Lawton Blvd. – Planning report now public
The City Planning Department has now released its report on this proposed development, which you can read online or download. From our perspective it is rather weak relative to the community’s concerns.
News
St. Clair Place
The Wittington Group has gone to the Committee of Adjustment to propose a change to the long pending redevelopment of that corner. Broadly, our perspective is that the design changes are positive as they have buried the loading for deliveries on Alvin and improved the retail and internal public courtyard. The building on Alvin still exists but is now 25m high rather than 54m high.
Neighbourhood “blight”
We have continued to express the neighbourhood’s concerns about our rather desolate streetscape as it awaits all the approved, but as yet unbuilt developments. We have written recently written to our Councillor and included some visuals to illustrate our case.
St. Clair staircase
A project to restore the long-closed access to the ravine at St. Clair and Avoca is being initiated! A big hooray to that. Phase 1 will be a geotechnical investigation informing the feasibility and positioning of the staircase and Phase 2 will be a design-build contract to expedite implementation.
Bill 60
As many of you have noted Bill 60, the ‘Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act, 2025’ passed in the provincial legislature on November 25. The bill sparked a great deal of controversy and was opposed in a 23-1 vote by Toronto City Council over concerns that its passage would weaken tenant rights and increase evictions and homelessness in the city at a time when inventory is low and affordability is a general concern.
Midtown Ravines Group launches two new websites
If you want to find out what’s going on with our local ravines, head on over to the two new sites launched by the Midtown Ravines Group, a confederation of ten residents’ associations seeking to revitalize the ravines in Toronto’s midtown core.
Tracking the Health of Yellow Creek
Digital Waters is a Toronto-based non-profit developing affordable, made-in-Canada water monitoring technology to better understand and protect our local waterways. We were inspired by Toronto’s ravines. They are amazing veins of nature that stretch across town, always lush and green in the summers and the perfect way to take a break from life. But nothing lives in the waters that carve out Toronto’s ravines.
135 St Clair Ave. West
Proposed for the corner of Avenue Road and St. Clair Ave. W., this huge tower, both in height (49 floors) and in footprint, generating a massive 540,000 sf of space and 631 suites, towers over the adjacent condos to the east and west and the single family detached homes on Foxbar.
53-89 Lawton Blvd. update
This huge double tower development of 37 and 43 storeys is almost FOUR times taller than the closest apartment building to the north. Immediately across the road are single family homes.
Parks and ravines – breaking news
On July 24, 2025, City Council unanimously passed a motion to provide $1.5M in funding for a new design and plan for the Vale of Avoca to address its accelerating erosion, its trail network and accesses and for ongoing maintenance.