Residents in the Bathurst Street and St. Clair Avenue West area have spoken out in opposition to an 18-storey residential and commercial, mixed-use building at 1486 Bathurst St. With the City of Toronto, City Planning division’s declaration that the proposal does not represent good planning, the case is now slated for the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB).
A city staff report on the development was presented at a Sept. 10 meeting of Toronto and East York Community Council.
The councillors forwarded staff’s report without recommendations to the full city council’s upcoming meeting (Oct. 8).
The purpose of the report was to request that the city solicitor “oppose the proposal in its current form at the OMB and advise the OMB of council’s position regarding the appropriate form of development on the site.”
City staff took issue with several aspects of the application, including height and density. The proposed density of the building is 6.5 times the lot area. The current zoning bylaw for the area is currently a maximum of 2.5 times the area.
The proposal would affect not just residents of Bathurst but those on Raglan Avenue as well. Access to the underground parking garage and loading space of the building would be from 11 Raglan Ave.
“We’re going to have traffic of large vehicles — garbage trucks, service vehicles, regular traffic of people accessing the underground parking lot, and that would significantly affect the enjoyment of our property,” said Raglan resident Paul Harvey, whose home would be next to the driveway to access the parking garage.
Harvey said his views are in line with the city’s. “It's in the middle of the block of what we’d consider mature homes with mature trees,” he said. “I understand Raglan is destined for intensification. However, other apartments on Raglan are low-level apartment buildings.”
Fellow resident Mary Ann Harkins’ criticisms echoed Harvey’s. “The impact is, number one, financial,” said Harkins. “No one will want to buy a house that will be across [from] a lane access for service vehicles and garbage trucks. The safety and aesthetic value of the street will be destroyed. No one will want to buy any house that’s on the southern part of Raglan.”
City staff said that they told the applicants, the Goldman Group, that they would issue a refusal report and allowed them a chance to revise the application. No revision was submitted.
Because of this, there was no initial community consultation scheduled following the application.
Councillor Joe Mihevc now wishes to add a community consultation meeting into the process before the upcoming city council meeting, despite his certainty that the refusal report will move forward.
“I actually am prepared to move a refusal report as the staff is recommending,” said Mihevc. “However, process-wise, I feel that it is more appropriate for us to hear from residents first and then add a report to council.”
Mihevc said that it is important to hear the community’s many issues with the development. “They might have additional reasons,” he said.
A community consultation for the application was scheduled for Sept. 25.
