Letter from David Godley to John Livey, Deputy City Manager, and Jennifer Keesmaat, Chief Planner, City of Toronto

David Godley at break during OMB hearing in February 2015. Jaan Pill photo

Dear John and Jennifer,

Long Branch has a hearing in its historic centre.

There are 8 listed buildings on the street.

Two alien detached houses on 8m frontage lots are proposed.

Previously Etobicoke Local Planners have used a study area to determine character.
They have overlooked the “nearby massing” (density, setbacks, placement) in the OP.
Evaluation needs to be done on a block basis. Both your OP and Urban Design sections support this view.

Using a study area has helped applicants whose position is that if there are similar developments in the study area of 100s of houses, then the proposal conforms to OP policies.

4 James Street, 6 Shamrock and recently 20 James are examples of where the urban terrorists at the OMB blithely take the development planner’s view. Focus on block evaluation approach may have yielded different results.

Since there is no mention of the character evaluation process in the OP, a swift memo to the planner who will give evidence on 23rd April is all that is necessary to resolve the situation.

Please, for the sake of good planning, have the City strengthen its case. Please consider that an urban design planner give evidence too.

I have copied the community leader and the Legal Department’s solicitor on this case.

Regards

David