Consultants to propose development guide for apartment neighbourhoods north of Humbertown Shopping Centre

"However, given the level of interest in new development coming to the area, given the fact of the ages of the buildings, and given the fact that right now you don’t have any area-specific policies, we think that doing what is called a SASP will really help provide certainty – not only for the city and landowners and developers, but neighbourhood residents will know what the new visions are for the neighbourhood, and a more detailed policy in terms of height, density, built form," she said.

While less comprehensive than a Secondary Plan, a SASP is a prescriptive legal document that "recognizes the unique characteristics" of and "helps articulate a future vision for the Study Area," IBI reported in its preliminary findings.

Local concerns of potential over-development – in the low-density Humber Valley Village area – were first sparked back in early 2012, when First Capital Realty’s redevelopment plans for Humbertown Shopping Centre were first revealed.

Negative local reaction to the "too big, too tall, too dense" proposal - which originally called for five residential towers of 11 to 21 storeys - led to a prolonged battle against the development at council, a subsequent appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB), and finally a negotiated settlement last December that ultimately saw the scope of the towers scaled back to three, ranging in height from eight to 12 storeys.

HUMBERTOWN DEVELOPMENT GOING AHEAD

While the Humbertown site itself is technically included in the 15-hectare study area Shepherd and her IBI team were tasked with looking at in the first phase of the Humbertown Secondary Plan Area Study, Shepherd reiterated to residents at Thursday’s meeting that any recommendations that result from the study will not impact plans for the impending redevelopment of Humbertown, which has already been approved.

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Instead, IBI’s primary area of study was the designated apartment neighbourhood just north of Humbertown shopping centre, which, Shepherd reported, is almost entirely comprised of 42 three- and four-storey walk-up rental apartment buildings, the majority of which were built in the 1940s to 1960s.

Several residents at last Thursday’s meeting expressed confusion and frustration that the IBI Group’s recommendations would not impact the Humbertown redevelopment.

"It seems to me that it’s backwards to have something like Humbertown approved, then to come back with looking at whether a larger study like a Secondary Plan has to be done," said one woman. "...In my view, it should have been done before the Humbertown application was addressed."

Etobicoke Centre Councillor Gloria Lindsay Luby, who was on hand at the meeting, reminded residents that a Secondary Plan was considered around the time the Humbertown proposal came to council, but was ultimately rejected by both herself and the Humber Valley Village Residents’ Association (HVVRA) as a "focus for growth".

"The submission from the HVVRA was to not move forward with a Secondary Plan at that time and it was the right decision because – and I don’t think this has been stressed enough – the Humbertown proposal was site-specific," she explained. "That is the zoning for Humbertown and being site-specific means you’re not dealing with the whole surrounding community, you are only dealing with the 10 acres of Humbertown."

The difference between the decision then not to explore the planning tools available to the community, and now, as the IBI Group recommendation to proceed with a SASP moves forward, Lindsay Luby suggested, is a proposal put forth by Elia Corp. to redevelop a number of walk-up apartment buildings it owns around St. Steven’s Court.

In September 2013, Elia Corp. submitted an application for the redevelopment of 1, 3, 5 and 7 St. Steven’s and 289 and 291 The Kingsway. Proposed at that site is the demolition of five existing 3.5-storey apartment buildings containing 156 rental units to make way for the construction of six new apartment buildings ranging in height from six to 16 storeys and containing 603 new units.

While Elia Corp. is currently awaiting results of IBI’s study to proceed with its application, it is technically in a legal position to appeal to OMB at any time, because its redevelopment proposal for St. Steven’s was submitted before council ordered the study.

Whether or not Elia chooses to exercise its right of appeal remains to be seen, but in the meantime, IBI’s study will proceed.

Shepherd said IBI is scheduled to submit its phase one study report to the city as of July 16, after which it will be uploaded to the city’s website, where local residents will then have until July 22 to read it and submit their comments to Etobicoke York District Community Planning’s Cynthia Owusu-Gyimah at cowusug@toronto.ca

The matter is then scheduled to come before west-end councillors at the Aug. 12 meeting of Etobicoke York Community Council, to which residents are invited to attend and make deputations.