Leaside residents say higher tower project left them blindsided

A group of residents in a midtown Toronto neighbourhood is vowing to take their fight against a developer to the city's ombudsman.

The Leaside Residents Association and the Broadway Area Residents Association had been working with city staff and the Gupta Group on a proposed residential tower to be built over a row of five lots on Bayview Avenue just north of the new Leaside stop on the Eglinton Crosstown LRT route.

But in June, about three months after a deal had been struck with Gupta for a 22-storey tower, the developer went to the city's committee of adjustment and applied for a "minor variance" that would add five storeys to the project. The committee agreed to let Gupta add three more, for a total height of 25 storeys.

"We were shocked," said Geoff Kettel, co-president of the Leaside Residents Association.

The three additional storeys would mean another 33 units, Kettel said. If those were built on a single lot, it would amount to a six-storey building.

"Does that sound minor?" he said.

The two resident associations say it's a strategy they've been seeing more of in the past year: Developers are using the city's committee of adjustment to argue for increased heights, long after a deal has been reached.

Aside from the proposed tower at 1837-1845 Bayview Ave., developers shuttled at least two other projects to the committee of adjustment after deals had been reached with city planners and residents. 

One, at 300 Bloor St. W., called for a "minor variance" that would have added five storeys to the 29-storey project, city documents show. That application was turned down last November because "in the opinion of the committee, the variances are not minor."

However, in another case last December, the committee approved a height increase request from State Building Group on its plan for 316 Bloor St. W. Instead of building a tower of 98 metres they were allowed to build to a height of 121 metres.

But there was a catch. The committee said that in exchange for the added height, "the applicant/owner shall make a cash contribution to the City of Toronto in the amount of $1 million ... to be allocated toward community facilities, recreational, cultural space, and/or streetscape improvements."

Neither the Gupta Group nor State Building responded to inquiries from CBC Toronto.

The committee of adjustment is traditionally used by residents who want to make small changes, called minor variances, to their properties, such as adding a few feet to a fence or building a deck that's slightly larger than local zoning rules allow, said Kettel.

But Kettel, who's also co-chair of the Federation of North Toronto Residents' Associations, said he and other residents' groups have noticed an uptick in the number of approved projects they're involved with that are being sent to the committee.