The “Official Plan Five Year Review: Official Plan Amendment to Adopt New Heritage and Public Realm Policies” report went to the City’s
Planning and Growth Management Committee last Friday (October 12th,
2012) Item PG.18.2.
This follows the September 10th Public Consultation/Open
House and the pursuant consideration of the report by the Toronto Preservation
Board on October 1st when some minor changes were made to the
original.
The changes that are important to us relate to the
preservation of Views of Important Natural Heritage Features – Lake
Ontario. There are three changes (page 32 of the report):
- The word “View” has replaced “Vista”.
- Tenth Street has been dropped from the list and Fifth, Sixth and Twelfth have been added.
- The view descriptions now include where the view originates i.e. the Fourth Street view of lake Ontario is from “just north of Lake Shore Drive”.
A supplementary report to the main report included this
submission with regard to “specific views” ...
“Requests for several additional views to be included in the
Official Plan have been made”
The Heritage Staff response to that is ….
“Given the current time line for the adoption of the OP
policies, these views cannot be reviewed and verified at this time. Staff will consider all requested views of
the lake as part of a future study already requested by Council. Opportunities for the consideration of other
views may be sought through various planning studies”.
This refers to Councillor Milczyn’s motion and other
concerns the community has with regard to the “windows on the lake” west of
Sam Smith Park not being included on the list.
There is clearly need for more work and follow-up here.
On Friday, the Planning and Growth Management Committee
deferred consideration of this report until January 28th, 2013 (Item
PG.18.2). They did this because some
lawyers representing development interests wanted some tweaking of definitions
and view corridor descriptions of a few historic buildings only (Queen’s Park,
Casa Loma, Old and New City Halls). No
issue was expressed by any deputant with regard to views of natural features.
The meeting concluded with the Chair (Milczyn) and other
members confirming that the PGM Committee must pass it in January so that it
can be sent on to Council for adoption without delay. The province has changed some heritage regulations and the OP is
required to reflect those changes as soon as possible.
