Glen Andrew Community Association is now on Facebook

Birkdale Community Centre's Holiday bazaar

Meeting with Councillor Thompson

Residents Urgently needed!

 

Open letter to City Councillors Ainslie and Thompson: Brimorton Bikeway

 

2 Cora Crescent - Solicitors Fail to Appeal

 

2 Cora Crescent “Oh, No!!!!!” 

Back on July 23, we advised Glen Andrew residents that our Councillor Michael Thompson had taken a motion in front of Toronto Council asking that the City Solicitor be directed to file an appeal of the Committee of Adjustment’s approval of Variances for 2 Cora Crescent. 
The Council meeting took place on July 19th which was the last day to file an appeal. We watched anxiously as the morning session dragged on and on. 

 When the Councillors were getting ready to break for lunch, Councillor Nunziata, who runs the show down there, said wait a minute, “Before we break for lunch, I have an important item that we have to bring forward. It is ‘time sensitive’ as there is a deadline today.” 

She put Councillor Thompson's motion up on the screen so everyone could see it. 

Members had to vote twice to hear and decide Mike’s motion [everything Council decides usually has to wander its way through one or two committees before it can come to Council to be decided.] 

Councillors voted to hear Mike’s motion. 

Councillor Holyday asked that every Councillor’s vote be recorded instead of just waving their hands. 

We had to wait till all of them had chosen which button to push. 

The vote went up on the screen for all to see: 

Hard to read but all the green are Councillors voting to approve Councillor Thompson’s motion. The single red one is Holyday voting against. [Don’t ask why…he does this regularly.] 

23 in favour. 1 against. Mike’s motion was approved. Yahhhhh! Good work Mike! 

Gary and I waited till Sunday to get the word out to Glen Andrew. We wanted to see it published in the minutes and there it was: 

City Council authorize the City Solicitor to both appeal and attend the Toronto Local Appeal Body as a party in order to oppose the Committee of Adjustment decision regarding the application of minor variance A0349/21SC respecting 2 Cora Crescent and to retain outside consultants as necessary. 

Terrific. Congratulation to Mike and his staff for getting this done on time. 

There are 7 pages of lawyers listed in the City Solicitor’s Office. 28 of them are under Ms Kelly Matsumoto in the ‘Planning & Administrative Tribunal’ section. She has dozens of assistants and clerks to help her. They know how to file an appeal. 

But they didn’t. 

They had 4 ½ hours from the time Council told them to get that appeal in. 

And they didn’t. 

They failed or refused to file the appeal. 

Let’s go back to what Councillor Nunziata said: Mike’s motion was “an important item”. It was “time-sensitive”. “There is a deadline today”. 

City lawyers sit in the Council chamber. Others watch Council meetings on their laptops and screens. 

They heard Councillor Nunziata. They saw the vote go through. 

And they still neglected or refused to file the appeal. 

Whatever their excuses what their failure means is we won’t have to opportunity to work with a City lawyer and maybe an expert planner to make our case against these Variances at a hearing of the Toronto Local Appeals body. 

It’s over. 

There’s nothing we can do. 

The Committee’s approval stands. The Variances are approved. 

Mike Thompson is not happy. He and his staff did their best for us. He is trying to find out just exactly why City lawyers failed or refused to do what Council told them to do. 

If you want to support Michael in his efforts to get to the bottom of this scandal, you write, call or email Michael at: 

Toronto City Hall 100 Queen Street West, Suite B31 Toronto, ON M5H 2N2 Telephone: 416-397-9274 Email: councillor_thompson@toronto.ca 

Proposed Development for Existing Shopping Centres

Glen Andrew residents

The Executive of your Glen Andrew Community Association were invited to a ‘preview’ of the Tridel development proposed for the Lawson School site on Ellesmere at Grangeway.

Executive members Eva D’Ornellas, Iain Mcleod, and Jack Law along with myself and new member Dan McIntosh met with Tridel’s architect and planner as well as Mr. Brad Saunders, CEO of Community Living Toronto [CLT].

A lot of water will have to flow under the bridge before this proposal comes before Scarborough Community Council for approval. A whole lot more will have to flow before anything actually gets built but we appreciated Tridel and CLT giving us the opportunity to make them aware of some of the things that may concern Glen Andrew residents. 

1. Several of our local grocery stores are proposed to be torn down, like the Freshco store at McCowan and Ellesmere and the Superstore up on Brimley near the 401. Where will we, and all the new residents in these developments shop for food?

2. A portion of the new apartments have to be ‘affordable’. Some of them are supposed to be ‘suitable for families with children’. We understand there is a housing crisis in Toronto and we asked Tridel what these terms mean and how many units are involved. 

3. We asked how the new street and the new driveway they propose on the east side of Grangeway will operate with the existing driveways to The Blue Danube and the two condo towers on the west side of Grangeway.

4. With the SRT scheduled to shut down in November of this year and the recent ‘de-coupling’ incident what do they think will happen to the SRT service yard property?

5. Schools, parks, and community centers like Centennial Rec Centre can’t handle the number of people who will live in all the developments proposed for our Scarborough Centre. The former Scarborough Board of Education and the City of Scarborough bought 705 Progress decades ago so we would have a place for a new school and park. Will Tridel help us persuade the City and Board of Education to get on with it and build these?

Lorne Ross.

Council Appeals Committee of Adjustment Decision - 2 Cora Crescent

Open House for Proposed Site Development

 

Continuing The Fight Against Proposed Rooming Houses

Hello Bendale

 

The Glen Andrew Community Association  ( GACA ) thought we had won the battle to preserve the neighborhood character back in January 2022. We were wrong.

 

The current owner of 2 Cora Cres. is single, lives upstairs, and already rents to two tenants in the basement. Three cars are already usually parked in the Cora side driveway.

 

The newest proposal is not a so-called minor variance but a complete teardown with the following features:

 

  - reconstruct the house to face Doerr Road and add an additional 2 stories plus a basement at the back that will dominate and overlap 4 Cora Cr.

 

 - add a completely new second story and balcony, the new balcony and seven rear windows will look directly into the living room window of No 4 Cora cr.

 

   - Besides the new front entrance on Doerr Rd, there will be another two entrances added to the side facing Cora Cr.

 

   - the “existing brick driveway will remain” on the Cora Cr. side and a brand new garage and driveway will be added to the Doerr Rd side.

 

   - the positioning of the stairwell and multiple exterior entrances divides the house into six separate segments. Perfect for rooming house or AIRBNB purposes.

 

We don’t know who the investor is but they seemed to have tempted the owner of 2 Cora to try again.

 

This excessive proposal does not represent a minor adjustment and variance and should have not even been considered by the City Planning Department.

 

If this application succeeds then it will be used by other investors as an example to build more like it.

 

The virtual Committee of Adjustment ( COA ) hearing is Wednesday, June 28^th, 2023 at 10:00 a.m.

 

You must register your concerns to the COA  by email in pdf format  with your name and address by Wednesday June 21^st coa.sc@toronto.ca

 

Also contact Councillor Michael Thompson with your concerns    councillor_thompson@toronto.ca

 

GACA

Councilor Michael Thompson agreed that No 2 Cora was a threat to the character of our neighborhood and would oppose the application. 

 

Let's hold him to his promise, please email him and the Committee of Adjustment

 

Community Meeting to discuss 2 Cora Crescent - YouTube

 

 

Current bungalow with three car parking, two roomers renting downstairs

North side, facing Cora Cr, new 3-story addition with balcony, 2 new raised separate entrances, and existing driveway to remain.

Facing Doerr Rd, additional new entrance , new garage and new driveway

Rear view facing the front of 4 Cora  Cr. Totally overlaps and dominates 4 Cora with its balcony and windows

South Side view, will dominate the backyard of 12 Doerr  Road

More Condos?!

Do you shop for groceries at Freshco or use Shoppers Drug Mart for your medical prescriptions?

Developers have proposed to replace the North East corner of McCowan and Ellesmere Rds with another massive condo complex.

 

The Real Canadian Superstore and pharmacy at Brimley Rd. and Progress Ave. have also been rezoned for similar development.

 

In order to suppress opposition to this proposal city planning has limited the public notification catchment distance to a ridiculously low 120 meters from the site. 

 

If you value having these important and necessary services in your neighborhood contact your local councilors with your concerns, Michael Thompson and Paul Ainslie.

 

Unless you act now, the days when you could access the Scarborough Town Centre and surrounding area with your automobile are numbered.

 

Metrolinx is also planning to install protected dedicated bus lanes down the middle of Ellesmere Road, which means no more center-lane left-hand turns.

 

If you believe traffic congestion is bad now just wait until the city includes the planned bike lanes on all the major roads.

 

 

Preliminary Report - 1215 to 1255 McCowan Road – Zoning Amendment Application (toronto.ca)

 

https://urbantoronto.ca/database/projects/1215-mccowan.47444

 

 

Looking North East from corner the of McCowan and Ellesmere Rds.

Super Store at Progress and Brimley also rezoned for condos

Planning the Future of Scarborough Centre is One Tall Task | UrbanToronto

Scarborough, Toronto Needs a New MAYOR!

Hello Scarborough,

The Mayoral vote is on June 26th.

We need everyone in Scarborough to VOTE in this ELECTION and we appreciate your immediate support by sharing it on social media and with your friends & neighbors today. 

 

Eligible voters need to confirm today, May 26 with MyVote to check, add, or update your information on the voters’ list and if necessary, apply to vote by mail. 

 

To assist in knowing more about all the candidates, "The Local" Mayor Candidate Tracker has most of the bios uploaded and should assist in a portion of your voting decision. 

https://thelocal.to/toronto-mayor-candidates-2023/

 

Here are the Confirmed Mayor Candidates: 

https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/elections/by-election/by-election-candidate-list/

EVERY vote matters!

Part time work available

 Looking for a youth to provide snow clearing and grass cutting in the Glen Andrew Community, snow blower and lawn mower supplied, please contact dave at dundalkfarm@gmail.com

The Character of Our Community is under Threat - Rooming Houses

A few months ago, the Glen Andrew Community Association shared this post about rooming houses that sacrifices the true character of our community. There are plenty of ways rooming houses negatively affect our community. 

Please read about it here

The Character of Our Community is under Threat.

A Message from your Glen Andrew Community Association

 2 Cora Crescent is on the corner of Cora and Doerr Road. That’s just east of Brimley a bit north of Brimorton Drive. 

It’s what most of us would call a bungalow. Like many of our homes, it was built 60 years ago with three bedrooms on the main floor, a full basement and a carport on the side.  

It looks like the owner converted part of the basement into an apartment some time ago.

OK… no problem there. A lot of us have put in a basement apartment for grown children before they can afford their own home, maybe an elderly parent, a relative coming to the big city or just to help with those huge mortgage payments. 

No problem as s long as the number of cars is under control.

But the owner of 2 Cora wants to build a two-car garage in place of the carport and build what most of us would call a second storey over both the existing home and the new garage.

Well…that’s pretty ambitious but not totally out of keeping with some homes in the neighbourhood.

There are a fair number of Glen Andrew homes with a second storey over the garage or ‘back splits’. A few have ripped off the roof of a bungalow and built a full second storey. They fit in pretty well.

So what’s the problem with 2 Cora? 

The plans filed by the owner show 2 Cora will have 7 bedrooms, and seven bathrooms, and two kitchens, and two furnaces/hot water heaters. There are two rooms in the second storey labelled ‘T.V. Lounge’ and ‘Reading Library’. It’s pretty easy to convert these two rooms to additional bedrooms or kitchens after the City Building Inspectors leave. 

The 7 bathrooms tell the story: this is a rooming house. 

The owner’s plans are caught up in the Zoning By-law. The owner needs approval from the Committee of Adjustment for four variances to get a Building Permit.  The Committee will make their decision on January 13th.

The members of the Committee have a bunch of things they have to consider before they can approve a Variance.  The key ones for Glen Andrew are that they cannot approve a Variance unless it is -

…desirable for the appropriate development or use of the land, building or structure; and
…general intent and purpose of the by-law and of the official plan are maintained. 

On January 13th when this comes in front of the Committee, we have to make sure the members of the Committee pay close attention, read the plans and ask questions. Like:

    

    • Why does a single-family home, even one with a basement apartment, need 7 bathrooms?

    • Or two furnaces

    • How do we know the TV Lounge and Reading Library will not be converted to even more bedrooms or kitchens when our Building Inspectors can’t get in to see unless you let them?

I think if the members of the Committee take the time to look at the plans they will reach the same conclusion we have: 

    •    These plans are for a rooming house which is NOT permitted in Glen Andrew. 

    •    The proposed development is NOT appropriate. 

    •    The application should be refused.

Our President Iain McLeod will be writing to the Committee and to our Councillor Michael Thompson. He will be asking that this application be refused.

If you feel strongly about this as we do, please write to our Councillor Michael Thompson at

Toronto City Hall

100 Queen Street West, Suite B31

Toronto, ON M5H 2N2

or email Councillor Thompson at: councillor_thompson@toronto.ca

Please write to the Committee of Adjustment at:

Michael Mizzi, Secretary-Treasurer 

Scarborough Committee of Adjustment 

150 Borough Drive 

Toronto, Ontario M1P 4N7 

Or email Mr. Mizzi at: coa.sc@toronto.ca

You can write or email Councillor Thompson any time up to January 13th but letters/emails to Mr. Mizzi have to be in by January 6th.

Glen Andrew is a beautiful place to raise our families and enjoy our senior years. Let’s keep it that way.

Yours truly,

Lorne Ross.

Saratoga Drive, Scarborough.

Rooming Houses in Our Community

ROOMING HOUSES IN GLEN ANDREW COMMUNITY

Dear Glen Andrew residents:

On July 14th City Council came very close to passing By-laws that would allow any house in Glen Andrew to be converted to a rooming house.

“What’s a rooming house?” 

It is any home in Glen Andrew that someone buys and converts into 6 rooms, each with either its own kitchen and the people who live there share a bathroom; or each unit having its own bathroom and the people living there share a kitchen.

Mayor Tory thinks this is a great idea. He pulled it off the agenda when a storm of protest rained down on Council from neighbourhoods like Glen Andrew.

The Councillors he appointed to his Planning and Housing Committee think it’s a great idea. They voted 5 to zero in favour of it back on June 28th. All 5 of them represent ‘downtown’ Wards shown in yellow below:

• Not one of them comes from Scarborough.
• None of them come from North York or Etobicoke.
• Every one of them is confident that if they give Property Standards staff an extra $4.5 million a year they will take care of any/every property standards problem that may arise when absentee landlords convert the house next to you to a rooming house.
• Every one of them is confident if they give our Fire Department an extra $1.8 million a year they will make sure every absentee landlord does a great job rewiring the house next to you and putting in smoke alarms.

These 5 think rooming houses are such a great idea they want to waive Building Permit fees for absentee landlords when they break up the house next t you into 6 rooming house units. You pay Building Permit fees. I pay Building Permit fees. Absentee landlords won’t.

We Are So Rich - Free Money Number One: You and I are charged fees for Building Permits when we want to improve our homes. But hey, that would be pretty hard on some guy who wants to buy the house next door to you and convert it to a rooming house. So he will get his Building Permit free of charge!

We Are So Rich - Free Money Number Two: These 5 Councillors believe the city has so much cash sitting around we should give absentee landlords grants to buy and convert the house next door to you. They want to call it the “Multi-Tenant Housing Renovation and Retrofit Program.”

We Are So Rich - Free Money Number Three: These 5 Councillors represent Ward where rooming houses have been permitted for some time. The owners pay a fee between $100 and $300 a year. It helps cover the costs of enforcing basic property standards.

But charging absentee landlords annual fees just makes these rooms less ‘affordable’… so no way. They want to drop the annual license fee to $25 per room AND no charge at all for ‘non-profit’ absentee landlords.

Worried About Fire Safety: No Problem! Toronto Fire Department told these 5 Councillors that 11 rooming houses caught fire over the last five years because of faulty wiring.

But these 5 Councillors believe it’s just too expensive for absentee landlords to do a thorough electrical inspection. I mean we can trust these guys to run all the new wires and plug them into the old fuse box in the basement all by themselves, right? So no inspection for their home wiring job.

Security Deposit: One of our Councillors from Scarborough asked Staff to think about maybe charging rooming house operators a security deposit to get their license. If the absentee landlord failed to meet minimum property maintenance standards (including things like grass cutting, snow clearing, garbage removal, wildlife control), the security deposit could be cashed in and used to pay for remediation.

Staff response was: No! We can’t do that! “It would be a challenge to calculate and charge a security deposit…” and “, it would put an additional financial burden on operators…”

So forget that!

Fraternity/Sorority Homes: Absentee landlords can break up the house next to you and call it a fraternity or sorority house. The people who move in just have to be members of “…an active chapter of a bona fide national or international student fraternity or sorority.”

Sure! Property Standards staff are all trained and ready to check out the ‘bonafides’ of every fraternity run out of any one of the 194 countries around the world. No problem reading documents in any of the worlds’ dozens and dozens of scripts!

Another Layer of Bureaucracy Will Solve Everything 

The old City of Toronto has a ‘Rooming Housing Licensing Commission’. 

It has the power to issue, suspend, renew, or revoke a rooming house license. 

It can place conditions on the owner of the rooming house in doing so. 

The 5 Councillors who think this is a great idea want to give it a new name and expand it to cover the whole city. They will call it the ‘Multi-Tenant Licensing Tribunal’. 

It’ll cost just $422 thousand a year. Well…that’s actually only a ‘preliminary estimate’. That doesn’t include the buildings they have to rent and fit-out, interpreter costs, Tribunal remuneration, and legal support costs. No problem! We’ll hear about those costs later. 

Block Busting and Speculators Rejoice! 

If this thing passes there will be no limit on where they can go. No limit on how many can go on the same street. 

No doubt there are some well-meaning, well-financed rooming house operators who are interested in maintaining their properties. It’s the ones who don’t that concern Glen Andrew homeowners. 

If this thing passes our Councillors will have handed every small-time property speculator just exactly what they need to start buying up and running down homes anywhere in Glen Andrew. 

Property Standards Officers have an awful job. They only get called in when people run out of all patience with a neighbour who is supremely disinterested in maintaining their property. They try their best to persuade people to maintain their property. If that fails they have to resort to inspections, issuing citations, waiting for court dates, lawyers, evidence, appeals, etc. By the time they get a conviction, IF they can persuade a Judge to take it seriously… the fines are trivial. With no security deposit and a $26 annual license fee, the speculators will look at court costs as just the cost of doing business. 

When enough of the homes on a street are broken up and run down, it gets easier to buy up more homes on the street. The process continues until everyone is so fed up the City might as well look at the speculators’ plans to knock them down and build apartments and townhouses.

 

When Scarborough decided it wanted its own high-density mixed-use ‘downtown’ north of Ellesmere in Scarborough Centre, the promise was made to the people living in Glen Andrew that their stable, family-oriented neighbourhood would be protected from speculators. That promise has been kept for 40 years. 

If these five downtown Councillors and Mayor Tory pass this rooming house by-law It will be ‘open-season’ on Glen Andrew’s family-oriented housing. All along Ellesmere. All along Brimley Road. All along McCowan. Anywhere near our local plazas.

Where Does Our Councillor, Michael Thompson Stand? 

When the 5 Councillors on Planning and Housing Committee discussed the Rooming House By-law back on June 28th every other member of Council was allowed to attend the meeting and ask questions.

You can watch the video of the meeting by going to: http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/video.do?id=19740 and clicking on the tab for PH25.10.

Councillor Cynthia Lai for the Agincourt area of Scarborough attended the meeting.

• She spoke up.
• She asked questions on behalf of her residents.

Councillor McKelvie for the east end of Scarborough attended the meeting.

• She spoke up.
• She asked questions on behalf of her residents.

Councillor Ainslie showed up and at least listened to what everyone had to say.

Councillor Thompson did not show up.

Which way will Michael Thompson vote when Mayor Tory and the 5 downtown Councillors bring this back to Council in September?

You can tell Councillor Thompson which way you would like him to vote by emailing his office at: councillor_thompson@toronto.ca

Lorne Ross for the Glen Andrew Community Association.

You can read the 71 page report from City Staff at: https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2021/ph/bgrd/backgroundfile-168253.pdf

You can read a news story about how this all started in Parkdale at:
https://nowtoronto.com/news/fighting-parkdale-s-housing-crisis-parkdale-neighbourhood-land-trust