A home being constructed on Vesta Drive will be the subject of a rehearing at the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) next month. A number of neighbours and the local councillor say it’s simply too big for the area. The lawyer for the owner says his client is being singled out because of the height of her home for which a variance is not required.
Mario Angelucci, acting director for the city’s building department, said they’ve received numerous complaints about the home. After receiving orders to comply, the owner applied for additional variances at the Toronto and East York Committee of Adjustment. The rehearing at the OMB will deal with variances that were denied and overturned at the first hearing.
Resident Mary Spring questions how the house was allowed to be built. “I know some people are hoping to see the whole mess torn down, but I don’t know if that’s feasible,” Spring said. “Certainly I’d like to see it lowered, lowered to the height of the other two [adjacent] houses.”
The owner’s lawyer, Dennis Wood, said she is currently within her permit. The biggest variance she is requesting, a higher floor space index, would fill a void within the existing structure, not add any mass. “I think what happened was that this was the first house [on this part of the street] … that was built to the full height limit that was allowed by the city bylaw and I think it surprised people.”
Coun. Joe Mihevc, however, believes the home represents overdevelopment for the neighbourhood. “It’s too big for the lot size,” he said. “It is bigger by far than any house in the area.”
For Mihevc, homes start to enter this territory when the basement is elevated such that a “third” floor is more like a fourth floor and the floor space index exceeds 0.8 lot coverage.
“We are actually undertaking a planning review of the area to ensure that we put in place additional controls to make sure that these kind of developments don’t happen,” he said.
