Councillor Josh Matlow
Ward 12 St. Paul’s
Dear residents,
I am writing to provide you with an update on the development proposal on Lawton Boulevard.
As you know, our community has expressed significant concerns about this development. However, the developer took it to the provincially-appointed Ontario Land Tribunal where a settlement was reached. Given that it had staff support, the settlement was agreed to by council. I could not support it in order to reflect the community’s opposition.
When OLT settlements come to Council, there is very little authority provided to the City of Toronto by the province to impact the terms of the agreement – including anything related to height or density. This settlement, until last week, was confidential and could not be shared with the community. I have expressed serious concerns regarding the lack of transparency throughout this process and am advocating toward Queen’s Park to reform the Tribunal.
For your information, the details of the settlement can be found here. Here is an overview of what has been agreed upon at the OLT.
- Three properties along the north have been dropped, so the development address is now 59-75 Lawton
- There are 560 total residential units: 272 in north tower, 288 in south tower
- Two residential towers: 39 storeys (south) and 37 storeys (north)
- Two storey podium with a 6m setback along Lawton
Importantly, this settlement specifically regulates zoning of the building. There is an additional, process called “Site Plan” that has yet to be approved by city staff. This process covers many important details including construction management, wind mitigation, materiality, waste/loading, and many other considerations that are very important to our neighbourhood and where I ensure the community is consulted.
At City Council, I was able to successfully move an amendment advocating for many of our community’s priorities. This amendment includes:
- Establishing a Neighbourhood Liaison Committee, including the Deer Park Residents Group and other key community stakeholders, and consult the Neighbourhood Liaison Committee on the Site Plan Application and the Construction Management Plan.
- Securing an in-kind community benefit contribution to support local community priorities including new parks, community space, or affordable housing.
- Requesting the applicant to consider an alternative built form with a taller podium and lower tower height, without removing any gross floor area.
- Requesting the applicant to convert the ground-floor amenity space to townhomes, to ensure the building design is more aligned with the existing neighbourhood feel along Lawton Boulevard.
- Requesting that City staff work with the applicant to deliver an expanded Carolyn Bennett Park.
- Requesting Transportation Services to request the applicant to conduct additional traffic impact analysis, and to consider options to implement additional local traffic calming measures to mitigate traffic impacts.
Please don’t hesitate to contact my office if you have any questions.
Josh
Councillor Josh Matlow
City Councillor
Toronto – St. Paul’s