ABC Residents Association has a long history of making positive contributions to the planning and development of our area. The Association encompasses one of the fastest growing areas in Toronto. Development pressures to increase heights and densities along our main streets are enormous and pressure to add density to the low rise neighbourhoods is also increasing. These issues take the most time of ABCRA Board members.
Our focus is not to simply oppose new development but to work closely with City planners, Councillor Dianne Saxe, and developers to influence better planning and higher quality development of our area. Our efforts also include advocating and negotiating for more attention to the public space surrounding the buildings.
Planning & Development News
Seven new ‘supertall’ buildings are coming to Toronto — is that a good thing?
Toronto could soon have the fifth highest number of mixed-use residential supertalls in the world, alongside cities like NYC and Hong Kong.
The supertalls, defined as being more than 300 metres tall by global non-profit Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), have divided housing observers.
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.
Don’t Be Shocked By (Even More) Condos in (Even More) Toronto Neighbourhoods
Density is the name of the game when it comes to the Greater Toronto Area’s (GTA) urban planning agenda – especially in areas surrounding current and upcoming public transit hubs. With new provincially-passed legislation as a driving force behind it, these neighbourhoods are in store for a drastic transformation in the not-too-distant future.
“Not another condo,” exclaim countless Toronto residents daily, as they throw up their arms and shake their heads in disbelief at news of yet another towering new development.
1080-1088 Yonge Street development
We are writing to express our opposition to the 1080-1088 Yonge Street – Official Plan and Zoning By-law Amendment Application and request a deferral on the item. We have been in negotiations with the Developer and acknowledge the good steps that have been taken in reducing the massing on the west side of the site, but are of the opinion that more work needs to be done.
Eye-popping 11-storey tower proposed for site of historic Toronto homes
A row of homes dating back almost 125 years could be transformed by an impressive 11-storey tower, if a new development application is approved by the city. Not surprisingly, local residents have questions about the growing intensity in a quiet section of one of the city’s oldest neighbourhoods where a number of proposals to increase density are piling up.
Torontonians who care about the environment must support six storey apartment buildings in existing neighbourhoods
From now until December 15th, the City of Toronto is conducting public consultation on Environmental Defence’s proposed change to how housing can be built in existing neighborhoods. This change would allow apartments up to six storeys and 30 units on the major streets that fall within the “Neighborhoods” designation of the City’s Official Plan.
What third-party audits could tell us about municipal finances — and housing — in Ontario
OPINION: Shedding light on government finances is never a bad idea. Here’s hoping audits will spur a necessary discussion about how Ontario cities raise revenue and from whom.
‘What happened to Yonge Street?’ Quashing Toronto’s character is the city’s mistake
At a recent family party, some of my in-laws and I were discussing one of our favourite topics: “What happened to Yonge Street?” Which is a conversation that always evolves, surely as the sun rises, into the problem of “What is happening to Toronto?”
City of shadows
The new buildings were just what Toronto needed. More than 800 new rental apartments, about a third of them permanently affordable. These new homes would rise on the site of an old provincial building. The problem: They were too tall. One tower would rise 50 storeys into the air, and so it would cast shadow on a park half a block away – covering about a quarter of its surface – for up to three hours a day.