Church Wellesley Update
News from the Church Wellesley Neighbourhood Association
Are you looking for a unique opportunity to make an impact in the Church Wellesley Neighbourhood? The Church Wellesley Neighbourhood Association (CWNA) is looking for leaders like you to join our board of directors.
We are a non-profit, volunteer run organization dedicated to improving the quality of life of everyone who lives, works, and plays in our neighbourhood, bounded by Yonge Street east to Jarvis Street and Charles Street south to Carlton Street. The work of the CWNA is focused in the areas of:
Our board maintains active relations and meets regularly with our elected officials, partner organizations (the Church Wellesley BIA, The 519, Progress Place, and other local agencies), the Community Crisis Response Network, and various city departments. The CWNA is currently accepting applications for open positions on the CWNA Board. All candidates for the CWNA Board of Directors must live in our catchment area and be members in good standing. We encourage members of equity-deserving groups to apply so that our board may reflect the diversity of our neighbourhood and our community’s unique needs. We are particularly seeking board members who have knowledge and experience in any of the following areas: community outreach and engagement, urban development and planning, legal expertise. As the Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be virtual, the election for open positions will be by online ballot. All members in good standing that are present at the AGM will be entitled to vote and will receive an online ballot via email following the AGM. Results will be announced on March 17, 2023 at 7 pm. The CWNA Board normally meets once a month and board members are expected to attend these meetings regularly. In addition to the monthly board meeting, board members will be expected to sit on at least one committee and will be required to complete additional tasks between meetings, approximately 5-10 hours per month. Email info@cwna.ca for a nomination form. Deadline for submission of nominations is March 13, 2023, 11:59 pm. You're invited to the Church Wellesley Neighbourhood Association's 2022/23 Annual General Meeting, March 16 at 7 pm. This will be a virtual meeting, via Zoom Webinar.
Take the opportunity to hear about important issues in our community, including Development, Community Safety, Placemaking (Parks and Public Spaces) and Heritage Conservation, as well as vote for open positions on the Board of Directors. The AGM is open to everyone in the community, but only CWNA members may vote. Register here. Kingsett Capital has submitted an application to develop a 75-storey tower with 558 residential units at 646 Yonge Street, north of Irwin.
The City has not yet released a Preliminary Report on the proposal. For more information, see the application's page on City's Development Application Information Centre Among the many pieces of regressive legislation being pushed through the provincial parliament by the Ford government, Bill 39, the so-called “Better Municipal Governance Act" is one of the more egregious.
The CWNA made the following submission to the Standing Committee on Heritage, Infrastructure and Cultural Policy during the comments period: CWNA Position on Bill 39 - Expanded Strong Mayor Powers The strong mayor powers about to be enacted by the Ontario legislature for the cities of Toronto and Ottawa deprive local communities of their full say in decisions affecting their lives. Bill 39 should be withdrawn. At the request of Toronto Mayor John Tory, the Doug Ford government is proposing legislation that would allow the mayor to pass bylaws with the support of just 8 of 25 city councillors. We at the Church Wellesley Neighbourhood Association deplore this move to concentrate so much power in one top elected official. We join former Toronto mayors David Crombie, Art Eggleton, Barbara Hall, David Miller and John Sewell in their warning that the newly proposed powers eliminate “any meaningful role of city councillors and therefore the voice of the local residents who elect them.” Mayor Tory has pledged that he will only use the powers sparingly. That is to say he will only ignore the wishes of the majority of council when he deems it necessary. This is too much discretion for any one elected official to wield. What is even more worrying is that these powers, once in place, can be abused by any future mayors to bypass the majority of council. The province has already passed legislation granting the mayor power to veto council decisions believed to “potentially intervene with provincial priorities,” which makes the mayor first and foremost accountable to the province rather than the people of Toronto. Bill 39’s proposed expanded power to pass bylaws with only one-third of council is extreme and unacceptable. Local quality of life issues will suffer. Decisions about such matters as development, housing, transit, and the environment - all of which are or could be declared provincial priorities - will now be subject to mayoral fiat. The province will have yet another tool to override local representatives. We urge the province to drop this ill-considered and profoundly undemocratic legislation and demand that Mayor Tory take back his request for these autocratic powers. On November 28 the Ford government passed Bill 23, the “More Homes Built Faster Act,” which ignores most of the recommendations of the government’s own task force on housing affordability. The law’s provisions have been well covered in the media over the past months; among some of the more controversial measures, the law:
Even though the law is now on the books, most provisions have not yet taken effect and there is a chance that some of the more controversial measures will not come into force. The comment period on many of the provisions has been extended, so you can still make your opinion known. Here’s a useful chart with links to the comments forms. The CWNA will continue to work hard to make our neighbourhood a great place to live in this ever more challenging environment. The original proposal for the redevelopment of The Beer Store property at 572 Church Street called for a 16 storey building. In August of 2019 the project was reduced to 12 storeys, according to a Local Planning Appeal Tribunal Settlement.
The building was to have a 44 degree angular plane rising from Church Street, so that it better relates to the low-rise buildings that characterize the Village, and contain 96 units. There has been no sign of construction on the site, leading to the conclusion that the project has been put on hold and that it is highly possible the owner may submit a new development proposal. Kingsett Capital has applied to develop a 76-storey residential tower at 645 Yonge Street. The tower would include 678 residential units, on nine assembled lots from 639 to 653 Yonge Street, north of Isabella.
The block context document included in the application illustrates that other active development applications for towers nearby call for 50 to 57 stories and one tower currently under construction is 34 storeys. The City has not yet released a Preliminary Report on the proposal. For more information: Development Application Information Centre: https://tinyurl.com/3ube86m6 Carlyle Communities has applied to build a 49-storey condominium tower at 33 to 37 Maitland Street. The proposal would demolish the existing rental building at 33 Maitland Street, while keeping some parts of the existing building at 37 Maitland Street, incorporating it into the base of the tower. The development application is here. The red-brick Georgian style building at 37 Maitland Street is on the City's heritage register. It was built sometime between 1853 and 1868 and was once the residence of William Galbraith, a flour and grain merchant. It is currently used as law offices. The Biltmore Apartments at 33 Maitland Street was designed by architect Herbert Charles Roberts, who designed several buildings in the immediate area in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The building currently has no heritage status, though local heritage advocate Adam Wynne nominated it for heritage protection in June 2022. The properties were put up for sale earlier this year, at which time Colliers International published an "investment summary" detailing the rationale for a 38-storey tower. The current development proposal is 11 storeys higher.
Details about the proposal can be found at the City's Development Application Information Centre (Supporting Documentation tab). The Community Consultation was held on March 23. The City has not yet released a Preliminary Report. In October 2022 the Church Wellesley Village BIA released the final version of the Church Street Master Plan. Implementation is dependent on a number of factors and no further action is scheduled at this time. There will still be opportunity for further input. You can view the Master Plan here.
Last November, Colliers Strategy and Consulting (on behalf of YI Developments Limited) submitted an application for a 57 storey tower at the southeast corner of Yonge and Isabella Streets (619-637 Yonge; 7-9 Isabella) that would bring 606 residential units to the site. The Yonge Street frontage would be retail space, with the residential entrance on Isabella Street, and servicing, parking and loading accessed via Gloucester Lane. The site is within the Yonge Street Heritage Conservation District, which the City of Toronto designated in 2016 under the Ontario Heritage Act. However, a group of developers, including YI Developments, has appealed The Heritage Conservation District Plan to the Ontario Land Tribunal. The current development proposal calls for the demolition of the existing buildings. City staff released a Preliminary Report with recommendations in January 2022. In July 2022, the Toronto Preservation Board recommended that City Council designate the existing buildings as heritage properties. The report recommends that City Council state its intention to designate the property at 625 Yonge Street (including 621, 627, 629, 631, 633, 635, and 637 Yonge Street, and 1, 3, and 5 Isabella Street) under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act for its cultural heritage value. According to the report, the buildings: ...constitute a representative example of Edwardian Classicist-style commercial main street buildings. Part of Yonge Street's historic commercial streetscape since the early 20th century, the property maintained a long association with the automotive industry, beginning with its original use for Thomas Crow's carriage business. It then housed the Dominion Automobile Company's showroom, the second store location of Canadian Tire, and other automobile companies. From the late 1970s through the late 1990s, the property housed a series of clubs that served the LGBTQ2S+ community, notably including the Domino Club and Komrads." On August 18, the City issued a Notice of Intention to designate the buildings as heritage properties. The developer is expected to revise the application to take into account the heritage attributes of the current buildings fronting Yonge Street.
Notice of a community consultation meeting held by the City will be sent to property owners within 120 metres of the property. You can be notified of the consultation by clicking the "Community Consultation" tab on the Development Application Information page for the proposal. [Update: the developer appealed this application to the Ontario Land Tribunal in May 2022] For more information: Development Application Information Centre: https://tinyurl.com/57rvbt6s Urban Toronto: https://tinyurl.com/yckr9fd2 |
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