A Toronto condo development proposed five years ago has returned over five times taller than previously planned.

Plans filed with the City of Toronto seek to bring a 42-storey condo tower to a site at 2810-2816 Bayview Avenue in North York, a group of four vacant homes just south of Sheppard Avenue East.

Developers Osmington Gerofsky and Alterra Group have submitted a scaled-up plan for the site with a proposed tower designed by Wallman Architects in place of the mid-rise proposal that was submitted by the previous owner, Dormer Homes, years earlier.

Previously proposed as a seven-storey building with a height of 25.3 metres back in 2019, the new submission calls for a 42-storey tower with a height of 138.3 metres.

That's almost 5.5x the height of the previous proposal and a 6x increase in floors.

Similarly, the unit count has seen a dramatic increase from the 53 condominium suites proposed in 2019, increased by over 10x and now planned as 539 units.

While such a hefty height increase may alarm locals and seem like a big ask, there is important context here that justifies (in the eyes of the project team, at the very least) a significant density boost.

The subject site occupies a zone that has been designated a Major Transit Station Area (MTSA) by the province. As part of the province's push to get housing built quickly, MTSAs fast-track density on lands within a 500-to 800-metre radius (or an approximately 10-minute walk) of transit stations.

Located well within the MTSA for Bayview Station on the TTC's Line 4 Sheppard, situated just a block south of the station, the 2810 Bayview site's leap from mid-rise to tower isn't as outrageous as it may be perceived on the surface.

That same transit connection being used to justify the boost in density will also mean area residents will have less traffic to contend with than what is typical of a condo development parking component in this neck of North York.

Thanks to the nearby subway station, the proposal calls for just 136 parking spaces in a three-level underground garage. With just 129 of those vehicle spaces allocated to residents, the plan proposes a ratio of four units for each parking space, to be complemented by over 400 bike parking spaces and the Line 4 station a block away.