Battle over Sobeys plaza continues at Vaughan council meeting

cjnews.com
June 24, 2016
By Sheri Shefa

The battle by Thornhill residents to prevent a developer from building a 20-storey residential building in the Kosher Sobeys plaza at Clark and Hilda avenues continued last week at a public hearing where the plan was officially submitted to Vaughan City Council.

Pamela Levy-Taraday, president of the SpringFarm Ratepayers Association (SFRA), a volunteer community advocacy group, said Thornhill residents filled the Vaughan City Hall chambers on June 21 to send a message to city council that the development proposed by RioCan, a commercial developer that owns the Spring Farm Marketplace - home to the kosher Sobeys, a kosher Second Cup, Israel’s Judaica, and other Jewish-themed stores - will negatively impact the community in countless ways.

In November, local residents learned about a plan to demolish the stores on the east side of the plaza to build an 18-storey building. The proposal has since been amended to add two more storeys to compensate for the loss of the stores.

In the months since RioCan presented its plan to the community, the SFRA conducted a community survey, held meetings to appeal to RioCan to amend its proposal, and drafted a petition to the City of Vaughan to halt the development.

The petition says the proposal violates Vaughan’s official plan and contravenes zoning bylaws for usage, density and height.

Levy-Taraday said 11 residents who opposed the development pleaded their case at the hearing after a presentation by RioCan’s architect and planner.

She said residents raised a number of issues, including the development’s impact on parking and traffic.

“We had a traffic study done, and [RioCan’s] traffic study is not accurate at all. They used statistics from 1987… traffic has certainly changed since 1987,” she said.

“Someone spoke about the importance of the plaza to the Jewish community...It was built as a hub for the Jewish community...We talked about the environmental issues. If they close off the [Hilda Avenue] entrance, cars will have to idle for a much longer period.”

At the hearing, area resident Michael Ruskin referred to RioCan’s argument that the 18-storey condo building across the street at 343 Clark Ave. sets a precedent for high-rise buildings in the area.

“Based upon an insurance appraisal, the existing 18-storey condo covers only 5.2 per cent of the six-acre property...[and] there is a substantial set-back from the street,” said Ruskin, who sits on the board of directors of the existing building. He added that RioCan is proposing a structure that would take up 35.6 per cent of the plaza area.

“Yes, the condo across the street sets a precedent, but it also sets a standard,” Levy-Taraday added.

She said the public hearing was a wake-up call to residents in the area. “They didn’t realize how complicated this was. They never considered the air pollution. They never considered the danger to [nearby] York Hill Public School students. They didn’t understand the impact on seniors and to their way of life. It really opened the eyes of the people who were there.”

At the hearing, Vaughan Councillor Alan Shefman, who is “strongly opposed” to RioCan’s proposal, said he addressed the developer’s “absolute failure to recognize the social component of that plaza, and then ignored the opportunity they had to work with the ratepayers group that is reasonable, rational, and willing to discuss development.”

He said he also admonished RioCan for its “inappropriate and disrespectful behaviour” last February, when RioCan agreed to host a charrette, a meeting that attempts to resolve conflicts between residents and developers. About an hour into the meeting, which was attended by SFRA committee members and city staff, Shefman was informed that RioCan had already submitted its proposal to the city earlier that day.

At the hearing and in a statement to The CJN, RioCan pledged to work with the community to come to a middle ground.

“RioCan is committed to developing a space that honours the legacy of the Spring Farm Marketplace and is considerate of the neighbourhood and culture that make it so special,” said senior vice-president of development Andrew Duncan.

“We’ll see,” Shefman said with a chuckle. “I have no real confidence that they are going to do this. I hope they will. I hope I’m proven wrong. But I have no confidence they will.”

Council accepted the proposal, which will be reviewed by city staff, who will produce a report and a recommendation for council to either approve or reject. The process could take up to eight months.