ABC Residents Association has a long history of making positive contributions to the planning and development of our area. The Association encompasses one of the fastest growing areas in Toronto. Development pressures to increase heights and densities along our main streets are enormous and pressure to add density to the low rise neighbourhoods is also increasing. These issues take the most time of ABCRA Board members.
Our focus is not to simply oppose new development but to work closely with City planners, Councillor Dianne Saxe, and developers to influence better planning and higher quality development of our area. Our efforts also include advocating and negotiating for more attention to the public space surrounding the buildings.
Planning & Development News
Ontario Place for All invites province to consider a Better Idea
The importance of Toronto’s tree canopy and green spaces
Each Planning Report dealing with various building initiatives identifies the importance to preserve the neighbourhood tree canopy, yet the actual action to do so becomes weaker and weaker.
Secondary Plan – our shared public realm
The shared public space in our neighbourhood — called the public realm — plays a large part in making our daily lives enjoyable and creating a sense of community. This includes parks, trees, plantings, seating, public art and other features that animate and enhance our streets and the public spots where we gather to socialize or play.
These kinds of public realm elements are a critical part of the policies we want to see outlined in the pending Bloor-Yorkville Secondary Plan.
Secondary Plan: Help plan our neighbourhood’s future
In the coming months, you’ll be seeing and hearing more about what’s called a “secondary plan” that will guide development in our neighbourhood for the next 25 years. You have a right, and hopefully a desire, to participate in advocating for the kind of community that you want to see. That’s why this communication is the first of three or four we’ll be sending to explain the various elements of the plan.
Paris proves that you don’t need skyscrapers to thrive
Ford government cancels ‘clueless’ plan to allow housing on farmland after backlash
Response to proposed Provincial Policy Statement
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.
City Comments on the Proposed Provincial Planning Statement
ABCRA appreciates the opportunity to bring to your attention its concerns regarding the proposed Provincial Planning Statement (“PPS”) within the “streamlined: planning system, and wants to indicate our support for the Overall Conclusions raised by The Federation of North Toronto Residents’ Associations (“FoNTRA”) letter dated May 25, 2023.
148-158 Avenue Road and 220-234 Davenport Road Zoning By-law Amendment
We are writing to express our support for the 148-158 Avenue Road and 220-234 Davenport Road – Zoning By-law Amendment Application. The ABCRA has worked closely with Tribute over the past 18 months. We are pleased with what we have been able to accomplish as it relates to an improved public realm and the addition of wider sidewalks.