In My Opinion: Holding a ‘virtual’ instead of in-person community meeting on plan for Queen and Lee is an insult to residents who want their voices heard
By ALAN SHACKLETON
EDITOR, BEACH METRO COMMUNITY NEWS
So I received a nice letter from the City of Toronto on Tuesday, Sept. 3, letting me know that there is a “virtual Community Consultation Meeting” on the proposal for a six-storey residential building at the northwest corner of Queen Street East and Lee Avenue in the Beach.
This is for the property where the Foodland store is and also the storefronts to the west of it, the exact addresses being 2026-2040 Queen St. E. The meeting is scheduled to take place on Monday, Sept. 16.
Now my first reaction was extreme annoyance about hearing about this after the deadline for our Sept. 3 paper, which granted had an early deadline due to the Labour Day long weekend. However, our next print edition does not come out until Sept. 17, which is obviously after the meeting.
I really don’t like that, and I wish someone involved in this process had taken a moment to make sure their friendly neighbourhood Beach Metro Community News knew about this in plenty of time. We would have liked to alert our readers in print so residents wishing to weigh in on this proposal for the “heart of the Beach” could have ample time to prepare for it.
(For details and information on how to take part in the virtual meeting on Sept. 16 Community Consultation Meeting, please see this story now on our website: https://beachmetro.com/2024/09/05/community-consultation-meeting-for-six-storey-building-proposal-at-queen-and-lee-to-take-place-virtually-on-sept-16/ )
So, yes, I’m extremely annoyed by this.
But it gets way worse in my opinion. What takes this from annoying to completely unacceptable for me is that the proposed meeting is virtual, which means online. It will not be an in-person meeting.
Well, I don’t think that’s good enough.
This is arguably the most important development proposal in the Beach since Bellefair United Church was turned into a condo.
The community is highly interested in the plans for Queen and Lee. There are strong feelings among residents regarding this proposal; some them very much against it and some of them are very much in favour. These opinions need to be heard in an open forum at a true community meeting in a venue full of area residents.
My experience covering virtual meetings is that they stifle free and open debate, take all the emotion and passion out it, and are so highly controlled by the person running them that they fail to give a true sense of the community’s feelings towards an issue.
In my opinion, making this Community Consultation Meeting for Queen and Lee virtual is an insult to the Beach community. So we’re clear, I personally don’t have a problem with the proposal but I think it’s critically important that residents be given a chance to have their say about it as part of an in-person meeting.
Granted, not everyone is able to attend in-person meetings and for them the meetings should also be live-streamed with an option for participation in that manner.
I believe, though, that the majority of residents want to have a true in-person community meeting on this – most likely in a large hall such as the one at Beach United Church.
One of the reasons we need an in-person meeting is so the owners of the “empty storefronts” to the west of Foodland can answer to the community as to why they have stood vacant so long. They need to answer that question to the community’s face, not its computer screen. They need to hear the reactions from real people at the meeting, not those who are put on mute while they watch it virtually.
Beach Metro Community News reporter Amarachi Amadike reached out to Beaches-East York Councillor Brad Bradford’s office regarding the Sept. 16 meeting and they promptly sent us a response on Sept. 4. It reads:
“The virtual community consultation meeting on September 16 is the only meeting currently scheduled, apart from the Community Council meeting when the application will come forward. In the past, residents have asked for virtual options to facilitate easier participation (particularly on weekday evenings for parents of young children).
“In a recent city staff report, staff noted the results of a recent survey regarding community consultation and found that ‘virtual consultation may help the City manage its timeline and how much staff and applicant effort is required.’ This is why it has been the preferred option of City Planning for the vast majority of applications across the city – and City Planning handles the logistics and arrangements for all of these consultation sessions.”
So, if that’s the City Planning departments approach to this, and it is their decision on how this proceeds and not the say of the local councillor or the applicant, then that’s the way it’s going to be. The reality is the proposal conforms with all existing rules including the Queen Street East Urban Design guidelines, so there’s no world in which it would be prevented from happening.
I still think, though, its crucial to recognize the feelings of the community (both for and against) towards this “heart of the Beach” location and that it should not be treated as just another “as-of-right” development proposal.
Finally, let me quote from the Beach Metro Community News Feb. 2 story first letting readers know about this proposal:
“Both Sobey’s/Crombie REIT, and Beaches-East York Councillor Brad Bradford are promising there will be significant opportunities for concerned residents to have input on the proposal.
However, Bradford said the formal community consultation process can only begin once the rezoning application for the project has been officially “received” by the City of Toronto, and as of Feb. 1 it was not appearing on the Toronto Application Information Centre website.
“A spokesperson for Crombie REIT told Beach Metro Community News this week that the application was submitted to the city in late December “and is currently being processed for intake”.
“The application is not available yet on the city’s Application Information Centre, however our project website, 2040queeneast.ca, was recently launched to begin sharing information and gather feedback from the community early in the process,” said Elizabeth Engram, Senior Manager, Marketing & Public Relations Crombie REIT.
Bradford said residents can expect a community meeting on the proposal in the near future.
“The moment that the City receives a formal application for this address, my team will work to urgently schedule a community meeting to discuss the proposal,” Bradford told Beach Metro Community News.
“That’s a critical piece of what will be an extensive review process because it allows neighbours to hear directly from our City Planning division on what is being proposed and for them to gather feedback from the community. It’s also an opportunity for neighbours to hear directly from the applicant – and for the applicant to hear directly from them.”
On its website, 2040 Queen East also said community input will be part of the planning process for the redevelopment.
“We anticipate that the City of Toronto will host a community consultation meeting in Spring 2024. Community members that live within a 120-metre radius of the site will receive an invitation from the City of Toronto in the mail. In the meantime, continue to check here for updated information and send us your questions or comments. We welcome your feedback,” said the website.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: This column has been updated on Sept. 5 from the original filed on Sept. 4 to include information from Beaches-East York Councillor Brad Bradford’s office.
For Beach Metro Community News’ earlier stories on this proposal for Queen and Lee, please see:
Beach Memories: Historic heart of the Beach as reflected at Queen and Lee should be saved
