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2425-7 BAYVIEW AVENUE |
(1) OUR OBJECTION FAILS TO STOP THE CONSTRUCTION OF 20 TOWNHOUSES AT 2425-7 BAYVIEW AVENUE A few days ago, the OMB released its Decision with respect to 2425-2427 Bayview Avenue, overturning Council's Refusal and instead approving 20 three-story townhouses on two lots currently occupied by single-family detached homes. This is a major decision which completely undermines major neighbourhood protection provisions in the City's new Official Plan. At the end of the June 28 meeting, we will discuss the implications across the City of this Decision and will review our action plan (which includes a request to City Legal Services to review the OMB Decision to determine whether there are grounds to appeal to Divisional Court). (2)Councillor John Filion and I invite you to a meeting: With the intent to transfer important planning decision-making from local community councils to the Planning and Growth Management Committee, the following item was considered by the Planning & Growth Management Committee on May 31 and, through Councillor Filion's motion, was deferred until September: PG5.1 To establish a policy to determine when planning matters should be brought before the Planning & Growth Managment Committee instead of a Community Council. For more information: http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/2007/agendas/pg.htm or more directly to Under this scenario, plans to change Secondary Plan boundaries, conduct new Avenue studies, or deal with large Official Plan Amendments (deemed to be of City-wide interest) would be dealt with exclusively by the Planning and Growth Management Committee, which meets at Toronto City Hall. To give an illustration in Ward 23, the current proposal to build a 164-metre condo at the corner of Yonge and Sheppard would be dealt with by Planning and Growth Management because the proposed Official Plan amendment to change from commercial to residential would be of City-wide interest. This, of course, ignores the fact that it is also of tremendous local interest. In Ward 25, for example, City planning staff might propose new Avenues (which automatically imply greater heights and densities) along streets which are now comprised primarily residential single-family homes (e.g. Bayview Avenue, Lawrence Avenue, York Mills Road, Mount Pleasant Road, Leslie Street, Blythwood Road, etc). The May 31 proposal would provide for such decisions to be made by the six members of the Planning & Growth Management Committee upon the advice of City Planning Staff and NOT be decided locally at Community Council. In our view, this would represent a very serious setback for Community Planning and could put our stable residential neighbourhoods at risk. The P&GM Committee was prepared to adopt this item on May 31, but agreed to the deferral at the request of Councillor Filion. This gives us an opportunity to organize a city-wide response of ratepayers and perhaps take a ratepayer delegation to see Mayor Miller on the issue. At the June 28 meeting, we will: We invite the President and other members of your Ratepayer/Community Association to attend. Please forward this note to other interested ratepayer groups. They are welcome to attend on June 28. RSVP to Councillor John Filion (416-395-6411 or councillor_filion@toronto.ca) or Councillor Cliff Jenkins (416-395-6408 or councillor_jenkins@toronto.ca).
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