Councillor Josh Matlow

The Midtown in Focus plan (OPA 405) was the result of a 6 year, community-led process to help ensure that the Yonge-Eglinton, and Davisville Village areas had infrastructure and social services such as childcare, parks and recreations space to support the growing neighbourhood.

Without any consultation, the Ford government ripped up these plans, making changes that support developers’ bottom lines instead of local residents. 

We have seen the results of this developer-friendly legislation in recent months with revised applications for additional height and density throughout our midtown neighbourhoods. 

The North-East Quadrant of Yonge and Eglinton is already over intensified and left without sufficient services, infrastructure and park space due to the pressure of the Ontario Municipal Board now called the Local Planning Appeals Tribunal. Queen's Park, rather than investing in priorities such as relieving the overcrowded Yonge subway line and improving quality of life for residents, raised the height limits for new building applications in the neighbourhood. Davisville Apartment Neighbourhood is already one of the densest areas in Toronto. The provincial government's unilateral revisions to the City's Midtown in Focus Plan (OPA 405) in favour of developers has put additional pressure on the area. With 3,000 new units in the development pipeline, and new applications anticipated, Davisville will become even more heavily populated in the coming years. 

To make matters worse, Bill 108 the More Homes, More Choices Act threatens to remove the few tools the City of Toronto had to ensure that development is accompanied by infrastructure and social services that make communities livable. Section 37, and other measures under the Planning Act have been insufficient to meet the needs of fast-growing areas such as Yonge and Eglinton and Davisville Village but they have allowed our community to provide affordable childcare centres, parks, playgrounds, and allocate funding toward important long-term projects

Please tell Premier Doug Ford and Minister of Municipal Affairs Steve Clark to reverse the changes made to our Midtown in Focus plan, repeal Bill 108 and support the quality of life of midtown residents by:

• - Eliminate the significantly increased building height allowances 
• - Continue requiring developers to provide Section 37 contributions for social and physical infrastructure that improve the quality of life for Midtown residents
• - Restore the requirement to have 10% affordable rental in buildings above 80 units 
• - Restore the reforms to the Local Planning Appeals Tribunal that the previous government enacted in response to years of advocacy by our community. 
• - Restore requirements to ensure that new developments still allow for at least 5 hours of sunlight on sidewalks next to midrises, and not cast new shadows on parks 
• - Restore all minimum setbacks in tower neighbourhoods
• - Restore the City of Toronto's ability to create more restrictive bylaws affecting construction noise to protect residents wellbeing.
• - Restore environmental initiatives such as minimizing heat loss/energy efficiency in buildings.

Please sign the petition below and click on the resulting link to tell Premier Ford and Minister Clark to reverse their changes to Midtown in Focus.