junctionist
Senior Member
Passing through the Kingsway neighbourhood, the "anti-overdevelopment" lawn signs are noticeable. But with street after street of luxurious historic single family homes, one wonders what exactly could they be fighting against. As it turns out, a developer wants to build a condominium along Dundas West, consistent with the Avenues Plan, if exceeding height restrictions. Is the loss of three houses setting a precedent for overdevelopment and detrimental to the health of the neighbourhood?
Kingsway residents take on plans for nearby condo
January 07, 2008
by Barry Hertz
One of Toronto’s wealthiest enclaves is badly divided over a 7½-storey condo development that critics say could set a dangerous precedent for neighbourhoods across Toronto.
The Post's Kelly Grant reports:
The Strand condominium is proposed for Dundas Street West at Prince Edward Drive, one of the few drab corners of Etobicoke’s Kingsway neighbourhood, a planned community of stately old mansions, including some guarded by black iron gates.
The critical issue is not the proposed 7½-storey height on a street that allows a maximum of six storeys — although the residents’ group spearheading the fight opposes that, as well — it is Dunpar Development Inc.’s decision to purchase three single-family homes behind the site, bulldoze them and extend the condo into the neighbourhood.
“We’re defending against developers knocking down perfectly suitable homes, family homes and putting up high- rises,†said Dean French of Kingsway Residents Against Poor Planning (KRAPP) and a 40-year-old father of three.
Dunpar needs at least a zoning and site plan amendment to complete its plan. KRAPP, city council and city planning staff opposed the change. The case went to the Ontario Municipal Board in December, where the residents have already won a procedural victory.
Now they are waiting for the final decision. It is expected as early as this month.
Local Councillor Peter Milczyn fears that if the OMB sides with Dunpar, anyone who lives on a residential street a few houses from a major thoroughfare risks having a condominium or other tall development move in next door.
“That’s the fight here,†the councillor said. “Can the boundaries between main streets and residential streets be broken?â€
The whole story makes residents of The Kingsway especially nervous, because Dunpar owns more property on Dundas Street West and it owns some single-family homes near those holdings.
While KRAPP is eager to improve the Dundas West strip, currently a collection of strip malls, it is wary of changes to its coveted residential neighbourhood.
Bounded roughly by the Humber River to the east, Dundas West to the north, Bloor Street to the south and Royal York Road to the west, The Kingsway was bought by Robert Home Smith, a Stratford-born developer, just before the outbreak of the First World War. He hoped to transform it into an English Garden suburb; his vision became reality after the Bloor Street bridge over the Humber was completed in 1924 and wealthy businessmen started to move in.
Dunpar executives say The Strand will not alter the feel of this long-standing community. Tom Giancos, the company’s vice-president of development, believes opponents are exaggerating the problems and the precedents The Strand could create.
“We’ve made concessions and we’ve done our best to work with the community,†he said. Dunpar, a company that has built more than 1,000 townhomes in Etobicoke, Mississauga and Vaughan, has scaled back its original plan for a 10-storey condo on Dundas West. It has promised to turn the southernmost lot on Prince Edward Drive into a landscaped driveway, meaning the condo will not butt up directly against the nearest house on the side street.
As well, Mr. Giancos said the main lot on Dundas West has a dogleg that already extends to the edge of the southernmost lot. “We’re simply trying to square the property,†he said.
Mr. Giancos is working to calm fears that Dunpar has a grand plan to raze its single-family homes near Dundas for condos. “We have no development applications on any of that property,†he said. “Some of it has sat there for 10 years.â€
Further complicating Dunpar’s quest to the win over the community has been confusion about who actually speaks for residents of The Kingsway.
Technically, the area is represented by Kingsway Park Ratepayers Inc., the incorporated local ratepayers group.
When Dunpar approached them about The Strand, KPRI’s board agreed to back a compromise because they felt going to the OMB would be too costly.
Last March, Dunpar took KPRI’s letter of support to the Etobicoke-York Community Council and, over the objections of Mr. Milczyn and planning staff, won approval for the project.
Mr. Milczyn fired back, accusing KPRI in a public letter of misleading residents and councillors about support for the condo. “It is truly sad that the KPRI chose to send inaccurate, if not misleading, information through the community to garner support for the developer,’’ he wrote. “This is a shocking turn of events, a breach of community trust.â€
Mary Campbell, a director of KPRI, said her group has received the cold shoulder and some nasty phone calls since the incident. KPRI declined to be interviewed directly for this story. Instead, they provided a statement explaining why they opted for a compromise. “Having previously fought the good fight at the OMB and lost,†the statement said in part, “we recognize and empathize with the difficulty of generating the cash and the energy as a group of volunteers to continually fight a battle so clearly stacked against us.â€
After the community council vote, KRAPP, which had formed to add its voice to a vision study for improving Dundas West, sprung into action to fight The Strand. The group collected 1,600 signatures on a petition and convinced the full city council to back an OMB fight, which it did last April. It raised $102,000 from more than 200 people for the OMB fight.
Now, as Kingsway residents await the board’s decision, Mr. French said the OMB battle has left him wondering how Etobicoke communities less affluent than Kingsway could ever afford to ward off developers.
“We’ve spent $102,000 [at the OMB] and we ha $40,000 more to raise,†he said. “I don’t know how Rexdale, Mimico, other wonderful communities in Etobicoke could do this.â€
Kingsway residents take on plans for nearby condo
January 07, 2008
by Barry Hertz
One of Toronto’s wealthiest enclaves is badly divided over a 7½-storey condo development that critics say could set a dangerous precedent for neighbourhoods across Toronto.
The Post's Kelly Grant reports:
The Strand condominium is proposed for Dundas Street West at Prince Edward Drive, one of the few drab corners of Etobicoke’s Kingsway neighbourhood, a planned community of stately old mansions, including some guarded by black iron gates.
The critical issue is not the proposed 7½-storey height on a street that allows a maximum of six storeys — although the residents’ group spearheading the fight opposes that, as well — it is Dunpar Development Inc.’s decision to purchase three single-family homes behind the site, bulldoze them and extend the condo into the neighbourhood.
“We’re defending against developers knocking down perfectly suitable homes, family homes and putting up high- rises,†said Dean French of Kingsway Residents Against Poor Planning (KRAPP) and a 40-year-old father of three.
Dunpar needs at least a zoning and site plan amendment to complete its plan. KRAPP, city council and city planning staff opposed the change. The case went to the Ontario Municipal Board in December, where the residents have already won a procedural victory.
Now they are waiting for the final decision. It is expected as early as this month.
Local Councillor Peter Milczyn fears that if the OMB sides with Dunpar, anyone who lives on a residential street a few houses from a major thoroughfare risks having a condominium or other tall development move in next door.
“That’s the fight here,†the councillor said. “Can the boundaries between main streets and residential streets be broken?â€
The whole story makes residents of The Kingsway especially nervous, because Dunpar owns more property on Dundas Street West and it owns some single-family homes near those holdings.
While KRAPP is eager to improve the Dundas West strip, currently a collection of strip malls, it is wary of changes to its coveted residential neighbourhood.
Bounded roughly by the Humber River to the east, Dundas West to the north, Bloor Street to the south and Royal York Road to the west, The Kingsway was bought by Robert Home Smith, a Stratford-born developer, just before the outbreak of the First World War. He hoped to transform it into an English Garden suburb; his vision became reality after the Bloor Street bridge over the Humber was completed in 1924 and wealthy businessmen started to move in.
Dunpar executives say The Strand will not alter the feel of this long-standing community. Tom Giancos, the company’s vice-president of development, believes opponents are exaggerating the problems and the precedents The Strand could create.
“We’ve made concessions and we’ve done our best to work with the community,†he said. Dunpar, a company that has built more than 1,000 townhomes in Etobicoke, Mississauga and Vaughan, has scaled back its original plan for a 10-storey condo on Dundas West. It has promised to turn the southernmost lot on Prince Edward Drive into a landscaped driveway, meaning the condo will not butt up directly against the nearest house on the side street.
As well, Mr. Giancos said the main lot on Dundas West has a dogleg that already extends to the edge of the southernmost lot. “We’re simply trying to square the property,†he said.
Mr. Giancos is working to calm fears that Dunpar has a grand plan to raze its single-family homes near Dundas for condos. “We have no development applications on any of that property,†he said. “Some of it has sat there for 10 years.â€
Further complicating Dunpar’s quest to the win over the community has been confusion about who actually speaks for residents of The Kingsway.
Technically, the area is represented by Kingsway Park Ratepayers Inc., the incorporated local ratepayers group.
When Dunpar approached them about The Strand, KPRI’s board agreed to back a compromise because they felt going to the OMB would be too costly.
Last March, Dunpar took KPRI’s letter of support to the Etobicoke-York Community Council and, over the objections of Mr. Milczyn and planning staff, won approval for the project.
Mr. Milczyn fired back, accusing KPRI in a public letter of misleading residents and councillors about support for the condo. “It is truly sad that the KPRI chose to send inaccurate, if not misleading, information through the community to garner support for the developer,’’ he wrote. “This is a shocking turn of events, a breach of community trust.â€
Mary Campbell, a director of KPRI, said her group has received the cold shoulder and some nasty phone calls since the incident. KPRI declined to be interviewed directly for this story. Instead, they provided a statement explaining why they opted for a compromise. “Having previously fought the good fight at the OMB and lost,†the statement said in part, “we recognize and empathize with the difficulty of generating the cash and the energy as a group of volunteers to continually fight a battle so clearly stacked against us.â€
After the community council vote, KRAPP, which had formed to add its voice to a vision study for improving Dundas West, sprung into action to fight The Strand. The group collected 1,600 signatures on a petition and convinced the full city council to back an OMB fight, which it did last April. It raised $102,000 from more than 200 people for the OMB fight.
Now, as Kingsway residents await the board’s decision, Mr. French said the OMB battle has left him wondering how Etobicoke communities less affluent than Kingsway could ever afford to ward off developers.
“We’ve spent $102,000 [at the OMB] and we ha $40,000 more to raise,†he said. “I don’t know how Rexdale, Mimico, other wonderful communities in Etobicoke could do this.â€
