URGENT! ACTION NEEDED on DEVELOPMENT

This morning the Ontario Municipal Board held a pre-hearing regarding the application to redevelop the Parkway Forest lands owned by El Ad. Many thanks to representatives from Henry Farm Resident’s Association, the Starways condo board, the Virgo Starways board and Parkway Forest Residents who participated. They have been engaged in a Working Group process on your behalf since we began with an application of 3518 new units of condo and rental housing.

I list the resident groups by name because, as you can see, we still need far more residents groups to be formally listed as participants before the final hearing. As the application currently stands, we are still looking at roughly 2700 new units. The issue of traffic alone is enough for us to say the application is too aggressive. Neither Don Mills Rd, Sheppard Ave, nor approaches to the DVP and 401 are equipped to handle this burden on rush hour and weekend traffic.

I am calling on all resident groups within Ward 33 to contact my office to become a participant in this OMB matter. The application is scheduled to come before North Community Council on April 4th and then on to OMB on June 12th. My staff team is willing to help arrange a space especially for your community group to meet with us to discuss the development application and all of the concerns. Participant status means that a representative from your group would speak before the two member OMB tribunal. My office, as well as the residents that are already active, would be there to support you.

If your group has not gathered for some time, such a meeting would also be an opportunity for you to bring other City issues that are of concern to my attention. That means we could win this battle and keep right on BUILDING A BETTER FUTURE FOR WARD 33.