Just got home from tonight's consultation… except that this one was yesterday.
This meeting was feistier than tonight's consultation on Cresford's YSL/383 Yonge, but was still far friendlier than the meeting from a year and a half ago here. With one of the two buildings having been cut by 5 storeys and the other by 4, shadows are down of course, and the redesign of the exterior with far more brick seems to have been appreciated too, as was the new plan to save the heritage bank at the corner too.
There seemed to be an equal number of people worried about the influx of new residents in the neighbourhood, and the mostly younger attendees who were worried about finding places to live if we cut the size of building proposals too much.
One person asked if the buildings would cut green space in the neighbourhood, only to learn that the Dufferin parkette would be getting larger.
Others weren't sure about Canada's capitalist system that allows builders to make a profit, wanted the buildings reduced in size, and wanted all the units to be affordable. Gord Perks was pretty good at reining in those most unrealistic viewpoints, did quite a good job explaining the planning approval system, (certainly far better than the planner on the file), and basically told the crowd that this was a much better proposal now and that it should go through.
The planners at consultations seem only to be able to spew a pile of numbers and the breathlessly describe the various guidelines a proposal should fit into without offering any real analysis or comparison or perspective; it's all just provide the formulas and reiterate the existing zoning without mentioning that existing zoning is effectively obsolete. A few planners on staff are better than this, and do manage to make all of their concerns mean something—I'm throwing out the initials OT and GC and to a degree GU… and other planners should go to OT's consolations in particular and learn from him.
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