Councillor Wong-Tam explains what happened when she heard about the demolition of the building. One thing seems certain, her staff didn't forward emails to her questioning the demolition permit -
To explain the chronology of events, I've summarized the actions that my office took as it appertains to the property.
I wrote to the Toronto East York Community Council on November 2, 2011 to request that 81 Wellesley Street East be designated as a heritage property. This action effectively placed the property onto the long queue of others waiting for the granting of heritage status.
At 3:00 pm on January 18, 2012, a ward resident sends a text message informing me that the property was being demolished.
I quickly called David Wootton from the CWVBIA and asked him to take photos and get the name of the demolition firm as his office was only 100 metres from the demolition site.
Concurrently, my staff called Toronto Building to investigate if a demolition permit was issued as we had no records of it in our office files or emails. No one replied to our emails and phone calls until later that day.
During this time, David provides me with the photos and name of the demolition company. I proceed to call Lions Demolition and after several attempts, I speak to Mr. Jay Hemmings, manager in charge of demolition. I allege that his demolition is illegal and that all activity must cease on the site.
Mr. Hemmings calmly informs that a demolition permit was issued on December 14, 2011 by Toronto Building and provides me with the permit number. At 5:07 pm., I get off the phone with Mr. Hemmings - only after he agreed to halt demolition, so that I could personally confirm his claims with Toronto Building. At this time, the back of the building was already removed and I thought that I could save the front and side elevations.
Toronto Buildings returns our office inquiries and explains that an application to demolish 81 Wellesley Street East was submitted on December 1, 2011 and unless a commercially-zoned property is designated as heritage, they are legally obligated to issue the demolition permit within 14 days, as per the provincial Planning Act. Furthermore, unlike residential demolition applications, no notice or consultation is required with the ward councillor for commercial properties.
I then ask the Chief Building Official to revoke or suspend the demolition permit. She replies that Toronto Building has no legal right to stop the demolition and would have to ask the owner to voluntarily halt the demolition and allow Heritage Preservation Services to catch up and list the property.
Later that same night, I learned that the machinery was moved to the front of the building and that a large hole was "punched" into the facade before the Lions Demolition workers left the site.
As of yesterday afternoon, the entire property was torn down and now sits as a pile of rubble.
I will be meeting with the Chief Building Official, the Chief Planner and the City Solicitor to review this file. I intend to advocate for improvements on how Toronto should deal with commercial demolition permits. It's clear that we need to go above and beyond minimum provincial requirements.
My office successfully lead the reforms to Toronto Building's improved standards for glass balcony railings. At first, the bureaucracy resisted my advocacy and after I convened a meeting with the development industry, a comprehensive review was undertaken and a staff report was submitted and then unanimously adopted by council.
I shall keep the CWNA and the CWVBIA informed of the progress on this matter. I've included David in this email in case he wanted to add to the context.
