Below is a recap of the February 11th Community Meeting hosted by Local and Regional Councillor Carmine Perrelli regarding the Metroview (Elmwood) Developments Inc. 9929, 9935 and 9939 Yonge Street and 186 and 188 Church Street South. Meeting attendees included Local and Regional Councillor Joe DiPaola, Councillor Karen Cilevitz, City staff and approximately 40 residents.
The meeting was organized by Regional Councillor Perrelli to allow Metroview (Elmwood) Developments Inc. the opportunity to present their amended application to Richmond Hill residents and to address any questions, comments and concerns.
Per the City Notice the revised development proposal includes an increase in the permitted building height to twenty (20) storeys, in order to permit a high density, mixed use residential/commercial building with 263 dwelling units, 206 square metres of commercial floor space.
NOTE: The Council Public Meeting regarding this proposal is Wednesday February 19th at 7:30pm. This meeting is an opportunity for residents to make their thoughts know to all of Council so attend if you can. If you cannot attend, please write an email to clerks@richmondhill.ca to be included in the record of the Council Public Meeting.
Click below for full details of the Council Public Meeting notice: https://calendar.richmondhill.ca/council/Detail/2020-02-19-1930-Council-Public-Meeting/61eac9ef-d398-433f-a4dc-ab4c00c3763d
Recap: Many concerns were raised at the community meeting regarding:
Height and Density;
Infrastructure requirements;
increase of additional vehicles to the area;
Parking;
and the impact to residents living in the immediate vicinity both during and after construction.
A question was also raised regarding the applicant having already filed their proposal with the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT). The reason cited by the applicant was that the City did not respond to the application within the 120 day timeframe, thus the applicant had every right under the act to go directly to LPAT for a ruling on their application. The applicant indicated that they are continuing to work with the City in hopes that an agreement can be reached long before LPAT assigns a hearing date at which point the applicant would withdraw their appeal. The applicant felt it was important to have their application in the queue for a hearing date as they feel that it could take up to 18 months to get a hearing date after filing.
Both Regional Councillors spoke about LPAT as an option that should be avoided and made reference to LPAT decisions being based upon conformity to Provincial policies. What seemed to be missing from their references was that LPAT will also consider conformity to the City of Richmond Hill’s Official Plan.
While it is true that there has been little success for our City on appeal decisions rendered by the former Ontario Municipal Board (OMB), there is insufficient data to suggest the same outcomes will occur under the current LPAT.
A question was raised that asked if the Yonge St corridor in Richmond Hill will eventually look like the Yonge St corridor in North York (from Sheppard Ave to Finch Ave) with tall towers everywhere.
Local and Regional Councillor Perrelli responded “Yes” and suggested that this is what the Province wants to see happen. Councillor Perrelli went on to say that he does not disagree with this direction but also indicated that it is not something that is likely to occur in his lifetime.
The message coming from both Regional Councillors was that this “is” the direction going forward and seemed to be painting a picture of futility for any attempt to prevent it from happening. In fact, one of the harsh options Perrelli provided for those who don’t like this direction was that “they could move somewhere else”.