Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Proof is in the Pudding":
What's happened to Hillview is quite sad. How this Town can let that happen yet someone who wants to take down a couple of trees and replace them gets dicked around for months and God know what financial costs. How does the Town explain that? Ten's of thousands spent on studies, and plans, and we end up with a Hillview. I can see why the handful of those entitled wanting to designate a whole community heritage after seeing what happened on Hillview, but their plan was as ridiculous as what happened to Hillview. Can we not have a happy medium. What the Town is requesting from 83 George st. is ridiculous! Somehow I doubt whatever the property owners are planning won't be.
Posted by Anonymous to Our Town and Its Business at 9 June 2014 23:13
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What happened in Hillview had been happening elsewhere for ten and twenty years before with no opposition expressed.
In the seventies property owners on the north side of Kennedy Street west divided their 2
plus acre lots and created a new court behind them similar to Hillview.
Lots further east on Kennedy west eventually changed hands .Modest homes belonging to another age were replaced by homes three times the size .
No great outcry occurred.
New neighbourhoods were built throughout town with houses of similar size and opulence, The market was there.
Builders build houses to make a living. It makes sense to build houses to sit the market. Not much point in doing otherwise. Large old lots have been in demand at premium prices for decades.Old homes are disposable.
Hillview residents had a small exclusive neighborhood. They loved it...became upset when they noticed modest houses demolished and replaced with million dollar mansions.
Council was approached and a Bylaw to control size and style was demanded.
Staff said it would be difficult. Council directed it be done.
Before much time passed,Hillviewresidents realized such a Bylaw would materially affect the material value of their properties.
The Bylaw fell by the wayside for lack of interest and support.
Some people might see the transformation of Hillview as sad. Others might see it as
inevitable. Still others might see it as a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
I myself like things to stay the same. I made a few dramatic changes in my life before I found my place. It's been mine now for over fifty years.
The advisory committee endorsed staff recommendations last night.
Six of seven members were present. One Councillor. Three staff , Director of Planning, Heritage
Planner and Secretary.
They can endorse all they wish. The record so far with the OMB cases supports sub-dividing lots to provide for in-filling, a current buzz-word of theirs, along the main arterial roads. They already over-ruled the town with one site on Kennedy St. W. It was ruled close enough to Yonge to qualify. That one on George St. is likely close enough to both Wellington & Yonge.
ReplyDeleteCouncil can go that route but it will likely be costly which is against council aims to keep the town safe.
ReplyDeleteIf one has had the opportunity to travel to Europe and visit some of the towns and cities where often main streets sand usually side streets are laid with cobblestones. That happens in small villages as well.
And those buildings that survived the bombing of World War II, or were faithfully rebuilt following the war's end, are in many instances hundreds of years old; not just the cathedrals but also the everyday shop, office or apartment.
Planning consent is something that is extremely difficult to get if a major renovation is desired, even if it is totally internal. More fortunes have been made in European urban real estate that has not changed in outward appearance for generations.
Perhaps we in North America find that the secret of a life lived well is our ability to destroy and rebuild. I'm not talking about a "heritage" building but one that has become tiresome to look at, an older house 20 or 30 years of age.
It's interesting to watch the condo boom in Toronto, in part I think because of lousy public transit, where competing towers, now architecturally increasingly bizarre in their twists and turns, eventually block a future view which was one of the attractions originally.
Cllr Humfryes was absent I heard. Maybe it is getting though to her that she might be going about things in the wrong manner. She got whopped on the 3-tree hold-up, the s-e designation & the Heritage Park..... three strikes.
ReplyDeleteTo 16:04 I say four strikes ovef The Farmers Market and cowardice dealing with Mr
DeleteHeard and accomodations.
Rogers only shows until 9 for the meeting. Talk fast, SVP
ReplyDeleteThe ironic thing is that if the house is sold as is for the asking price, the first thing a new owner will do is take out exactly those items the Heritage gurus want to keep. The radiators will have to go to allow central air & anything even seeming to have links to the past will make way for larger rooms & up-graded appliances.
ReplyDeleteWell done ! I have no idea how it happened with that silly meeting but the Petch House is back on the front burner for next meeting.
ReplyDelete19:39 is right - well done! You did a 180 on the Petch House, and tonight you voted in favour of funding the Arboretum's budget.
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ReplyDeleteIt is a typical human failing.
Money usually wins out over everything else.
Only those with an abundance can withstand the onslaught from developers.
Mr Heard shouldn't need to be dealt with. Otherwise, it just looks like entitlement and cronyism.
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