A proposal to expand the size and height of a mixed-use development at Bayview and Broadway is facing significant pushback from local residents. Both the Leaside Residents Association (LRA) and the Broadway Area Residents Association have expressed strong opposition to the plan.
Back in 2021, an application was made to the City of Toronto for a high-rise mixed-use building for 1837-1845 Bayview. Residents associations were opposed to the proposal by the Gupta Group, stating that a 25-storey development on the top of a hill would tower high above existing and proposed developments, setting a dangerous height precedent for higher development across Bayview and beyond Glenvale. They were/are also worried that it will lead to a lack of privacy in the neighbourhood (with increased traffic and congestion).
The proposal was appealed to the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) but a mediated settlement was reached with the City of Toronto and Bayview Broadway Better Planning Inc. residents’ group last year July (and approved by the OLT).
City Council approved this settlement on April 11 of this year, but one key provision from the OLT settlement was to reduce the height of the building from the originally proposed 25 storeys to 22 storeys.
Now, it gets really interesting. Just two weeks follow a settlement that was approved by the city, Bayview Broadway Developments Inc. (by the Gupta Group) submitted a committee of adjustment application to go back and add five storeys to the development (making it 27 storeys), which is above what was approved in the OLT settlement.
On June 24, the application was reduced by three storeys for a total of 25 storeys — that is the same number of storeys as the original 2021 submission. According to a July 12 letter submitted by the LRA to the North York Committee of Adjustment (CofA), which is an independent group that makes decisions under the Planning Act regarding applications for minor variances/adjustments to properties, the developer indicated that this amendment was made “further to discussions with city planning.”
In their letter, the LRA called out the developer for “bad faith bargaining” and abuse of the committee of adjustment process, as well as their failure “to meet the established planning tests for variances” to be considered “minor” variances.
“For the Committee to accept a 27 (or 25) storey height for the subject proposal would run counter to the…approved Official Plan policies,” the LRA letter, penned by Geoff Kettel Co-President of the Association, stated. “If 20-35 35 storeys is accepted as of right anywhere within the Bayview Focus Area, the result would be excessive density, plus situations where tall buildings are immediately abutting low density development with minimal transition.”
The letter adds that the unit increases above what was already permitted are similar to the number of units expected from a 6-storey building on a major street, which is hardly “minor”.
“[T]he variance is NOT ‘minor.’ We recommend and request that the CofA refuse the application.”
The LRA launched a complaint with the Toronto ombudsman’s office about the committee’s decision over the development, requesting that the ombudsman appeal the committee’s order.
