The Beer Store Update

We wanted to share the letter Councillor Wong-Tam sent to the CEO and President of the Beer Store regarding their proposed ~7,000 sq. ft location at Gerrard St.E. and Ontario.

We certainly appreciate her help in trying to ensure that the legitimate concerns being raised by our community are heard. We also hope it means the Beer Store will FINALLY participate in some meaningful dialogue with us about their plans for this location. We’re certainly doing our best to make that happen.

Read the complete letter from Councillor Wong-Tam

1. At this Beer Store location, as it currently stands, there is ample space for customers to sort their empties in the parking lot (the Beer Store requires them to do this outside). The new development goes right to the sidewalk. We’ve received no indication that the Beer Store will provide space to sort indoors, which means already narrow sidewalks could become unnecessarily congested unless there’s an indoor plan here.
2. This scale of store means a lot of deliveries and pickups, which is what happens now. That’s not going to decrease because the new store will have the same size and function, but because of the development there’s no longer a big parking lot for them to load and unload. Instead this will be pushed in the alleys (which in Cabbagetown South are used a lot by pedestrians). Additionally these trucks will end up driving south on Ontario St. and Seaton St. vs. remaining on Gerrard as they do now. Ontario St. is also where Central Neighbourhood House is located and is home to a daycare and rehabilitation programs. This brings multiple school buses, daycare drop offs and Wheel-Trans buses coming down this road daily. Commercial traffic on a residential street isn’t something anyone wants. It’s also just bad planning.
3. And lastly, this isn’t 7,000 square feet of open, animated storefront we’re talking about. In a development of similar scale at Greenwood and Gerrard almost every window is fully covered. This creates safety issues and prevents this strip from being a vibrant, community-minded streetscape.

Photo Credit: googlemaps.ca

Letter to the community from The Beer Store on February 14, 2020

Read the complete letter from The Beer Store