Angry Icona condo buyers want Vaughan to reject developer’s second application

TheStar.com
Jan 24, 2019
Tess Kalinowski

It’s too high, has too many units and not enough parking and commercial space. Those are some of the reasons Vaughan’s committee of adjustment is being told it should deny an application for variances on a development site owned by Gupta Group.

The challenge to Gupta’s application for condo towers, hotel and town homes is being brought to the city on Thursday by angry buyers into a previous development by the same company on the same site.

They bought units in the Icona condos in early 2017 only to have their money refunded more than a year later. Then they discovered that Gupta had no legal right to build condos on the property it had sold because of a restrictive covenant that prohibited residential development there.

In a ruling last March, a judge upheld the restrictive covenant. It’s not yet clear if Gupta will appeal that ruling.

Vaughan shouldn’t even be considering a second application for a nearly identical development, said Robert Paniccia, one of the Icona buyers, who called the application “an insult to the mayor, the city, the committee and the residents of Vaughan.”

If the city won’t dismiss Gupta’s application outright, he said he is challenging its request for variances, which would allow the project to depart from the zoning rules for that site.

Cities often allow variances from the rules for roads, height and space allocations.

But Paniccia says, “Some of the variances (Gupta) is going for are extreme. They’re not even minor.”

He plans to make his case before the committee of adjustment on Thursday. That committee deferred the application after learning on Jan. 10 about the restrictive covenant from Icona buyers.

Paniccia said the city rules allow a maximum height of 25 metres. Gupta is asking for six times that --the highest of its three towers would be 65 storeys, according to city documents.

Gupta is applying to make 19 per cent of the ground floor area commercial space, when the city requires a minimum of 60 per cent, and the developer wants to reduce the number of parking spaces and setbacks, while increasing the number of residential units by adding townhomes to its proposal.

A staff report says the city has invoked Section 37 of the planning act that would allow the developer to pay $391,000 for community benefits in lieu of the height increase.

Paniccia said he knows the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre will attract dense, highrise, mixed-use development such as what Gupta is proposing for its property at Highway 7 and Edgeley Blvd. There is a hotel on the property now.

Melissa Jardim, another Icona buyer, agreed with the city’s plans to develop the area.

“I want to see my city develop but not with Gupta as the developer,” she said.

Jardim bought a one-bedroom Icona unit as an investment that she planned to hand down to her children. When she heard the condos had been cancelled, she said, “I was shocked. We were completely blindsided.”

She hasn’t bought another condo.

“We’re having a really hard time putting our trust into the development industry,” Jardim said.