ABCRA provides comments to the City’s Bloor Yorkville Heritage Assessment

Yonge & Yorkville 1975

City of Toronto Heritage Planning utilizes Cultural Heritage Resource Assessments (CHRAs) to document and analyze an area’s history and ensure that properties of potential cultural heritage value or interest are appropriately identified, understood and conserved. Read our submission to the City (below), providing input and recommendations for the CHRA field study of the Bloor-Yorkville/North Midtown Area. 

1080-1088 Yonge Street development

1080-1088 Proposed condo development

We are writing to express our opposition to the 1080-1088 Yonge Street – Official Plan and Zoning By-law Amendment Application and request a deferral on the item. We have been in negotiations with the Developer and acknowledge the good steps that have been taken in reducing the massing on the west side of the site, but are of the opinion that more work needs to be done.

A Plea for Respect and Reason – Reject the proposal at 100 Davenport

100 Davenport rendering showing building proposal

We cordially invite you to attend the Ontario Land Tribunal hearing scheduled for Tuesday, October 31, to hear expert testimony on the profound impact of sunlight deprivation on seniors’ mental health and overall well-being, as we defend the vulnerable residents of Belmont House who have been fighting an overzealous development at 100 Davenport for over 20 years.

Toronto Noise By-law Review Feedback

small boy with hands over his ears

ABCRA has participated in many iterations of the Noise By-Law review, and was a member of the Noise Working Group (“NWG”) process and has attended all meetings in the lead up to the 2019 Noise By-Law review. The livability of the City is being eroded by excessive unrestricted noise and a lack of enforcement for the rules that we do have. We are grateful for the opportunity to provide feedback in order to address some of the deficiencies in the 2019 update and help create a policy that establishes clear, meaningful limits on noise and adequate, efficient enforcement.

Yonge St. and St. Clair Ave. construction hub

Construction at Yonge and St. Clair

We are writing to you in response to the TEYCC Motion 2023.TE4.52 relating to the establishment of a construction hub in the Yonge and St. Clair area, and to request for your consideration the feasibility of a new construction hub on Yonge Street from Scrivener Square to Aylmer/Belmont Road.

Response to proposed Provincial Policy Statement

Toronto aerial view

The direction for regional planning implied in the draft Provincial Planning Statement represents a seminal change in the land use planning system in the GGH that together with recent and potential future governance changes pose risks to the widely recognized benefits of coordinated and integrated land use, resource and infrastructure planning and calls into question progress toward widely understood and desirable outcomes around climate adaptation, inclusion, economic and financial stability over the next decades.

E-scooter pilot program

e-scooters parked

We are writing to encourage the committee to reject Councillor Ainslie’s request to re-open the debate to report back on a framework for an E-Scooter Pilot Project. This subject was thoroughly studied by city staff over three years, with 5 staff reports being brought to City Council for discussion in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

By-law amendment to permit Laneway Suites in Yorkville

ABCRA area laneway

pABCRA has a specific focus to ensure planning decisions in our community follow approved City Planning Policy and Guidelines, specifically as it relates to the completion of a Secondary Plan for Bloor-Yorkville/North Midtown. We are concerned with any planning steps that are taken in the absence of a Secondary Plan – a tool to ensure that thoughtful and prudent decisions can be made in the interests of Toronto residents.