Etobicoke residents say
neighbourhood lost out on $100K
in negotiations with condo developer
CBC News
By John Lancaster, Sarah Bridge
15 January 2015
The
11-storey condo development at Lakeshore Boulevard and Superior Avenue
is taking shape, looming much higher than the many homes and shops
nearby. But the money intended to lessen its impact on the community
has been greatly reduced. (CBC)
A Mimico residents’ group still wants to know how their neighbourhood
lost out on $100,000 in proposed money for local amenities.
The cash was part of an arrangement with a condominium developer, which
would have provided $250,000 for local parks improvements in exchange
for increasing the size of a condo project at Lakeshore Boulevard and
Superior Avenue.
The building is now taking shape, looming 11 storeys, much higher than
the many two-storey homes and shops nearby. And the money intended to
lessen the building’s impact on the community has been greatly reduced.
According to a City of Toronto staff report, Davies Smith Developments
had agreed to the original amount in June 2011, after discussions with
planning staff and the local councillor. The report was adopted by
community council, and a few weeks later, it headed to city council for
final approval.
This time, when the matter was brought up, area councillor Mark Grimes
stood and told fellow councillors he had a “technical amendment” to the
deal. He recommended that council require the developer to provide
“$150,000 for local parks and improvements." He made no mention of the
fact that the developer had already agreed to pay $100,000 more. Grimes
provided no explanation for the reduction.
The change
caught local residents by surprise
“The community didn’t know,” said Peggy Moulder, a member of the
Lakeshore Planning Council Corporation (LPCC), a residents’ group that
monitors urban planning in south Etobicoke. “And it wasn’t even clear
[when Grimes presented the motion] that this was an actual reduction
from what was approved at community council.”
No
agreement on $250K, Grimes says
Coun. Grimes declined an on-camera interview, but in an email response
to CBC News wrote, “there was never an agreement reached with the
applicant for $250,000 in Section 37 cash contribution.” Instead, he
said, “I recommended the $250,000 to try and negotiate the maximum
benefit for the community.”
He then indicated that “Section 37 contributions are voluntary
payments, negotiated with the applicant, the local councillor and
planning staff” and said that the motion he moved at city hall in July
2011, was a “minor technical amendment approved openly and
transparently by City Council reflecting the actual agreement reached
through negotiation.”
Section 37 of the Planning Act in Ontario allows developers to pay cash
to municipalities or provide community facilities in exchange for
increasing the height or density of a new building. The idea is that
the money will help mitigate the increased traffic and strain on
amenities the development could bring to an existing neighbourhood. The
agreements aren’t mandatory, and the transactions are calculated on a
case-by-case basis. But this particular transaction raised eyebrows in
the ward.
$250K not enough?
In September 2011, Timothy Dobson, president and chair of LPCC, wrote a
letter to Mayor Rob Ford and members of council outlining the group’s
concern that “council members were not properly informed of the
substantial change [in the Section 37 contribution] prior to their vote
on the amendment.” The letter asked council to reopen the item and hold
a new vote. The group says it has never gotten a response.
As for the original $250,000 amount, Dobson isn’t even sure that was
enough. The condo building, which is currently under construction, sits
on a site the city staff report called a “parkland priority area,” just
steps from the waterfront.
“There’s the whole question of whether [the higher amount of] $250,000
is even a good value,” said Dobson. “It’s not an entitlement to build;
it’s a privilege to build, so in exchange for that privilege, you give
back a certain amount to the community in various forms — parkland,
hospitals, whatever.“
Aesthetic
overhaul
Since the late '90s Mimico has been in the midst of an aesthetic
overhaul. A once-dingy motel strip south of the Gardiner Expressway is
now the new Humber Bay Shores neighbourhood. Thousands of condo units
have sprung up across the ward, with many more still in the works.
In his email to CBC News, Coun. Grimes listed a number of Section 37
contributions from developments that have benefited his ward, including
“the restoration of Mimico Train Station, Sam Smith Skating Trail,
Eighth St. Skateboard Park” and others.
The 11-storey Davies Smith condominium is going up in the main
commercial stretch on Lakeshore Boulevard. in Mimico. In a cafe across
from the building site, Paul Chomik, a longtime Mimico resident and
LPCC member told CBC News, “Time and time again the community was told,
‘Oh, we’re going to put all these people in [Mimico] and it’s going to
make the main street here prosperous and this, that, and the other. And
all these benefits that were promised to the community over and over
again never happened.”
Dobson added: “We feel this area has been very short-changed in terms
of the monies.”
City officials have also long complained there isn’t enough money for
much-needed improvements to transit and other infrastructure.
Moulder commiserated: “The big winners are the developers and the big
losers are the public.”
CBC News reached out to Davies Smith for this story, but the developer
offered no comment.
If you have any information about this or other stories, please contact
our investigative unit: John Lancaster john.lancaster@cbc.ca
(416-205-7538) and Sarah Bridge sarah.bridge@cbc.ca
(416-205-5511)
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