Call to Action by Friday, Nov 29 for 220, 230, 240 Lake Promenade and 21 and 31 Park at Etobicoke York Community Council

Following message is from the Long Branch Neighbourhood Association.

The proposed development at  220, 230 and 240 Lake Promenade and 21 and 31 Park Boulevard is going to Community Council on December 2. The City is opposing this application, but we need your help to show community support for the staff recommendation that the City fight it at the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT).

To submit comments or request to speak, go to https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2024.EY18.7 and click on the “Submit Comments” or “Request to Speak” buttons at the top of the page.

Comments should be submitted by the end of the day, this Friday, November 29 with a cc to Councillor Morley email:  Councillor_Morley@toronto.ca

The proposed development would replace the existing 7-story apartments with 14 and 30-story towers containing 2021 units. Construction is expected to take 11-13 years. The main concerns are that the height, massing and density of the proposed development does not fit with the surrounding neighbourhood.

Your comments should be personal, including why you like Long Branch or why you live here and what concerns you most about this development. You should also include the statement, “I support the city staff recommendation the City Solicitor with the appropriate City staff attend the OLT hearing to oppose the application in its current form and to continue discussions with the applicant to resolve outstanding issues.”

Here are some of the issues you might want to include in your statement. Remember that putting them in your own words is always more effective than cutting and pasting.

• City bylaws allow a maximum height of 20 metres (7 stories) for this site. This proposal would be over 90 metres (30 stories) casting shadows as far east as Elton Crescent and almost 3 blocks north to Marina Avenue.
• The buildings on the lake side, in addition to being overly tall, are extremely close to Lake Promenade: much closer than the existing apartments or even the surrounding houses. They will be crowding Long Branch Park rather than enhancing it.
• Buildings of this size would normally be built on an arterial road. This site is 500 metres from the nearest major roadway and public transit. The increased traffic will overwhelm the surrounding local roads and existing street parking.
• The city, and this community, are trying to increase our tree canopy, but 141 trees will be removed to accommodate this development. 89 of them are large enough to require permits for removal.
• The existing 548 rental units will be replaced, but many current tenants will be forced to find alternative accommodation before the replacement units are available. When and if they return, none of them will have the lake views they previously enjoyed.

These and many other concerns were expressed in community consultation last year. There is a more complete list on pages 12 & 13 of the Staff Report here: https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2024/ey/bgrd/backgroundfile-250597.pdf#page=12

Thank you for your support,

Long Branch Neighbourhood Association (LBNA)

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[End of message from LBNA]

History of Long Branch Avenue

I’ve long had an interest in the history of the area we are looking at.

At a previous post, entitled History of Long Branch, I’ve included a Long Branch Park poster in which Long Branch Avenue is a central feature.

I was most interested to learn, in conversations years ago about the history of the street, that a number of quadrangles (which is a term I’m using on a provisional basis not knowing of a better term), with laneways off of Long Branch Avenue and other streets, were located in Long Branch Park beginning in the late 1880s. This was during the Cottage Country Paradise era when affluent summer vacationers travelled from Toronto to Long Branch by boat.

Click on image to enlarge it

Poster of Long Branch Park development. The poster is entitled: “Long Branch Summer Resort lot no. 9, broken front concession, Etobicoke villa lots for villa residence, summer cottages, camping, etc.” Details on how to order a copy of the poster are available at a Toronto Public Library webpage entitled: “Collection Reproduction and Digitization on Demand.” The current names of streets in the area can be accessed at an archival document: Long Branch Street names – May 13, 1935.

If you click on the image of the Long Branch Park poster at the right, you can get a close-up view of the quadrangles.

It’s my understanding, and I would be interested to get definitive information about this topic, that the quadrangles were populated with trees that provided shade for horses.

Cottagers at Long Branch Park would park their horses at one of the quadrangles when they weren’t riding about on their horses or horse-drawn carriages.