BEACHES BUILDING GUIDELINES by J.J.

By J.J.

Well played, developers! Your angular planes, penthouse shadows, optical illusions and other visual distractions worked marvelously.

With the help of local politicians and several “helpful” citizens’ organizations, Beachers face a dangerous future highlighted by floods, sink-holes and even worse geological disasters. Your Ward 32 News has devoted several years researching the underground rivers, ponds and tributaries subterranean to our beautiful Beach neighborhood.

Few paid us any mind, but we don’t wish the inevitable hydrological nightmare on Beachers whose lives are too busy to have shared our concerns. You are our neighbors! The public meeting at City Hall addressed the building guidelines for Queen Street East from Coxwell Avenue to Nursewood Road. Squeezed from the notorious “visioning study”, the councilors all predictably voted ‘YES’ to the guidelines.

Dubbed by our Ward 32 councilor as the Beach Bible, Your Ward News has predicted an apocalyptic conclusion of biblical proportions to our little piece of heaven. Our extensive study focused on the hydrological mayhem that will occur in the Beach should another rain event like Hurricane Hazel strike Toronto again. Several people, including yours truly, were allowed to speak their minds before the vote as per the rules governing municipal meetings of this nature.

This included a rep from the Riedel Group who claimed that the Beach ended at the North-East corner of Queen and Woodbine. This feeble attempt at gerrymandering (reshaping geographical boundaries for political advantage) was done because their building proposal is at the North-West corner of Queen and Woodbine. Nice try, but painfully transparent.

Known as the Gateway to the Beach, the former gas station at the NE corner has already wreaked havoc on the apartment building directly to the north of that toxic property. A speaker that represented the tenants revealed that their building was already cracking in places. Considering that not a single brick has yet been laid, a disaster is GUARANTEED at this location.

Despite that fact, only the view of the Fire Hall Clock seemed important to our pro-development councilor. Upon completion of the Q and A segment of this hearing, our ward 32 councilor excitedly proclaimed, “THIS IS TERRIFIC!!! I’D LIKE TO RECORD A VOTE!!!” After the ‘YES’ vote, she actually yelled, “I’d like to give a SHOUT-OUT to the Planning Staff and the City Staff for all they have done!!!” (A shout-out??? Is she in grade nine???)

The public meeting was conducted under the banner of the Toronto and East York Community Council. Your Ward 32 News was present from 10:00 AM until 2:30 PM when the issue-at-hand was finally heard. The entire day could have easily been called Development-Fest, as one builder or lawyer after another laid out the details of the proposal that they represented. The councilors that were present loved every project or modification that was presented to them.

They openly praised the existence of the OMB (Ontario Municipal Board) who are also ‘team players’ who don’t care about environmental hazards in the Beach or anywhere else in this province. The two proposals at the North-East and North-West corners of Queen and Woodbine are the only developments that must still be rubber-stamped by the Ontario Municipal Board. This is because the developers there have asked for MUCH MORE than they actually want, knowing that any limitations put forth by the OMB will leave the developers with what they REALLY want (Shoot for an eagle, hope for a crow).

All of us at Your Ward News have tried our best to save the future of our beloved Beach. We may be a lone voice in the wilderness, but we are a voice that will never be silent when it comes to the most important local issues. We promise, fellow Beachers!

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