To   Whom It Concerns: Re:…

To   Whom It Concerns: Re: EBR # 019/1406April 20, 2020 

The High Park Community Alliance is a grouping of residents from High Park North, a mixed community of high rise apartments, condominiums, low rise buildings, and single-family homes. 

The apartment neighbourhood has been described as a glowing success story.  Many residents have lived here for decades.  Former residents speak of it with great affection. 

The reason is simple.  The tower buildings are surrounded by green space on which it's possible for apartment dwellers to putter with their kids and pets.  Friends get together to enjoy common outdoor areas for a BBQ.  Weekends feature a small farmer's market.  Tall trees provide shaded walks and connect even the house-bound to nature. 

The HPCA and a broad coalition of local residents have spent the last three years trying to defend all of this from plans to build seven new towers on that green space destroying many of those tall trees.  This is what developers push for when they sense that governments will not defend things like parkland requirements.  They guessed right in this case.  So, people in the existing buildings will lose their sunlight, lose their green space, and almost certainly lose whatever sense of security they had as pedestrians as thousands of new residents on compacted into just two city blocks. 

And all this happened without EBR # 019/1406, which further degrades the principle, not always well upheld, that developers owe the general public something in exchange for their enhanced opportunity to extract profits in an expensive housing market.
 
We'd note that during these many weeks of isolation, uncertainty, and concern about the future, the remedy all experts agree on is accessing sunlight, green spaces and quiet walks in nature.  At the same time, leaders of the Provincial Government repeat daily that it's imperative that we all listen to medical experts and act on established facts.
  
The passage of EBR # 019/1406 would send the clearest of messages about the Province's professed commitment to the mental health of Ontarians:  that it doesn't care and is willing to risk it to help corporations to further maximize their returns on investment.  This is poor public health policy, and poor politics.
 
On behalf of the residents who are now contemplating the loss of their green space, tall trees, and views of the sky at a difficult time when they value them most, the High Park Community Alliance urges the government of Ontario to reconsider and reject ERB 3 019/1406.

The High Park Community Alliance Executive
Elissa Aknay - President