The Bloor/Oakmount Block condo project, local Councillor Sarah Doucette reverses her decision

What letting your councillor know yours views  can do.

 

http://www.1844bloorstreetwest.com

Full article at insidetoronto.com

all text below from article

More community consultation for controversial High Park Condo

Standing room only community council meeting degenerates into shouting match

A highly contested High Park condo proposal likened by one west-end councillor to “putting a gorilla in a fishbowl” was referred back for more community consultation this week after a two-and-a-half hour meeting disintegrated into a shouting match.

The controversial development application – which proposes a 14-storey, 378-residential-unit, mixed-use building directly across from High Park on Bloor Street West – drew the ire of a standing-room-only crowd at Etobicoke York Community Council (EYCC) Tuesday night.

After an hour of similar deputations and visibly taken off guard by the long grocery list of complaints presented by her constituents, local Councillor Sarah Doucette admitted to having a change of heart – reversing her decision to approve the development in favour of seeking more time for consultation between the developer and the community.

 

 

 

3 Comments

Sarah Doucette did not have a change of heart.

She gave an angry look to the 100 residents who attended who were all in disgreement to them with the sarcastic coment, "but the 14 stories stay"!

She is intent on this project and in ignoring residents.

Thanks for the comment, she did change her vote at council on the project approval day. I do agree that this does not mean she is 100 percent behind the resdents.

I don't get the complaints about parking spaces. It's right on the subway line and in a walkable neighbourhood, so why do they want so much parking? Having a lot of parking only encourages car use, and with that comes increased traffic. I4 storeys at that location on a major street doesn't seem inappropriate; there's a community of at least 15 high-rise towers of upwards of 30 storeys right beside it. Shadowing issues on High Park are probably not going to be an issue.

Yet I don't have much sympathy for the project itself, being an unattractive building at a prominent location across from High Park, one of our greatest parks. Such a location should have better architecture showing more confidence. Its setbacks are awkward, the combination of green and red is strange, and the big box on the roof for mechanical elements is ugly. Usually, though, projects that involve blockbusting generally don't have attractive architecture. Attractive architecture is achieved by people who have pride in their community and want to enhance it with new development. The person who puts together a dozen attractive old houses to demolish them generally isn't that kind of person.

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