Open space at Yonge and Eglinton threatened

Residents are outraged after council backs RioCan development

DESPITE RESIDENTS’ OPPOSITION, the North York Community Council has approved a proposal for a three-storey retail concourse at the corner of Yonge and Eglinton that would fill in the existing open space.

The report goes to city council on March 31, and if approved, RioCan will build a retail concourse which includes a four-storey glass atrium and two additional movie theatres, which, according to city staff, will improve the current windswept corridor.
Ben Daube, president of the Sherwood Park Residents’ Association said, “Public open space is an invaluable asset.… No one can put a cost on it. If it’s built over it’s lost forever.”

Other local residents, such as David Crombie, chair of Toronto Lands Corp., supported the development. He said in a deputation that when comes to open space, it is not so much the size that matters but the quality.
 

Three residents spoke for the development, and the majority were against it at the meeting March 9. Coun. Karen Stintz put forward a motion to approve the proposal, which was supported by seven councillors. Cliff Jenkins and John Filion voted for a motion to defer the proposal. Stintz told the community members that she does not have the power to save the space. “It was either we make a decision as a community or the [Ontario Municipal Board] will make a decision on our behalf,” Stintz said. “If we sent the city lawyer [to the Ontario Municipal Board], they would be there defending the applicant.”

But Daube disagrees. “Coun. Stintz should refuse their planner’s report and demand that the department look at Yonge and Eglinton as a whole.”
The argument to keep the open space is rooted in the fact that the existing RioCan towers engulfed Starrett Avenue, and the current bylaw states that the property must retain a minimum of 4,715 square metres of open space, but as the staff report states, there is no agreement that entitles the community to that square.
The proposal includes plans for a publically accessible rooftop garden.

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