Although classified as a demolition in legal terms, the owner and hopeful developer of Leaside’s oldest home said plans are anything but destructive for the Thomas G. Elgie House, despite community concerns.
North York Community Council denied developer Matthew Garnet’s demolition application for the 262 Bessborough Dr. site during its meeting on April 8. Garnet will now bring the issue forward to the Ontario Municipal Board, likely to be heard in late June or early July.
“I think there’s a lot of confusion about what I have planned. People hear ‘demolition,’ but that’s not what this is,” Garnet said.
The Leaside Property Owner’s Association (LPOA) has opposed the move, and the City of Toronto’s committee of adjustment rejected the application in January. Garnet describes the term as a “legal technicality” under the Ontario Heritage Act — any moving of a heritage building falls under a demolition category — but he contends his intention is to move the building 60 feet forward on its lot, which would provide space and setback enough to potentially split the land into three luxury single-dwelling lots.
Garnet said the Elgie farmhouse has seen three additions added on since the 1930s, the most recent in the mid-1990s. He said he plans to remove those to restore the house much closer to its original frame than it is now, including adding on such historic items as a wraparound porch that is long gone and restoring some of the building’s original windows that are also not currently in place.
“It will actually be far more historically accurate,” Garnet said.