Historic former school in Ontario city to be partially preserved for townhouse project

An historic Oshawa school will be partially preserved while 67 townhouses are built on the site on Oshawa’s south side.

Currently used by local rockers as a jam space, the development at the former Cedardale School on Gordon Street (south of Simcoe Street and Bloor Street) was back at the city’s Economic and Development Services Committee Monday with a slightly revised application submitted by Weston Consulting (on behalf of 2835731 Ontario Inc.).

The plan is still to preserve the original school building and the number of units remains the same as when it was first proposed nearly two years ago, with just a few minor variances:

• The setback of the two-storey block townhouse building to the property line shared with 801 and 803 Gordon Street has increased from six metres to 7.9 metres
• The visitor parking spaces for the residential development have been redistributed across the site to be closer to more units, rather than all located at the north end
• The design of the roof of Block 1 has been revised to include a two-metre high noise barrier around the south, west and east edges of the rooftop terrace, as recommended in the noise study to mitigate noise emanating from the adjacent AGS Automotive Systems plant
• The site design has been revised to increase the number of parking spaces for the existing heritage building from 25 to 30
• The Applicant has revised the zoning amendment request to remove medical office as a proposed use
• The zoning amendment request has been revised to specify the basement level of the existing heritage building shall only be used for staff areas and storage and not function as leasable area, resulting in one fewer parking space

The proposal was last before the public in November and staff noted in a report to committee that the proposed changes are not substantial enough to require another public meeting.

Work on preserving a portion of the former school, which predates Oshawa’s incorporation as a city by four years, is expected to get underway once the revised proposal is approved at council.

The developer had already agreed to keep the original Beaux Arts school building to be used for “community, institutional and commercial uses,” while the fate of the metalheads and other budding rock stars who currently use the 106-year-old school as a rehearsal space is still to be determined.