The Ontario Municipal Board hearing was held in September 15-18, 2009. The OMB decision, handed down 21 Dec. 2009 gave the developer everything they wanted.
The OMB page for the application (untouched in more than a year) is at Case No. PL080819.
In July 2007, an application was submitted for "Zoning By-law amendment and for Site Plan approval to construct a seven storey mixed use building containing 36 residential units and retail space at grade" on the southeast corner of Woodbine and Gerrard.
In September, notices were posted informing the public of this fact and giving name and number of the city planner in charge of the project. (Why are these signs always a single unrelieved block of hard-to-read uppercase type?)
Community meeting no. 1
The mandatory community consultation meeting, held October 11, at the Fairmount Community Centre, was chaired by ward councillor Sandra Bussin and attended by more than 100 people. This despite the large number of people who did not receive a notice of the meeting.
Notices are required to be sent to all residents within 400 metres, but many residents in that area did not receive one. In addition, at least some of those who had been added to the list by the planner also did not receive the notice. This appears to be the fault of city bureaucracy other than the planning department or the councillor's office, though I haven't confirmed that.
Presentations were made by senior planner Mike Mestyan and architect Carson Woods, and questions and comments were received from the community.
Concerns raised by members of the community, included height, density, parking, traffic, overlook, lack of retail space, as well as a concern that once rezoning had been approved, the project would be changed from condominiums to low-income housing. The city planners addressed many of the same concerns in their preliminary report.
Meeting no. 2: working group
At the meeting on November 21, the architects presented modified designs which addressed a number of concerns raised at the first meeting. The details were somewhat sketchy due to short notice of the meeting and the fact that architect Carson Woods was away in the antipodes.
The new proposal kept the height at 7 storeys, though both the 6th and 7th floors were reduced in size. The number of units was reduced from 36 to 29, and the amount of retail space was increased.
Meeting no. 3, Wednesday, 23 January, 2008
At the third meeting, the proposal presented to the community was essentially the same as that shown at the November meeting. There were more details, but the building was still 7 storeys.
Once again the concern that the project would be converted to low-income housing was raised. Planner Mike Mestyan said that the by-law could be drafted in such a way as to make that economically infeasible.
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