City council recently decided to work with residents and the Canadian Film Centre (CFC) until the end of the month, to try to resolve differences over the centre’s proposed expansion.
Plans to extend the back end of the gatehouse building, create a one-storey actors’ conservatory on the footprint of an old pool and add 24 new parking spaces are part of a roughly $9 million project to repair and improve the film centre.
An Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) appeal, mounted by two residents who live on Country Lane, challenges a June committee of adjustment decision in favour of the expansion. The film centre was planning to ask that the appeal be thrown out at an OMB hearing this month.
Coun. David Shiner, who sits on the CFC’s board, put forward the motion to get its plans back on track. He said that without these renovations, the school’s future at its current location may be in jeopardy.
Jane Pepino, the lawyer representing the neighbours, said that the film centre didn’t adequately consult her clients.
As per the details of the city’s title to the land, these types of changes require the permission of five specified, adjacent property owners. So far, two households have given the project their blessing and three have refused.
“I’m not saying we’re not going to provide consent. We’re just not able to do so at this time, given the information available,” said Pepino.
Barry Patterson, the CFC’s director of marketing and communications, said that his organization hopes to work with neighbours to resolve the matter. He indicated that the school has already made three significant concessions as a result of consultation with the community.
“We’ve been so transparent, so conciliatory, so open to meeting their needs, and I think it’s been very demonstrated,” he said.
Patterson remains confident that the project will be completed by its March 31 deadline. Repair work at the film centre is already underway.
If the issue can’t be worked out by the end of the month, the city intends to temporarily suspend the convenant holders’ rights of the five property owners to permit the CFC’s plans. But a report on the subject will go back to council.
“This is a project that the city believes is in the public interest,” said Shiner.