ABC Residents Association

The ABC Residents Association is a volunteer organization committed to enhancing the quality of life in our neighbourhood through participation in municipal issues. We serve the residents living in Toronto’s Yorkville/North Midtown community.


Amid 865 trees coming down, Province releases 95-year lease with Therme

Under cover of darkness, Infrastructure Ontario began the removal of 865 trees at Ontario Place on the evening of Wednesday, October 2, 2024. Within a single day, workers had cut down the vast majority of those trees.

The work—which includes the removal of every single tree on the western portion of the waterfront site adjacent downtown Toronto—is part of the approximately $200-million in site preparations that taxpayers are funding to prepare the land for Therme, an Austrian spa company, to develop a stadium-sized indoor waterpark on the site. See before and after photos.

The next day, October 3, the Province released the details of its 95-year lease with Therme, which journalists and grassroots organizations have…

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The ravine next to Rosedale Valley Road is an unusual escape in the middle of Toronto

Rosedale Ravine Lands isn’t tucked away in a forest like some of the other walks in the city but the stretching pathway that follows the Rosedale Valley Road makes for a picturesque stroll in its own right.

Running below one of Toronto’s most historic neighbourhoods, the pathway located on the south side of the road can be followed from Park Road to Bayview Avenue.

One Roxborough

Someone in Toronto just bought a huge $18M condo and it’s pretty spectacular

One of the most expensive condo units in Toronto history has been purchased for a whopping $18 million — and it doesn’t even exist yet.

An undisclosed buyer has scooped up a luxurious penthouse unit on the top floor of a proposed boutique condo development at 1086 Yonge Street, known as One Roxborough West.

Councillor Dianne Saxe at Planning and Housing Committee, January 29, 2024

The Annex Residents’ Association features Councillor Saxe in action at City Hall

Councillor Saxe did the most magnificent job fighting for the Annex at this past Monday’s Planning and Housing Committee meeting – a committee on which she doesn’t actually sit. We’ve got an articulate legal mind as our representative. If you’ve got some time, then watch the YouTube archive of the meeting to watch the discussion as it unfolds and to see her champion our interests.

The One - rendering showing building in Toronto skyline

Skyscraper makes the top 10 in list of most exciting projects set to complete in 2024

Construction edutainment outlet The B1M recently released a video rounding up what it considers to be the most exciting projects due to complete in 2024.

Among them, the monolithic 91-storey skyscraper under construction at Yonge and Bloor, known as The One, took the #7 position and was the only North American construction project to make the top-ten ranking.

Yorkville Toronto high rise and street corner.

Five neighbourhoods in Toronto expected to transform the most in 2024

The 2020s will be remembered as a historic period of transformative change in Toronto thanks to the forthcoming completion of new transit lines and some of the tallest buildings under construction in all of Canada. But that’s just the bigger picture, …
Stone Slinger on Front street.

What good are new noise bylaws if Toronto doesn’t enforce the rules it already has?

The city of Toronto has no shortage of rules and regulations. According to a bylaw registry on the city’s website with information that dates all the way back to 1844, Toronto has 164,323 bylaws on the books, with more always coming: Toronto city council tacked on 1,334 more bylaws last year.

What there is a real shortage of, though, is an effective strategy to enforce many of those bylaws.

Construction noise from masonry saw

ABC advocates for improved noise regulations

The livability of the City is being eroded by excessive unrestricted noise and a lack of enforcement for the rules that we do have.

This review is important in order to address some of the deficiencies in the 2019 update and help create a policy that establishes clear, meaningful limits on noise and adequate, efficient enforcement. ABCRA did attend multiple community consultations and submitted comments and concerns that we hoped would be addressed through the staff recommendations.

Cartoon image of woman giving budget presentation.

What Torontonians want Olivia Chow to spend more on

More than a third of Toronto residents who took part in a prebudget online survey want to boost funding for affordable housing and shelters and cut funding for police, according to a partial copy of the survey obtained by the Star. 

The survey was part of a new prebudget consultation process introduced by Mayor Olivia Chow and led by budget chief Shelley Carroll. According to the city, a total of 16 in-person and virtual public meetings were held and an online survey conducted during November 2023.

House sitting on top of property tax binder next to gavel.

Toronto city staff propose 10.5% property tax hike as part of 2024 budget

Toronto staff are recommending a nine per cent hike to the city’s residential property tax — the largest single-year increase since amalgamation in 1998 — as they look to fill a nearly $1.8 billion budget shortfall in 2024 and a grim long-term fiscal outlook.

With the recommendation of an additional 1.5 per cent increase to the city building tax, property owners could see their tax bill jump 10.5 per cent this year if the figures go unchanged during five weeks of scheduled budget debates and consultations. The city building tax is a special levy introduced in 2016 that goes toward major transit and housing projects.


Events & Public Meetings

Scrivener mural launch

Scrivener Underpass Mural Project

LAUNCH CELEBRATION
Wednesday, October 2, 2024, noon to 2 p.m.
Meet at south side of LCBO(10 Scrivener Sq.)
Live music by Elyssa Plaza + Bellosound 

Come celebrate the Scrivener Underpass Mural by local artist Zuna Amir. Meet Zuna and her team of artists!


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