Vaughan residents question city’s deal with Sports Village developer

South Maple Ratepayers’ Association files FOI request to unearth lease agreement

YorkRegion.com
Feb. 19, 2019
Dina Al-Shibeeb

A group made of Vaughan residents are questioning the city’s lease agreement with Mentana, a developer company, who is eying to buy a large swathe of 33 acres of parkland, not even declared “surplus.”

The 40-year lease agreement with Mentana has allowed the developer to operate the Sports Village arena on 2600 Rutherford Rd. in Vaughan. After using 19 years of the lease, Mentana now wants to expand and has proposed to buy the area, including the city-owned park, which hasn’t been solicited for sale.

Fearing that they might lose the publicly-owned green park in vicinity of their homes --as well as opening the door for future noise and traffic jam congestion --the 40-member South Maple Ratepayers’ Association has collected 800 signatures of residents living in the area to show their disapproval over the expansion, which they warn will set a bad “precedent.”

The group has also filed Freedom-of-Information (FOI) in August to decipher and unearth components of the city’s agreement with Mentana.
After their FOI was rejected, their appeal is leading somewhere. On Feb. 5, the association’s vice-president said the city has agreed to release the agreement, but it gave Mentana group 30 days to appeal the process.

“A third party has the ability to stop the information, even if a taxpayer’s money is being used. If it’s a [tax money] dollar it should be information out to the public,” the association said. “Everything until this point has been a total fight with the exception of one councillor [Marilyn Iafrate] helping us.”

The expansion will see the current Sports Village --which sits on city land but is leased and owned by Mentana Group of Companies --mushroom to include a “master plan” for Berkeley Community Hub. The hub will house an entertainment centre with an amphitheatre, hosting events and an academy of about 760 student athletes.

“They are planning on putting an outdoor amphitheatre that seats 3,000 people, an sunken hockey arena that’s actually an events centre, which is going to seat 6,500 people with a roof top track with lights,” Emilia Rozenblit, the association’s treasurer said, whose home is right across from the proposed expansion.

“If someone in Toronto wants to buy High Park because they want to build a multi-season resort to bring tons of tourists, do you think the City of Toronto will sell them High Park or Central Island?” said the association’s director Tony Longo.

Alongside the association, senior residents at Villa Giardino have collected 100 signatures protesting the project.

In a letter to Iafrate, the seniors said that the three condominiums in the complex are the “nearest residences right opposite the Sports Village,” yet they “were never consulted or fully informed by the City of Vaughan” since the developer’s proposal in 2015.

Is the city responsive?

The association said Iafrate was their “link” to the city and it was her efforts that brought about the imminent public consultation scheduled on Jan. 17 to the city itself.

While they received help from regional Coun. Linda Jackson, the association described other councillors as “not interested” as the expansion wasn't directly falling in their district. “We emailed them and they don’t respond.”

Rozenblit even cited what regional Coun. Mario Ferri told the association’s president Laura Rinaldo, “why are you fighting the impossible” over the phone prior to the municipal election in October.

“Our take from all of this is that the city has been very transparent over the fact they want this development to happen,” Rozenblit said. “Ferri said he is willing to work with the proponent and the residents. That sounds like he is willing to work with us to compromise on something. There is no compromise.”

However, speaking to Ferri, the councillor said the statement didn’t come from him and mulled it could be miscommunication.

He clarified: “I did have a conversation with her [Rinaldo], she wanted to support their position but I wasn’t prepared to do that at the stage because I didn’t have enough information from the staff. ”

He added: “I would be happy to make the statement once I have all the information.”

Also, in a conversation with Iafrate, she explained that the city hasn’t made up its mind on whether to go through with this “unsolicited” proposal from the developer. However, Iafrate said the city had previously made “no provision to consult with the community” until she “directed them to do so last June meeting.”
Iafrate also refused to attend yet another meeting in January at Sports Village since it wasn’t held at a “neutral” ground.

Any benefits?

Iafrate further described the proposal as problematic since could affect an “irreplaceable” parkland area and that residents’ homes will “lose value” as they will no longer be surrounded by lush green free space if the project materializes.

“Parks never change, they go down there forever, for generations,” she said, wondering if the developer is going to compensate these residents if he buys the park.

The only exceptions for such an “unprecedented" purchase to go through is only if there is “immense benefits” for the community, but Iafrate says she doesn’t see any, but will only give the green light for other developers to bid similar proposals on other publicly-owned parks.

Speaking to Mentana’s Tony Furiato, the developer’s president said the association has a “history of making inaccurate public statements about this project,” adding that the new expansion will use “only 1.9 underutilized acres of the 36 acres of parkland.”

“Much like the park, the new Berkeley Community Hub would be open to the public and the facilities would be made available for use by all residents,” he said.

“Residents will --for the first time --be able to access high quality services and innovative modern energy neutral facilities closer to home,” he added. Furiato cited one of the perks, “an active green roof and horticulture program that will host gardening programs for the food insecure community.”

Describing Sports Village as an “integral part of Vaughan” and that “many community partners would be extremely upset” if it moved somewhere else after it has been there since 1999, Furiato said “the city is conducting traffic studies to examine this question” when asked about any future traffic.

He added: “As the operator of the Sports Village, Mentana already works to mitigate the impact of traffic on the community and will continue to do so.”

According to Furiato, the Berkeley Community Hub has the support of “Vaughan Food Bank, the City of Vaughan Hockey Association, the Vaughan Girls Hockey Association, the City of Vaughan Baseball and Softball Association, the Condominium Corporations of Villa Giardino and the Concord West Ratepayers among others.”

But then again, the association said it was the board of Villa Giardino that made the unilateral decision to accept Furiato’s offer after the developer promised to take care of the condominiums’ garbage problem, making the whole issue even more complicated.