Can you fight city hall? Well, you can try. above: artwork hanging in hallway outside the hearing room pretty much sums it up At the OMB it is hard to “out planner” the entire city planning department, or the developers … Continue reading Fun and Games at the OMB, 5/5, Can you fight city hall?
Amongst the boredom Throughout the hearing, I was surprised at the lengthy boring testimony, with day after day of “turn to binder 4, tab 77, typed page 23 but handwritten page number 26, point C, ii, point four, third line … Continue reading Fun and Games at the OMB, 4/5, Humour breaks out
The Hearing, part ii One of our arguments was that the city designated ten stub end streets running off Preston for low rise housing, ie the two story houses there now, and with intensification, allowing for four floors. The only … Continue reading Fun and Games at the OMB, 3/5 the hearing goes on and on and ..
The Hearing (part i) Our lawyer had the one side of the central microphone stand. She was backed up by our hired planner, our transportation expert, and a few local residents. The other side of the microphone stand held the … Continue reading Fun and Games at the OMB, 2/5, on Expertise
This past winter I learned first hand how the OMB works. I was an appellant (notice my new legal vocabulary !) Over the next few days, you can see our case unfold in glorious slo mo. Readers with a high … Continue reading Fun and Games at the OMB, 1/5, what was the issue?
I’ve been a tich occupied recently; along with neighbours we’ve been trying to influence the Preston-Carling secondary plan. Regular readers here will recall our lack of enthusiasm for the way this study was run run over us, To provide a detailed list of suggested improvements would be so long as to bore you to tears. Councillor Holmes has pared down the list to a shorter group of four resolutions, all of which lost at Planning Committee last week. Now I do understand Committee members voting to support the plan produced by their department, according to the marching orders transmitted to … Continue reading Good planning vs legalities
I have written (too-) much previously about the details in the Preston-Carling and Preston-Gladstone plans. The Preston-Carling documents go to planning committee on Tuesday. I will be there, and speaking. Albeit with great reluctance. The Preston-Carling plan in particular was hijacked from the planning staff by city executive. The biggest and first clue was George Dark and his planning charade. He launched a veritable snowstorm of high rises onto the area. It wasn’t an ordinary planning exercise, so much as a snow job on the community, designed to burry the yokels. Its brazenness taints the “profession” in my eyes. Amongst … Continue reading Supping from a poisoned chalice
There are three new condo projects being marketed on the west side. Two are from Taggart/Tamarack; and one from Domicile. The West Wellington condo being proposed by Tamarack goes beside the heritage Grace Hospital structure, on a current parking lot: above: the parking lot is in the foreground, corner of West Wellington and Fairmont. Rosemont. The Carnegie public library is behind it; the Grace Hospital to the right. The current proposal is for this: (above: from Tamarack web site) The building height is six or seven floors (no doubt the builder will call it six, with a set-back penthouse, … Continue reading New Condos still springing up
The Bayview-Carling CDP has been going on for six years now. Or is it seven? It lurches forward just enough to permit some significant upzonings, then subsides back into limbo. The latest attempt by the city to resolve its indecision at the Carling-Preston end of the study zone saw them import their favourite big gun Toronto planner George Dark, and divide the study zone into 3 smaller study zones (the Bayview end, the Gladstone middle, and the Carling end). Gerrymandering, as mentioned in the title of this story, is the political art of redrawing boundaries so as to achieve a … Continue reading Why Gerrymander a CDP?
The City has solicited comments about the proposed high rise on Norman Street. This is my letter to the City: The project as current proposed by Taggart is unacceptable, and must be rejected. The rezoning and OP amendment request are coming just a few months before the CDP is completed. Delay the application until the CDP is received. The proposal does not meet the criteria of good planning. It puts a heavy traffic generator at the dead-end of a narrow street that is already congested. There are no provisions for a turning circle, para transpo service, taxis, or moving vans or … Continue reading Squawking about Norman
Back in October, the City hired George Dark to conduct a “charette” – a planning exercise for the Otrain corridor and neighborhood along Preston, south of the Queensway. As related here previously, the charette charade seemed little more than an exercise in bombarding the neighbourhood with high rises. Mr Dark presided over a large plan of the neighbourhood, chummily accompanied by the city’s leading developers and their agents, raining down Styrofoam cut-outs of high rise apartment buildings. (https://www.westsideaction.ca/charettes-or-is-it-charades-on-the-west-side/) The local community association is holding a public meeting of upset residents in the area. The poster below pretty accurately captures their feelings. Less obvious is the sense of betrayal, … Continue reading The Dark-side condo shower
