Toronto 39 Newcastle | 119.3m | 36s | VANDYK | SvN

Uh, Di Ciano is Dunpar, more or less. He has been accused of serious conflicts of interest - simply do a web search of Di Ciano and Dunpar and have a look.

And this is Ward 6, Mark Grimes's ward. (Not that Grimes and Di Ciano aren't really chummy. Grimes has his own problems with being too friendly with local developers.)
Oh i'm well aware of these two and their buddy buddy relations with developers. We'll just have to see how the two of them go about interfering with this proposal.
 
^ I dont know where you're getting that info from, but UT has posted quite a few times a map of the area showing the current and proposed developments in the area where there is no indication of 20 high-rises being proposed:

One thing is for certain though the city better be extremely careful here or they risk transforming an area into another Humber Bay Shores (ie: cars being funneled through a constrained point- in this case Royal York without sufficient transit infrastructure).

24584-85991.jpg
 
^ I dont know where you're getting that info from, but UT has posted quite a few times a map of the area showing the current and proposed developments in the area where there is no indication of 20 high-rises being proposed:

Sorry my bad, i was thinking of the area south of IQ Condos on the Queensway
 
Another day, another public consultation. Tonight's, in a school near this proposal, was interesting for it being held on the same day that City Council adopted the Planning Department's refusal report. Dunpar have, in turn, attached this application to the appeal of the Mimico Judson Secondary Plan of which they are one of the appellants.

No shouting at the meeting, but residents in the area voiced the classic combination of reasonable concerns and exaggerated claims that make up the testimony t so many of these events. t would be fun to have a Daniel Dale type at these events to copy down all the claims made throughout the night, then fact-check them all.

Anyway, it was said that 2,700 units are proposed in this area at the moment, on 4 blocks, in an area served only by 2-lane roads. Despite the adjacent GO station, the locals do not believe that the area can handle the influx of traffic that would come. I'd say they're all feeling helpless under the sheer weight of all the local applications.

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There's no doubt the roads in the area wouldn't be able to handle the influx of residents that would come with it. The current traffic issues in the neighboring HBS would pale in comparison to the potential mess we would see here.

It would make far more sense if townhomes (which would actually blend in with the aesthetics of the area) were built in these current industrial areas, not towering condos just because someone feels like building some.
 
Another day, another public consultation. Tonight's, in a school near this proposal, was interesting for it being held on the same day that City Council adopted the Planning Department's refusal report. Dunpar have, in turn, attached this application to the appeal of the Mimico Judson Secondary Plan of which they are one of the appellants.

No shouting at the meeting, but residents in the area voiced the classic combination of reasonable concerns and exaggerated claims that make up the testimony t so many of these events. t would be fun to have a Daniel Dale type at these events to copy down all the claims made throughout the night, then fact-check them all.

Anyway, it was said that 2,700 units are proposed in this area at the moment, on 4 blocks, in an area served only by 2-lane roads. Despite the adjacent GO station, the locals do not believe that the area can handle the influx of traffic that would come. I'd say they're all feeling helpless under the sheer weight of all the local applications.

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They wanted that GO station come hell or high water. This is what usually happens next to rapid transit stations.
 
They wanted that GO station come hell or high water. This is what usually happens next to rapid transit stations.
Not only that, but with the changes in the growth plan, this is legally required around rapid transit stations.
 
Pretty much everyone there last night got that growth is coming, no mater what: it's the scale of it that's frightening them. A number of the attendees helped craft the Mimico Judson Secondary Plan that's currently being contested at the OMB (pre-hearing on January 2), and that plan called for two 30-storey towers on this site. Dunpar is proposing three towers here, of 22, 30, and 36 storeys, while just across Newcastle Street here, where the Secondary Plan proposes up to 12 storeys, Vandyk is proposing as many as 39. Then there are 5 towers proposed by Freed on the Grand Park Village site… so for those who thought they were helping to create something that would bring orderly growth to their area, they're seeing what they consider disorder coming.

Personally, I think that while the Secondary Plan is unnecessarily constricting on most blocks (two 30-storey towers on this particular block seems fine), the proposals in the area (not surprisingly) ask for too much.

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Pretty much everyone there last night got that growth is coming, no mater what: it's the scale of it that's frightening them. A number of the attendees helped craft the Mimico Judson Secondary Plan that's currently being contested at the OMB (pre-hearing on January 2), and that plan called for two 30-storey towers on this site. Dunpar is proposing three towers here, of 22, 30, and 36 storeys, while just across Newcastle Street here, where the Secondary Plan proposes up to 12 storeys, Vandyk is proposing as many as 39. Then there are 5 towers proposed by Freed on the Grand Park Village site… so for those who thought they were helping to create something that would bring orderly growth to their area, they're seeing what they consider disorder coming.

Personally, I think that while the Secondary Plan is unnecessarily constricting on most blocks (two 30-storey towers on this particular block seems fine), the proposals in the area (not surprisingly) ask for too much.

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Slight bit of schadenfreude from residents over at HBS given the three year battle we had with Mimico residents and their 200 users of the GO station.

This will destroy that neighbourhood. I’m just wondering if it was worth it?
 
That's an important piece of the puzzle that some people won't know: there was a point where there was a question put to the Mimico station residents as to whether they'd give up the Royal York location for a station in place of a Park Lawn location. (Some people at Metrolinx still contend that the two stations would be too close to each other, but with electrification coming, the proximity is not such a big deal.) Still, I don't think the Mimicans (is that what you call one?) ever believed that they'd get HBS-size proposals in their area if they fought to keep the GO station. Oops.

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The thing is, these Mimico residents do not have much of a choice. With the coming of Bill 139, the city's OP and Secondary Plans will need to be updated to conform to the density standards of the Growth Plan (2017), which call for 200 residents/jobs per hectare around Major Rapid Transit Station Areas.

So even if the developers here missed out in appealing to the OMB, they will still likely be able to get a lot of density through as-of-right zoning in a years' time.
 
This is really planning at its absolute worst. I’m not sure how these things seem to happen in Toronto more than anywhere else I’m intimate with.

These proposals are going in an area of narrow streets where there is room for one lane in each direction but parked cars take up half the room (imagine typical suburban side streets). The only real street anywhere closeby is Royal York and that’s also one lane in each direction. The commmercial strip ensures steady traffic and backups today. Let alone with all these towers.

Instead of moving the station to Park Lawn and building a proper transit hub that can be intermodal the city is dithering and planning to cram condos in what really should be zoned SFH or townhouses at most. While the many more condos over at Park Lawn have a bus and the worst streetcar service in the city.

I really wonder if everyone in planning just woke up and hit their heads every morning going to work. Nothing else explains such an abject failure of their basic jobs.
 
The other thing that is influencing sentiment is that we have investors, developers, and builder buying up 50' residential lots and severing them throughout South Etobicoke. In Mimico alone, there have been around 10x 50 footers that were severed this year alone. Local homeowners are not really pleased that density is increasing from every angle quickly as a result.

Icon Homes is finishing up a project at 250 Royal York that resulted in 104 stacked townhomes and there is a site for sale next door at 266 Royal York that will likely see a mid-rise or perhaps another 70 towns or more soon.

Although the areas are very different, I can see issues here in Mimico from a NIMBY perspective that resemble the NIMBY to come in the years ahead around Dufferin and Lawrence. There is just not enough roads to service all the car centric locals that will soon live among major condos all around them.
 

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