Ward19Constituent
From:gw985woodbine@yahoo.com
To:Paul.Calandra@pc.ola.org
Cc:sylvia.jones@pc.ola.org,nina.tangri@pc.ola.org,Liberal.ola.org,sam.oosterhoff@pc.ola.org,liberal.ola.organd 116 more...
Sun, Dec 8 at 8:27 a.m.
Dear Hon. Paul Calandra,
Please accept the attached petition requesting that you appeal the City of Toronto Zoning By-law 1212-2024 and stop the Choice Properties REIT (a division of Loblaws) 35-storey development at 985 Woodbine Avenue and Danforth Avenue.
The deadline to appeal the by-law is Monday, December 9th.
The Planning Act in Ontario stipulates that municipalities must hold public meetings when considering certain planning decisions, including zoning by-law amendments. This often involves posting notices at the site and making the meeting details publicly accessible. The failure to follow these requirements can undermine the legitimacy of the decision-making process, especially if it affects public participation rights.
Provincial Planning Statement 2024-10-23.pdf
The document states:
"Settlement areas shall be the focus of growth and development. Within settlement areas, growth should be focused in, where applicable, strategic growth areas, including major transit station areas."
However, the document does not provide a definition of a major transit station.
In terms of square footage, Woodbine Station is one of the smallest TTC stations.
In terms of bus routes, it serves only three lightly used bus routes and has two bus bays:
- 91 Woodbine – Runs every 20 minutes during rush hour, every 30 minutes off-peak.
- 92 Woodbine South – Runs every 10 minutes during rush hour, every 20 minutes off-peak.
- 93 Parkview Hills – Runs every 30 minutes between Subway opening and closing.
Stations like Kennedy, Warden, Victoria Park, Kipling, Islington, Finch, York Mills, Lawrence, Wilson, Eglinton West, and St. Clair West, are significantly larger. They also serve multiple bus/streetcar levels with frequent service, It is clear that Woodbine Station is not a major transit station. Additionally, stations like Dundas West and Main Subway, with proximity to the Up Express and Main Go Train Station, could be interpreted as major transit stations.
Honorable Minister, I am confident that you, and the authors of the Provincial Planning Statement, 2024 under the Planning Act would agree that Woodbine Station is not a major transit station.
In terms of future development opportunities, there are none without expropriation, as the area is already developed. The businesses along the north and south sides of Danforth Avenue are mostly small two-storey buildings, extending from the street to a laneway, with houses on the other side of the laneways. The houses are not designated for mixed-use development, and the lots designated as mixed-use are not deep enough for mid-rise and tall-building development.
In terms of population density, the area already has more than 200 people per hectare.
Please read the Beach Metro article by Adam Smith:
"At 125 metres, this would currently be the tallest building in all of East Toronto, from the DVP to Victoria Park and as far north as Sheppard, and will dominate the view for kilometres in every direction."
In My Opinion: Private profits, rental housing and the ‘monolithic’ proposal for Woodbine and Danforth
The attached Petition Statement...
Sign the Petition Appeal Zoning By-law 1212-2024 and Loblaw's 35-Storey Tall Bldg. at Woodbine/Danforth.
... goes into much more detail about how inappropriate the development is, including the narrowing of Danforth Avenue between Woodbine Avenue and Cedarvale Avenue, creating a pinch point, along with signatures and comments.
Even though I made written and oral submissions at the October 24 Toronto-East York Community Council Meeting and submitted a Petition with a detailed letter to the Toronto City Council, Ontario Bill 185 prevents me from appealing Toronto Zoning By-law 1212-2024.
I am sure you agree that the scale of the Loblaws' 35-storey building at 985 Woodbine/Danforth is not appropriate for the area, and it was not the Province's intention when drafting the Provincial Planning Statement, 2024 under the Planning Act and Ontario Bill 185 for them to be misused in this case.
The petition signatories strongly request that you use your authority to reject Toronto Zoning By-law 1212-2024, or at least appeal it on behalf of the constituents of Ontario. Please don't cannibalize good, modest neighborhoods to build shoebox-sized tall buildings and apartments that are not family-, partner-, senior-, or student-friendly.
Many seniors in Toronto would like to sell their houses and move into spacious two, three bedroom condos. They used to be built around Don Mills and Lawrence 30 years ago. Even the rare two and three bedroom units these days are tiny. So seniors stay put, reducing housing availability for the younger generation.
Ontario's economy depends on development. The City of Toronto budget growth is dependent on development, Land Transfer Taxes, Development Charges, Property Taxes from new development, and campaign contributions from companies that benefit from development. The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) likely faces the same issue. Space to develop is running out everywhere, but especially Toronto. We all know that traffic is dysfunctional, yet allow our politicians to keep building tall buildings, making traffic worse.
The dependence on development is political party agnostic. There needs to be an open conversation about what size and type of housing younger generations and immigrants are going to live in.
We live in a vast country, yet Toronto has the fourth largest population in North America. Perhaps we need to decentralize, rather than compress, we are crushing ourselves in the GTA and Toronto. Traffic is killing productivity and quality of life. Our over development of tiny condos and not much else, in the GTA and Golden Horseshoe is driving many of our younger generation to the US and abroad. Our birth rate has tanked, because kids can't afford to live in a place big enough to have children.
When COVID-19 hit, many of the younger generation headed to the smaller towns all over the province, but most had to come back for work.
All levels of government are trying hard, mistakes are made, mistakes are corrected, booming population growth from immigration, foreign students, work visas is trending down and it has taken some pressure off rents, new battery plants are decentralized etc. High speed train from Windsor to Quebec City, great for decentralization. Keep it up. Focus development efforts in those areas and focus less on building more in Toronto. Think about how to build more commuter rail. Go doesn't have the network and capacity to be a serious replacement for driving in the 905.
Bring house costs down by building subdivisions in smaller towns, cheaper land, and use some of our great planning to make them functioning communities. Decentralize government agencies. Build good hospitals and post secondary schools in smaller towns. Service lots, pour concrete basements, and let new home buyers purchase prefab homes to drop on top, cut out the middle man like our parents did to save costs.
Also, I personally would like to take this opportunity to encourage you, and those copied on this email, to pass laws for mandatory voting, and maximum campaign donations of $100. This applies to the Federal, Provincial and Municipal elections.
But to the 985 Woodbine Avenue development, the City Approved 2019 submission from Choice Properties REIT was for a 15-Storey building. Please revert to that development please.
Sincerely,
Christopher Haines
647 857-6557