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By Hedy Korbee
Ward 20 Councillor Gary Crawford has shown his strongest opposition yet to a developer’s proposal to a build a twelve-storey condominium covering almost a full block of Kingston Road between Lakeside and Birchcliff Avenues.
The mixed-use building with 265 residential units proposed by Altree Developments at 1615-1641 Kingston Rd. would lead to the displacement of tenants in more than 30 affordable, low-rise rental apartments at Lenmore Court.
Crawford stated his opposition to the developer’s proposal during a robust virtual town hall meeting Wednesday night hosted by the recently revived Birch Cliff Village Community Association. It was a big step forward from his comment in October that the development was “a little dense”.
“If this application in its present form was brought before Council now I would not be supporting it, my colleagues would not be supporting it, and I’m pretty confident that city planning would not be supporting what you see presently,” Crawford said. “Number one. It’s too dense. It’s too high. There’s huge impacts on the community, impacts on the neighbourhood….And at this point there’s no plan for rental displacement. What you will see is a final submission in two year or three years that will not be this application. “I do not support any incursion into neighbourhoods, period,” Crawford said. We protect neighbourhoods. That’s a critically important aspect of this.”
The meeting was attended by 100 people and included a lively question and answer session.
Lenmore Court tenant Karen Azucar asked Councillor Crawford directly if he feels the tenants should have the right to move back into a new condo in their current location instead of being forced to relocate 1.6 kilometres east to a proposed new building at the site of the current Days Inn motel.
“Ultimately, yes,” Crawford said, noting that he hasn’t had a conversation with the planning department or asked the developer if they would consider putting rental units into the Birch Cliff condo.
Crawford also said that the city does not “act favourably to displacing somebody outside of the community”.
“If you happen to have a child who’s going across the street to Birch Cliff Public School, and you’re looking at going over to the Days Inn, you’re going to a different school zone. We do not look at that lightly. That is a very serious concern for the city when we’re looking at that process,” Crawford said. …continued
