Jun 10, 2016 | Vote 0 0
Toronto council approves Mimico townhouse development that could jeopardize SmartTrack, GO Transit’s regional rail expansion
ML Ready Mix
Metroland file photo
An ML Ready mix truck leaves its facility at 29 Judson Street, located in an area where Toronto council has approved a new townhouse development. February 17, 2013.
City Centre Mirror
By
David Nickle
Toronto Council has approved a townhouse development in Mimico that city planning staff and Metrolinx say could jeopardize Mayor John Tory’s SmartTrack and GO Transit Regional Rail expansion.
Councillors voted to approve a plan to build residential homes right next to the Willowbrook Yard, a GO Transit maintenance facility that according to letters from the provincial transit agency Metrolinx is essential for the heavy rail expansion plans that would include both Regional Express Rail and the SmartTrack plan.
That’s because the lands on the south side of Judson Road, which are currently occupied by a cement plant reviled by neighbouring homes in southern Etobicoke, act as a buffer between those homes and the yard. Metrolinx wrote to Toronto Council saying that with heavy rail expansion, the yards would become busier and result in noise incompatible with nearby homes.
“There is going to be overnight noise because of testing of braking systems,” said Toronto’s chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat. “This includes the revving of engines, bells, brakes. Unfortunately it is a noisy activity and the extent to which we keep residential homes away from it will allow these yards to function. It serves as a buffer today and needs to serve as a buffer in the future.”
In a letter to council, Metrolinx CEO Greg Percy made it clear that the Mimico-Judson Secondary Plan in its staff-recommended form supported the province’s proposed growth plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe. Residential development is at odds, and would “limit future expansion.”
The change in the plan came originally at the city’s Planning and Growth Management Committee, when the committee recommended against the advice of city staff that townhouses be developed on the land.
At the June council meeting, local councillor Mark Grimes urged council to keep the townhouses there. The cement-mixing facility currently on the lands has created a “nightmare” for the community abutting them, and because the facility exists as-of-right, the city is powerless to remove it.
“I have a major nightmare across from the residents,” he said. “The neighbours are livid, to put it mildly.”
Grimes argued that the townhouses would be far enough away from the yard, and protected by a noise-abatement wall, to be spared the noise impacts that Metrolinx and city staff maintain would make the units unlivable.
Council finally approved the development, with a vote of 21-15. Mayor Tory was among those who voted in favour.