Plans to develop the site located at 16 Lesmill Rd. and 840-842 York Mills Rd. into a large-scale retail centre featuring a Home Depot are poised to move forward pending a formal decision from the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB). Back in November, Toronto City Council directed a city solicitor to attend the hearing in support of the application, provided a number of outstanding concerns were addressed. Among them were urban design issues and transportation requirements.
John Dawson, a lawyer who attended the hearing on behalf of Rogers Communications, said that, by this point, none of the parties were contesting the plans. As such, the hearing only lasted a few hours.
“Rogers obviously was monitoring the circumstance,” Dawson said. “Their particular concern was traffic. They retained a traffic expert to review all the work that was done, and in the end, they did not object.”
This was the second phase of the hearing, dedicated to the planning merits of the application. Phase one dealt with how the plans fit into the provincial growth plan. The matter dates back to 2008 when the city initially refused the application for official plan and zoning amendments to permit the large-scale retail redevelopment.
After losing phase one of the OMB challenge and a subsequent rehearing, the city appealed to divisional court but was denied a hearing. The local councillor, the developer and Home Depot did not respond to interview requests.
