Matt ElliottI’m expecting motions from councillors trying to remove streets in their wards from the “major street” designation. To try to pre-empt that, planners reviewed 22 streets highlighted by resident associations and found they were not “significantly different” from other streets.
Councillor Nick Mantas is attending virtually and trying to ask staff questions, but there’s a ridiculous echo. “Do you have a headset?” Nunziata asks. Mantas does not. Should have saved one from that flight. They try a few times but the echo persists. Nunziata moves on.
Mayor Olivia Chow is the first speaker on the housing-on-major-streets item. She moves the new staff recommendation to allow up to 60 units in the six-storey buildings. She also moves to have staff pursue opportunities to make some of these projects affordable housing.
Mayor Olivia Chow: “By building this way, we’re saying yes to more neighbours and we’re saying yes to newcomer families … We’re building their dreams because we’re building homes. If we don’t do that, it’s very difficult for people to stay in Toronto.”
Councillor Nick Mantas moves to have staff conduct community consultations on intensification and allowed heights along Huntingwood Drive in Scarborough. He says this doesn’t remove the street from the Major Street designation, but he wants the consultation.
Councillor Jon Burnside moves to remove the Major Street designation from Sloane Avenue in his ward.
Councillor Paul Ainslie moves to remove the Major Street designation from Guildwood Parkway to allow for more review. He’s concerned about drainage and the impact on the Scarborough Bluffs.
Councillor Vince Crisanti submits a list of streets in his Etobicoke North ward he’d like to remove from the Major Streets designation. He says his constituents have told him they don’t like the impacts of densification and don’t want it.
“The biggest concern I have with this policy is the risk to the character of the established communities,” Crisanti says of allowing six-storey buildings and townhouses. He says this policy would allow developers to change the “core characteristics” of neighbourhoods.
Councillor Stephen Holyday stands and asks Crisanti a bunch of questions designed to make it clear that Etobicoke North residents have poor transit access. The point, I think, is that council shouldn’t allow more housing there because there’s not enough transit service.
Councillor Shelley Carroll is using the overhead projector to display photos of small apartment buildings that have existed in suburban neighbourhoods for decades. “This is not something new. This is not terrifying weird science. This is not the end of the world.”
Councillor Stephen Holyday is next to speak, but instead leaves the chamber in a hurry. Councillors joke that he needs to go get his props. Maybe it’s true? I am not sure. Anyway, they move on. He’ll get his turn later.
Councillor Dianne Saxe moves to remove part of True Davidson Drive from the Major Street Designation. She says it’s a technical amendment related to the steep topography of the area. She’s very supportive of the report otherwise. “It’s a long time coming,” she says.
Holyday is up now. “Make no mistake, council — people are talking about this. People see this in Etobicoke Centre as DESPICABLE. They see this as insensitive. They hold council in contempt. They use words I can’t even say because they’re unparliamentary.”
I think he’s opposed.
Holyday has a photo of himself standing next to a six-storey building. “Spot the councillor! Oops, there he is! That’s what six storeys is! Imagine that next to a bungalow where there’s been nothing before — that’s deplorable.”
Holyday has also again brought his framed photo of Doug Ford giving Mayor Chow a giant novelty cheque for hitting the 2023 housing target. He decries what he calls a panicked “housing, housing, housing” approach, saying it is not necessary.
Holyday has three motions:
1) Defer the item to December
2) Delete recommendations, replace with new model where public can give input on every development application
3) Delete eligibility of “through-lots” that have frontage on major and local streets.
Because Holyday moved deferral, all other debate stops and Council debates the deferral. Speaking on the matter, Perks calls deferral “cowardly.” Holyday gets MAD. Nunziata asks Perks to apologize. Perks eventually says, sure, okay, and says he doesn’t think Holyday is a coward.
Holyday’s motion to defer the housing-on-major-streets item to December FAILS 4-20. Blaze it.
Back to the debate. Councillor Parthi Kandavel has a motion similar to the Mantas motion, requesting some community consultation with residents on Pharmacy Avenue, Brimley Road and McCowan Road. Doesn’t change the designation, but lets people give feedback.
Councillor Brad Bradford, speaking on the Expanding Housing Options in Neighbourhood program’s achievements to date and those still to come, says, “These are big, transformative swings that will forever reshape growth and housing opportunities in the city going forward.”
Councillor Gord Perks, chair of the Planning & Housing Committee, is the last speaker on the item. He urges councillors to vote against the motions by Crisanti, Ainslie, Burnside and Holyday. “We can’t do zoning bylaws where individual councillors opt out,” he says.
“Whether we want it to happen or not, people are going to move to Toronto. You do nothing by planting your throne on the beach and saying ‘I’m going to hold back the tide,’” says Perks. He says the right approach is smart planning to accommodate growth
Holyday’s motion to DELETE all the staff recommendations re: allowing townhouses and six-storey buildings on major streets and instead start over with a new model FAILS 3-21.
Chow’s motion to adopt the new staff recommendation to allow up to 60 units in the six-storey buildings permitted on major streets CARRIES 23-1.
Holyday’s motion to remove eligibility for “through lots” that border on both major streets and local streets from the new density permissions FAILS 5-19.
Burnside’s motion to remove the Major Streets designation from Sloane Avenue FAILS 7-17.
Ainslie’s motion to remove the Major Streets designation from Guildwood Parkway FAILS 10-14.
Crisanti’s motion to remove the Major Streets designation from parts of Kipling, Steeles West and Martin Grove in his ward FAILS 4-20.
Chow’s motion to look at ways to turn some of these new townhouse and six-storey building units into affordable housing CARRIES 23-1.
Council votes 21-3 to APPROVE report allowing six-storey buildings and townhouses on major streets city-wide.
Mayor Olivia Chow suggests powering through and completing the agenda tonight. That CARRIES. They’ll take a 30-minute break at 6 p.m. then come back and get it done.
Dealing with some quick items, Council votes 21-1 to approve a 7-storey rental development at 1400 Gerrard East. https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2024.TE13.8
Dep Mayor Ausma Malik’s motion to look at Lamport Stadium as a home for a new pro women’s soccer team, seconded by the late Coun. Jaye Robinson, CARRIES 22-0.
“This motion is reflective of her ideas and her determination and her leadership,” says Malik. https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2024.MM18.22
Up now: eglintonTOday. That’s their capitalization, not mine. It calls for bike lanes across the central section of Eglinton. I’m told they’re planning to open an LRT there soon but that could just be a longstanding rumour. https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2024.IE13.2
Councillor Frances Nunziata moves to coordinate signals to “minimize congestion” on the part of Eglinton that runs through her ward.
A technical amendment by Matlow and the Nunziata motion both CARRY.
The eglintonTOday complete streets plan (with bike lanes) is APPROVED 20-1.
In the last hour or so, Council approved a major YIMBY housing item and a major bike lane item with minimal pushback. That’s pretty remarkable when you think back to how contentious these kinds of issues used to be.
Anyway, they’re on break now ’til 6:30. 11 items left.
Council is back for their (Evening Session). The new stream is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc1aOLCWcRA
City Council - May 23, 2024 (Evening Session)
Up now: an item about the provincial Transit Oriented Community program. Of 7,898 units proposed at the six TOCs in Councillor Fletcher’s ward along the Ontario Line route, just 215 are designated as affordable. About 2.7%. She’s not thrilled about that. https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2024.PH12.5
The item CARRIES via show of hands after Councillor Perks offers some advice to Premier Doug Ford: “It is always better to say yes to Councillor Fletcher.” Her fight for more affordable housing at TOCs will continue.
Up now: Bradford is looking for ways to speed up construction on the Gardiner. He asks staff if they’ve done 24/7 Gardiner work in the past. They have, on the eastern section. For current work, they can do 24/7 but can’t do noisy stuff like demolition work https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2024.MM18.5
Staff explain that noisy work on Gardiner construction isn’t currently permitted between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. on weekdays. Holyday asks staff to define “noisy.” Staff say they’ve installed noise meters around the area and consider noisy to be anything above 70 decibels.
This is an interesting debate. It’s easy to be dismissive of overnight noise concerns but also some of the condo buildings along the central section of the Gardiner are REALLY close to the highway. Like “reach out and touch it” close. Or “throw a chair and hit a car” close.
Councillor Cheng wonders if the city could use AI to “create a repair plan” for the Gardiner. She heard about Japan doing it. “I’m wondering, have we explored that?”
Staff say AI is “interesting” and they have sensors on the Gardiner that are like an early step toward AI.
Staff confirm that they’re already using prefabrication for a large part of the Gardiner project. 700 box-beams are already being fabricated north of Toronto and will be brought in to be installed in place.
Councillors seemingly looking for some overlooked silver bullet that’ll speed up this Gardiner work and get it done faster than mid-2027, but truth may be that 60-year-old elevated highways are hard to rebuild, especially if you’re trying to keep lanes open throughout.
Councillor Nunziata demands that a transportation staffer physically drive west across Dundas Street from City Hall to Jane Street. “I want you to drive. Not cameras, drive! I want you to feel it! I want you to feel the congestion!”
Hovering over this debate is the fact that the Gardiner is set to be Doug Ford’s problem by the end of this year, subject to ongoing due diligence process. We should gift wrap it.
Councillor McKelvie moves to have a report on potential ways to speed up Gardiner construction come forward in July, as part of a larger Congestion Management Plan report. Staff will look at more 24/7 construction, more prefab construction and creating a working group.
Bradford wants a separate vote on the part of McKelvie’s motion that says consideration of 24/7 Gardiner construction should try to minimize “impacts to the local community.” He doesn’t like it.
That part of the motion still CARRIES 20-3.
Rest of the Gardiner construction item CARRIES via show of hands. Report will come in July on whether there are any ways to speed this whole thing up.
Council votes 19-1 to approve a 13 storey development at 1095 and 1111 Danforth Avenue. https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2024.TE13.6
Council votes 21-1 to approve an official plan amendment for Danforth between the DVP and Coxwell. Someone’s cranky. https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2024.CC18.12
Up now: Councillor Mantas took a trip to Italy for a conference. He got council to approve extra funds to cover costs related to a missed flight. Other questionable expenses were revealed later. Fletcher wants more safeguards to prevent this kind of thing. https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2024.MM18.10
Fletcher’s motion to require councillors to submit receipts before they seek council approval for reimbursement of any travel costs CARRIES 22-0, with Mantas in favour of the policy he inspired.
Up now: Councillor Bradford’s motion to ask the provincial government to create legislation that’d allow for the creation of “safety zones” around “places of worship; faith-based schools, daycares, community centres and museums” etc. https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2024.MM18.16
This item has provoked strong reactions. Opponents argue it could unduly restrict speech by limiting where people can protest. Supporters argue it’ll keep people safe from antisemitism and other hate, and that it’s based on “bubble zone” law around reproductive health clinics.
Mayor Olivia Chow is asking questions of city legal staff.
“Under existing law, one could apply and get an injunction if a place of worship feels there are grounds?” Staff say yes.
“Isn’t there a trespassing law that could apply?” Staff say yes.
We’re at the PROCEDURAL CONFUSION part of the meeting. Councillor Matlow wanted to place a motion but the clerks hadn’t posted it yet. Some councillors appear to rise to kill some time so it can be prepared. Bradford gets MAD and says there’s been “obstruction” and “gamesmanship”
Councillor Matlow’s motion deletes the Bradford motion and instead asks the City Manager to develop an action plan to address any issues surrounding protests using existing laws and bylaws, respecting the charter.
Michael Gemar@GraphicMatt We can't just wait it out?
Chu 朱
🏳️🌈 Bri 🌞🚴🌱✨@GraphicMatt The number of times cars in congested traffic have deliberately moved to block me from passing them on the curb side 😮💨 Tells me this "I want you to feel the congestion" attitude is quite common. I always wonder if the experience coaxes them to consider ditching the car.
eyrea 🇨🇦@cargot_robbie @GraphicMatt Yeah, because heaven forbid that a car NOT be the fastest way to get somewhere 🙄
(And yeah, I have a car, but I don't drive downtown because that's a terrible idea. TTC or my bike FTW.)
Matt Blair@GraphicMatt Easy there, Sammy Hagar.
Arthur Gron@GraphicMatt Dundas needs an LRT
@GraphicMatt Surely no one would ever be negligent and reckless enough to throw a chair from... Oh right 🥲
Lyle Solla-Yates@GraphicMatt But probably not all of it