News

I hope 2024 is off to a great start for you and your families. The Ward 15 – Don Valley West team is hitting the ground running here at City Hall.

Earlier this month, City staff tabled their proposed $17 billion 2024 Operating Budget and $49.8 billion 2024-2033 Capital Budget and Plan. You can find more information on the City’s website, including the January 10 Budget Committee Launch Presentation.

Facing a persistently sluggish market for office buildings, one developer has pivoted his original plan to construct an environmentally leading-edge mass-timber building in Toronto to instead build lab and research space – without the wood.

The application to build a 34-storey mixed-use building at 1840 Eglinton with 377 units has been appealed to the Ontario Land Tribunal. The hearing date has not yet been set. The LRA has written a response to the appeal report from the City of Toronto, and is a registered participant at the OLT.

In last February’s Leaside Life we described the influx of tall building applications at and within 500 metres of the intersection of Bayview north of Eglinton, and Eglinton west of Bayview. Guess we can blame the coming of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT. Well, no, at least not completely.

This whole Ponzi scheme of multiple applications, each new one more audacious than the last, is the result of the province’s overriding (in 2019) the Yonge-Eglinton Secondary Plan (YESP) approved by City Council (in 2018) with specific land use changes to increase density beyond what the City approved – and without any public consultation. Then Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Steve Clark, in making the changes, specifically referenced Bayview and said it was “…missing a whole lot of density.”

The proposal for 589-595 Eglinton Ave. E. is for a 35-storey residential building with 442 units and ground floor retail fronting on Eglinton, just east of Bayview.

The LRA has submitted a letter in response to the Official Plan and Zoning By-law Amendment Application – Appeal Report, citing concerns with many aspects of the proposal.

As November comes to a close, I am sending my best wishes to families across Ward 15 for a wonderful holiday season. To celebrate, the City’s annual Cavalcade of Lights event will run from now until January 7 on Nathan Phillips Square, transforming City Hall into a winter wonderland. The full schedule of events is available at the City website.