A legal standoff between a residents’ group in Don Mills and the City of Toronto could scuttle plans to build two community facilities if it’s not resolved by the November meeting of Toronto council. And continuing with that challenge amounts to “rolling the dice,” according to Don Valley East Coun. and Deputy Mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong.
“Do you really want to roll the dice?” Minnan-Wong asked residents in an online community meeting to discuss plans to build two community facilities in developments in the Don Mills area.
Minnan-Wong was referring to an appeal being launched by Don Mills Residents Incorporated, on a case they’ve brought before the courts. The case challenges the city’s decision to abandon plans to build a community centre at 944 Don Mills Rd. near the Shops on Don Mills, and build it at a site being redeveloped by Celestica at Don Mills Road and Eglinton Avenue East.
The original facility was intended to replace an aging community centre in Don Mills, the Don Mills Civitan Arena, using Section 37 money from developer Cadillac Fairview. The Celestica site, at 125,000 square feet, had Minnan-Wong’s support as it would serve future growth near the Eglinton Crosstown LRT as well as other communities in the ward.
The DMRI challenged that decision and lost in Ontario Superior Court in June 2021 — and is now appealing that ruling, which found that the city was within its powers to reallocate the funding.
As long as that appeal continues, city staff say they won’t recommend moving ahead with two other projects — one, a 19,000-square-foot community centre in a new condominium tower at 169 the Donway West, and another unspecified public use at 966 Don Mills, where the community centre was originally to be built.
To do so, staff say, would be to risk building two community centres in proximity to one another, should the appeal be successful and the city ordered to return to its original plan.
And as an added wrinkle — the offer by Cadillac Fairview-Lanterra to build the community facility at 169 the Donway West expires at the end of the Nov. 9 meeting of Toronto council.
Minnan-Wong made it clear that the promised community centre won’t get built unless the matter’s resolved.
“All the city needs for DMRI to do is drop any existing or future claims,” said Minnan-Wong in an interview. “The community gets what it’s been wanting on the Donway, and what they’ve been asking for and what the city has heard from the community — plus (at Celestica’s site) 70,000 square feet of recreation facilities 800 metres away from the Donway, plus a twin pad ice rink next to a 2.5-acre park. All they have to do is drop their litigation.”
So far, it appears that’s not happening.
DMRI president Steve Ksaizec said in an interview that while the association supports the new community centre on the Donway, it is continuing with the appeal in part because of the legal precedent. And he said that should DMRI win the appeal, they would not press for a duplication of what would be going in on the Donway.
“The appeal we feel has to be heard even if this is not implemented,” he said. “The appeal can be heard to deal with the legal issue and not have a ruling that the city must build a community centre. We’ve talked and met with city staff and city lawyers and discussed exactly that option. We’ve been negotiating with city staff to try and come up with a solution.”
Ksaizec said the DMRI is fundamentally interested in ensuring that the site at 966 Don Mills Rd. remains for public use. Minnan-Wong said that is almost certain to be the case — the site is zoned as parkland, and council has directed city planning staff to look at what uses might be most appropriate.
“It comes as close as you can get to a guarantee,” said Minnan-Wong.
