my view it's a very fair price," said ROM board of trustees chairman Sal Badali, adding the expectations of even greater yields were based on the achievement of a clearly unpopular rezoning. "That wasn't going to happen," he said. "So here we've got a great deal."
Although the university was never shy about criticizing the scheme, it never previously revealed itself as a potential customer for the site. Now that the deal is done, the obvious question is why it took so long.
The site could be incorporated into ongoing plans to expand the nearby U of T law school. But nothing is settled yet, according to university spokesman Robert Steiner.
"We don't know exactly what we're going to use it for," he said, "The only thing we know is that we have a massive space crunch at the St. George campus. ... We're landlocked."
One possibility, according to Mr. Badali, is that the museum could end up leasing space in any new development that will remain wholly institutional - "a wish of the community that will be well served by development on this site.'"
CORRECTION
A column published last week stated that Rob MacIsaac quit his post as head of Metrolinx, the provincial transportation agency. In fact, Mr. MacIsaac will remain with Metrolinx on a part-time basis after he becomes president of Mohawk College next week.