As reported earlier, Dunpar has a
accepted a revised property line along the lakeshore edge of the site based on
the Province’s investigations. They will use this agreement with the Province to support ownership through the land Titles process.
Here is the developer’s updated site plan with measurements
and other statistics that was sent last Friday to the other parties represented
at the OMB hearing.
The plans show some differences from the one presently before the OMB. There is one less unit (note a block of 3 townhouses instead of 2 semis with 4 units) and what looks approximately like an additional 25 feet setback from the top of the slope.
The plans do not show elevations (side views). The height remains the same.
The Province has not yet received a request from Dunpar to buy the lakefill strip at the water's edge and the Ministry says it has not yet made a decision to sell it. See Deputy Minister's letter.
Many residents have recently written to Virginia West, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources, demanding that public land on the site not be sold to the developer. Here is the response coming from her office ....
May 20th 2010
Thank you for your email
regarding a proposed residential development at 51 Lakeshore Drive in Etobicoke
adjacent to Lake Ontario.
This is a municipal
planning matter under the jurisdiction of the City of Toronto, and the Ministry
of Natural Resources (MNR) has no role in this process.
This planning matter is
currently subject to a hearing at the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB), and at the
hearing, concerns were raised regarding the ownership of the land being
considered for development.
As the property in question is adjacent
to Lake Ontario, of which the bed is considered Crown land, MNR as the adjacent
landowner, became involved in determining the correct property boundary.
Ministry staff determined there is a small piece of filled Crown land
situated in front of the proposed development property adjacent to the Lake
Ontario shoreline, and have recommended a revised Crown/private land boundary
for this property.
The landowner has
accepted this revised property line along the lakeshore, and will use this
boundary to confirm title of their property through the Land Titles Act
process.
Once the landowner has
confirmed land ownership, the OMB hearing can resume to address the planning
matter regarding the residential development proposal of this property.
The Ministry of Natural Resources has no role in this process.
Should the landowner
wish to purchase this filled Crown land in the future, they have the option of
applying to my ministry to acquire it at fair market value. The Ministry
is not prepared to entertain an application for purchase of the filled Crown
land at this time until all legal matters have been resolved.
Any potential
disposition of Crown land would be subject to the Ministry’s Class
Environmental Assessment for Resource Stewardship and Facility Development
Projects, policies and procedures. Through this process Ministry
staff would consider the, social, ecological, and economic
impacts prior to proceeding with any potential sale of Crown
Land.
Thank you for bringing
your concerns to my attention.
Virginia M. West
Deputy Minister,
Ministry of Natural Resources
The community understands that there is a process to all of this. However, with the three year battle that the community has fought to protect larger public issues here, it should be a no-brainer to not sell the public portion on this site because of its "social" impact. 2011 is an election year and the Lakeshore community has a long memory. It will directly impact their vote if the government has not protected our public access to the lakefront.
Laurel Broten, MPP Etobicoke-Lakeshore, has come out in support of the community's wish that public lands on the water's edge should not be sold for private, residential development but retained for public access to the lake. Here is a letter she recently sent to Linda Jeffrey, Minister of Natural Resources, asking her office to take this into consideration when public land at 51 is officially declared surplus.
Kudos to Laurel for standing alongside her neighbours in the Lakeshore and for seeing the larger picture.
Views of the lake and access to it are the defining characteristics of the community we all love. Connecting water's edge links and lakeside parks are what makes the Waterfront Trail such a valuable asset to the City of Toronto and to the Province.
What we already have should never be given up - it should be a top priority of the City and the Province to add even more.
This coming Friday (May 21st) is the day that Dunpar is
scheduled to provide the reference plan that will come from the Land Title
process and an updated site plan with measurements and other statistics to the
other parties represented at the OMB hearing.
In recent weeks, residents have made submissions to the
City, Laurel Broten, MPP Etobicoke-Lakeshore, the Ministry of Natural Resources
and Michael Ignatieff’s office urging the province not to sell to the developer
any public land on this property. The expectation is that already publicly
owned land on the water’s edge should stay in the public realm for the future
development of parks and connecting trails.
To date, there has been no official response from the Province.
The City is saying that it is purely a
provincial matter, even though the City’s Official Plan calls for a continuous
waterfront trail from east to west and has partnered with the Province at Amos
Waites in Mimico on the linear waterfront park. The City’s new revised draft zoning bylaw clearly shows that much
of the property, as well as land on 41 and 33 Lake Shore Drive, is zoned Green (parkland), just like Prince of Wales and Cliff
Lumsden parks as well as the little parkette at the corner of Lake Shore Drive
and Fourth (see map above). One wonders
why the City is not putting more pressure on the Province to protect its zoned green
space.
