Queen and Lee proposal for six-storey condo approved by Community Council despite developer seeking deferral
By ALAN SHACKLETON
The next steps regarding a development plan to build a six-storey mixed-use building including condominium residences and a large grocery store on the northwest corner of Lee Avenue and Queen Street East in the Beach seem unclear after the applicant asked for a deferral to the project’s approval at a meeting of Toronto and East York Community Council last week.
The proposal, by Crombie REIT and Sobey’s Inc., was seeking to replace the existing two-storey building that includes the Foodland grocery store and two other buildings to the west with the new development.
The proposed condo would feature 60 residential units and significantly increase the size of the grocery store at street level.
Since it conformed to most city rules, including the Queen Street East Urban Design Guidelines, the project was essentially “as-of-right” and its approval was pretty much a foregone conclusion going into Community Council’s Public Meeting regarding the proposal on the morning of Thursday, Oct. 24, at Toronto City Hall.
The proposal was indeed approved by Community Council, but it turned out that was not what the developer wanted to happen after all.
Instead, during a deputation at the start of the Public Meeting the applicant asked for a deferral of the project for a number of reasons including that it wanted more time to work with city staff to address the community’s expressed concerns for more parking for grocery store customers.
“The intent behind our deferral request is to allow us to have more time to work with staff to improve the proposal,” said Hailey McWilliam, Senior Planner at Bousfields on behalf of the applicant. “We want to be confident that we are bringing forward a project that is viable.”
She said an approval at Thursday’s meeting of a project that was not “feasible” for the applicant at that time would be unhelpful and instead asked for the deferral as it “would make the most sense.”
Beaches-East York Councillor Brad Bradford was visibly irritated by the request and during the meeting asked McWilliam a number of pointed questions as to why the applicant was now calling for a deferral so late in the process.
Given that the City of Toronto is bound by the provincial government’s Bill 23 to move through development proposals in a very short time frame, he pointed out that planning staff had worked extremely hard to meet that deadline including holding a virtual Community Consultation Meeting on the project on the evening of Sept. 16 after only officially receiving the application in June of this year.
“Are you suggesting that you guys made an application that’s not viable?” Bradford asked McWilliam.
She said that given a number of iterations of the project, “the owners have been continuing to do the math” and the numbers were no longer working.
Bradford asked McWilliam when the owners did that math since the proposal had seemed on track until before last Thursday’s meeting.
“Why didn’t you do the math before you put in the application?” he said.
The owners had recently been reviewing a number of issues including construction costs, market rates and other items, she said.
In a statement sent to Beach Metro Community News after Thursday’s meeting, Bradford said he was disappointed by the applicant’s request for the deferral.
“I was disappointed when the developer spoke up at the meeting to request a deferral so they could revise the project – which could involve changes to the height or the number of units,” he said in the statement.
“I was not willing to support this request to defer, as I found it disrespectful to the community who had taken the time to share their thoughts at the public consultation, and to the city staff who reviewed this project expediently. This approval still needs to be confirmed by City Council at our November meeting. If approved, I look forward to hearing from the developer whether they intend to proceed with this project as-is or if they will hold off. Any changes to the approved plan would involve additional community engagement.”
In an extremely brief interview immediately after Thursday’s meeting at City Hall, McWilliam told Beach Metro Community News that the project is still on track. “No, it’s not being pulled. We’re just going to keep working on it,” she said.
Beach Metro Community News is in the process of reaching out to the applicant for further clarification on the proposal given its location in the “heart of the Beach” and its importance to so many residents.
