It’s standard practice for the City to post signs on sites where developers have applied for approval to construct condo or office buildings, so neighbours will be notified of the redevelopment plans and have a chance to voice their opinions about them before City Hall makes any decisions affecting the property. The City usually posts those signs shortly after a development application has been filed and long before a community consultation takes place. As for the consultations, it’s common practice for the City to mail notices about the dates, times and locations of upcoming meetings to “stakeholders” who could potentially be impacted by a new development — anyone living or operating businesses within 120 meters of a proposed project site. In fact, the Toronto and East York Community Council has sometimes directed City officials to send notices to stakeholders within an even wider catchment area at the local City Councillor’s request.

City concerned about tower shadows on Allan Gardens

For the 308 Jarvis Street project, however, area stakeholders have received scant advance notice that a condo tower far more than double the height of any adjacent buildings has been proposed — a project to which city planners and Ward 27 Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam have indicated they are strongly opposed in part because of shadows the tall tower would cast on Allan Gardens, one of downtown’s pre-eminent parks and botanical gardens. I walk past the site at least three times per week, and since I first reported on the 308 Jarvis Street project back on February 6, I have been wondering why the City was taking so long to post a development proposal sign there, especially with the consultation scheduled for the final week of this month.

The late notice for this particular project is the latest incident in what appears to be a disturbing trend in which residents of northeast downtown have been given haphazard, poor or even no notice at all of public meetings called to gather their input on projects in their immediate vicinity. Last October, angry residents gave city planners  and Councillor Wong-Tam an earful about lack of notice to the neighbourhood for a consultation on a 38-storey condo tower proposed for 159 Wellesley Street East. The same month, many residents in the Church & Wellesley neighbourhood did not receive any notices from the city for a consultation held to get feedback on a 29-storey condo tower proposed for the northeast corner of Yonge & Gloucester Streets. And at a public meeting held in early November for the mammoth Lanterra Developments twin-tower condo project for 501 Yonge Street, numerous neighbourhood residents complained to the city planners that they had not received notice of the event. (I didn’t get any notice of it, either, even though I had received email assurances from both the City Councillor and city planners many weeks earlier confirming that I would be added to the notification list once the date and location for the community consultation had been set.)

I’m fully aware that city planners are overworked and understaffed, swamped by a steadily-burgeoning caseload as development applications keep pouring into City Hall. Nevertheless, I think it’s incumbent upon the City to ensure that “stakeholders” be notified of what is usually their one and only chance to publicly comment on projects before planners present City Councillors with their final recommendations. After all, developers typically enjoy the privilege of several private face-to-face meetings with planners and the local Councillor to discuss their projects and negotiate aspects of the redevelopment proposals. It’s only fair that stakeholders affected by those redevelopments get a chance to have their say, too. But it’s not fair if the City doesn’t provide adequate notice.

Below are a few more photos of the 308 Jarvis development site. Additional photos and information can be found in my February 6 post, as well as in a February 10 article by Toronto Star reporter Valerie Hauch.

Monday’s public meeting, by the way, is scheduled for 7 – 9 p.m. at the Best Western Primrose Hotel at 111 Carlton Street.

February 22 2012: The proposed condo tower site viewed from the corner of Mutual Street and McClear Place.

February 22 2012: The developer has proposed building five 3-storey townhouses along this west (Mutual Street) flank of its property.

February 22 2012: The project site faces historic Allan Gardens on the opposite side of Jarvis Street.