Please support the Long Branch Neighbourhood Association in its vital messaging; please send an email today in favour of responsible development, but not development at any cost

Long Branch is a neighbourhood in south Etobicoke on the Lake Ontario waterfront: West beach at Marie Curtis Park, April 4, 2018. Jaan Pill photo. Click on image to enlarge it; click again to enlarge it further.

I am pleased to share the following message from the Long Branch Neighbourhood Association:

Hi Long Branch Neighbours

The Association wanted to share with you the Toronto Star story about intensification on Saturday, March 16 [2019] where the LBNA was quoted.

Click here to read the article >

As we have 11 ongoing TLAB hearings, we have been purposefully refusing interviews regarding TLAB, however there have been an uptick of news articles and reports that are fueling inaccurate statements that Toronto zoning bylaws are outdated and are discouraging development in the form of density.

This is an attempt by builders and the related special interest groups who have sponsored these reports (i.e. the Toronto Real Estate Board; the Ontario Real Estate Association and the Ontario Home Builders’ Association amongst others) to pressure the Province to meddle in Municipal Affairs by rewriting policy to allow developers to do whatever they want, without thinking as they get ready to release the new Ontario Housing Action Plan.

We were approached by a Star reporter to give a perspective from a neighbourhood point of view.

We did our best to represent the community as supporting responsible development that is sensitive to the character of the neighbourhood. To be clear, severing 50 foot lots into two 25 foot lots does nothing to achieve the affordable housing shortage this article writes about. The market prices of new homes built on severed lots are significantly higher than the value of the original property before being severed – essentially removing one more affordable home and replacing it with two much less affordable dwellings.

Developments in Long Branch, such as Mintos, and Vincent Massey, though shocking to some, do address the Provincial Growth requirements. And these developments are consistent with the City’s Official Plan for adding density along major avenues. Revitalizing our numerous low rise walk ups, semis and duplexes would also address this issue.

In trying to step around all the construction in Long Branch, I am sure that you feel that our neighbourhood has already done its part in new home development, and that is because it has. 1200 units are already being built on Lake Shore alone, and if only 1 person lives in each home, that is a 12% increase in the population of Long Branch, above provincial targets. That does not even include the 1,000 plus more units that are part of the growth plan along Lake Shore.

What can you do?

We encourage you to email our MPP Christine Hogarth christine.hogarth@pc.ola.org; the Ontario Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, MPP Steve Clark steve.clark@pc.ola.org and Councillor Mark Grimes councillor_grimes@toronto.ca stating that you support responsible development in Long Branch, but not development at all costs.

You support development that respects the Character of the Neighbourhood by using the City of Toronto Official Plan, Official Plan Amendment (OPA) 320, the in-force Bylaws and the Long Branch Neighbourhood Character Guidelines as the most important documents in achieving the Provincial Objectives of Densification. Please encourage your neighbours in Ward 3 to do the same.

As always, if you have questions or want more information, please contact us at longbranchnato@gmail.com

Sincerely
Christine, Judy, Ron, Bill, Ken, Doe, Jenny and Tyler