10% of apartments in towers to be affordable for 99 years.Protest
Dear neighbours,
After over a year of community effort, BBBD is pleased to announce that we have reached an agreement with Primaris REIT to provide 120 affordable rental units in the planned new Dufferin Mall tower development. These affordable units will make up over 10% of the total residences in the new buildings and have been secured for 99 years.
They will be reserved for local people struggling with housing. Tenants will be referred by local non-profit agencies who provide settlement and housing supports in our neighbourhood, and the City of Toronto’s Affordable Housing Office will create strong tenant support and eviction prevention plans to make sure that tenants get the supports they need.
We are very excited about this agreement’s contribution to the Bloor Dufferin neighbourhood. Not only will it provide much-needed affordable housing but it sets a minimum expectation for future developments in the area. As a result of the agreement, BBBD has withdrawn our legal opposition to the new development at the Land Use Planning Appeals Tribunal (LPAT). Nonetheless, we were disappointed that negotiations did not result in other important community benefits on the site, like significantly improved park space or increased child, youth and senior care and activity space to enhance our growing and vibrant community.
This was truly a community effort. We would like to thank Ward 9 City Councillor Ana Bailão, who supported us throughout this process, ensuring that our voices were heard by City staff and by the developers. Thanks are also due to the other members of the Dufferin Mall Community Working Group, who set the bar high from the beginning, with a strong community vision statement for the site.
We would like to thank Ward 9 City Councillor Ana Bailão, who supported us throughout this process, ensuring that our voices were heard by City staff and by the developers. Thanks are also due to the other members of the Dufferin Mall Community Working Group, who set the bar high from the beginning, with a strong community vision statement for the site. We thank our lawyer, Marc Kemerer, for supporting our participation in the LPAT process, and the four volunteer expert witnesses who prepared statements and offered to testify on our behalf at the Tribunal. Finally, thanks are due to all of you, our neighbours, for your strong support, vocal enthusiasm, generous donations, participation in our surveys and summer leafletting, and ongoing advocacy for equitable development in our neighbourhood and beyond.
We are proud of our community’s insistence on equitable and inclusive urban development. Surely, though, such intense community efforts, shouldn’t be necessary to secure the benefits and housing we need. BBBD supports calls for a robust Inclusionary Zoning policy that would make these obligations clear, mandatory and permanent. And we are pleased that Councillor Bailão’s motion to initiate a secondary plan for the area was passed in January 2021. Legislating clearer rules for developers, so that they contribute to all elements of complete communities, is critical. We will be continuing to advocate for and support meaningful community engagement in the secondary plan process.
Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have questions, comments or would like to get involved in BBBD’s work.
Sincerely,
Build A Better Bloor Dufferin
Theatre company previews new five man play in Dufferin Grove Park during mid-September heatwave. Just one aspect of our unique neighbourhood.
Our local MPP and City Councillor join community for July 9 information picket at Dufferin Mall and Walmart.
Build a Better Bloor Dufferin and the local community conducted an information blitz at Dufferin Mall on July 9. It revealed people are concerned over plans by Primaris, which owns the mall, to build four apartment towers on the site. Their plans do not take into consideration the parks, transportation, affordable housing and services such a huge development require.
Here’s some pictures of the protest. (And special thanks to Clay and Paper Theatre for their “Rapacious REIT” puppet. We’ll certainly want to toss him in the fire at the next, post-COVID, Night of the Dread.)
Socially distanced and masked! Many thanks to all.
Over the past few months we’ve been working hard to negotiate community benefits as part of the proposed redevelopment of the north end of the Dufferin Mall site. In particular, we’ve been advocating for affordable housing on the site- something that we all know is desperately needed in this neighbourhood and across Toronto. Many of you have contributed to this work with your generous donations and letters of support. Thank you.
Sadly, we have hit an impasse. After months of “working groups” where they promised to collaborate, and days of negotiation and mediation, the Mall position is clear. The Dufferin Mall, and the giant multinational REIT that owns them, wants to do as little as legally possible to offset the impact of their development. They want to build four giant luxury towers, some over 30 storeys high, but they will not meaningfully contribute to affordable housing, more park space or any of the benefits that we’ve told them will keep this neighbourhood liveable and affordable. We’re frustrated. And we’re willing to fight.
Help get the message across. Here’s how:
Come out this Friday, July 9, anytime between 3 to 6 pm to make signs and/or help hand out leaflets. We are meeting in Dufferin Grove park, at the southwest corner of the rinkhouse, starting at 3 pm and then walking over to the mall at 4 pm to hand out flyers.
Continue to speak with your neighbours, friends and family about the need for more affordable housing in new condo developments. The City will be voting on a new inclusionary zoning policy in September, and we need to give them a strong mandate.
This development is the tip of the iceberg. It seems like every week that we hear about a new batch of condo towers set to replace rental housing, artist studios, local storefronts and affordable spaces. We’re joining organizers across Davenport and beyond to demand better. Thanks for having our back.
Sincerely,
Build A Better Bloor Dufferin
Thank you for reading this update and don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Donate—please. Finally, we need to replenish our LPAT funds. When we were preparing for the LPAT hearing for the Bloor Dufferin site (a process that won our community a $17 million affordable housing land trust) we raised money with an incredible concert at the Burdock. Neighbours also bought our inspiring lawn and window signs to contribute. If you are in a position to contribute now, we would greatly appreciate your support. You can give online here, or at https://secure.qgiv.com/for/babbd/.
Community & Deputy Mayor Join Forces to Fight Rapacious REIT Over Mall Redevelopment
The Build a Better Bloor Dufferin community group and Deputy Mayor Ana Bailão will be picketing the Dufferin Mall on Friday, July 9, to encourage local shoppers to take their dollars elsewhere until the Mall changes its development plans. Dufferin Mall, owned by Primaris REIT and multinational giant HR REIT, plan a four tower, 30-story luxury residential development on the north quarter of the property, but have offered almost no community benefits to offset the impact of the new buildings.
The Community Group, neighbours, and Deputy Mayor Ana Bailão will be picketing the mall Friday July 9th, from 4:00 – 6:00 PM, to bring the message home to the owners.
“They want to build 1,000 units, almost none of them affordable to people who live in our community. They’re asking for significantly increased density on the site and, in return, we’re asking for a significant affordable housing contribution. Our city desperately needs it.” said Build a Better Bloor Dufferin co-chair Maggie Hutcheson.
“They seem to have forgotten that they’re also a local retailer,” said Erella Ganon, head of the local park organization Friends of Dufferin Grove. “People aren’t going to want to shop at their WalMart, or their NoFrills, if they’re wrecking the community at the same time.”
“This is exactly why we need regulation of REITS,” said Build a Better Bloor Dufferin co-chair Sean FitzPatrick, “The greed of Real Estate Investment Trusts has no limits. They damage communities, they don’t care about neighbourhoods and they’ve upended the housing market. Real estate has become the latest international investment casino. We need housing but this financialization of real estate has got to be regulated. We need the federal and provincial governments to step in now and tightly regulate REITs before more neighbourhoods are wrecked and the cost of housing ruins everyone’s life.”
JoinDeputy Mayor Ana Bailão,
Build a Better Bloor Dufferin, and community leaders
Friday July 9th, at 4:00 PM
in front of the WalMart at Dufferin Mall,
for a protest against the damage being done by rapacious REITS
Gather at Dufferin Grove Park, 3 p.m. in front of the old rink house, across from Duff Mall entrance.
Dovercourt House, a fixture in the local dance community is changing.
Friends,
If you want to have some influence on development in our neighbourhood, now is a crucial moment, and we could use some help.
To recap, a third Yonge & Eglinton style development of 30 story condo towers and commercial space is about to drop in our neighbourhood. And that’s if we are lucky. It could turn out to be even worse. We could end up with Dufferin Avenue looking like Front Street: just a giant wall of concrete cutting through the middle of our community from Dupont to College, with few community amenities and little or no community benefit.
Here is the latest
While we have all been focused on getting through the pandemic, H&R Real Estate Investment Trust, the multibillion dollar real estate development company that owns Dufferin Mall, has been moving ahead with speed to get started on its massive redevelopment of the Dufferin Mall site.
The City of Toronto’s Planning Department wasn’t moving fast enough for the developer, so H&R REIT, like so many Toronto developers before it, filed an application to the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (formerly the infamous OMB) to try to sidestep the Planning Department. The developer’s hearing at the LPAT is now scheduled to start in August.
The LPAT process isn’t an easy one. The City’s lawyers seem to think that communities are to be seen but not heard, making it difficult to work together. And the developers seem to think that bylaws affecting development are pylons to swerve around, not boundaries to be respected. As we learned while advocating for affordable housing, community space and a better park on the TDSB-owned Bloor and Dufferin site, community groups have to fight hard to be taken seriously in development processes. Toronto could be so much better if this wasn’t the case.
To try to avoid that hearing, the City and the developer are currently in a mediation process. Our group, BBBD, is also participating in mediation to try to influence the outcome.
What the developer is proposing
The Dufferin Mall owners are proposing to build four condo towers on the north end of their site. The current proposal is for towers of 39, 35, 23, and 14 stories, along with102,721 square metres of commercial space. These four towers would contain around 1,135 condo units – adding approximately 2500 to 3000 new residents (this will be in addition to the 6 towers ranging from 22 to 37 stories that another developer is about to build on the corner of Bloor and Dufferin, and the 8 towers ranging from 18 stories to 35 stories that the Galleria developer is building at Dupont and Dufferin.) At the moment, there are no plans to make any of the Dufferin Mall units affordable, and the current plans show no community space, no cultural space, and only a private street.
To make matters worse, the only park space included in the developers’ latest proposal is a postage stamp parkette right on Dufferin Street. One of the proposed towers (the 39 story one) will also shadow both the new Bloor Collegiate building and the other postage stamp parkette that was promised as a result of the massive Bloor and Dufferin development to the north. Dufferin Grove is already busy and our neighbourhood has been designated by the City as parkland-deficient. Where will residents, old and new, gather for picnics, sports and playtime?
Here’s the West End Pheonix take on Dufferin Mall redevelopment and our future. But who is the illustrator, the artist
Our Goals for the Site
Build a Better Bloor Dufferin (BBBD) is not a NIMBY group. We know that this city and our neighbourhood need more housing, and fast. We also know a big ground-level parking lot like the one at Dufferin Mall doesn’t make sense in the centre of Toronto. It could, and should, be more.
What BBBD does want, though, is development done right. Large developments like this one should make our neighbourhoods more inclusive, more liveable and more vibrant, rather than serve as a source of superheated profits for multinational REITs. At BBBD we want developments that support tenants, seniors, essential workers, arts and culture workers and small businesses. Over the past year, BBBD has been working with Ward 9 City Councillor Ana Bailão to try to ensure that the Dufferin Mall development will meet some of the basic needs of our community, and contribute in a positive way to the neighbourhood. In particular, we’re looking for the developer to meet their obligation under the City of Toronto Large Site Policy- an obligation to provide 20% affordable housing- as well as deliver adequate park and community space. Sound reasonable? If you think so, you’re in agreement with many of your neighbours!
BBBD Takes Action
Survey. BBBD has been gathering community input on the Dufferin Mall development over the past few months through an anonymous survey.
Survey results to date show overwhelming support in the community for:
significant green space
affordable units
daycare
other community services like affordable space for arts and cultural activities
Thank you to everyone who has completed the community survey so far and sent in comments. If you haven’t completed it yet, it’s not too late! Here’s a link to the survey.
Community Working Group. BBBD also has representatives on Councilor Bailão’s Dufferin Mall Community Working Group. Along with other community members, we helped to draft a visioning document for the site, which was presented to the developers last December. Chief among the community’s vision for the site is a demand for adherence to the City’s “large site” planning bylaw, which requires 20% of units built on large sites to be affordable housing. This bylaw exists to ensure inclusive development and the visioning statement sent a powerful message to the Dufferin Mall owners about our community’s expectations of inclusive housing, contiguous parkland, and support for our sports and artistic communities.
Networking: BBBD is connecting with other nearby community groups who are also responding to development in their neighbourhoods. We are particularly excited to be sharing our strategy.
Our strategy
Our strategy is simple. We are working to get the City and the developers to respond to community needs. We are letting the City know what the priorities of our neighbourhood are and what we want to see included in this massive development. We are asking Councilor Bailão and City Planning to establish a dialogue with us and the developer.
We are also letting the developer know that there are risks as well as rewards for their behaviour. They are both the owner of a shopping mall in our neighbourhood, that relies on the positive views of local shoppers, and a real estate developer. If you want to maintain the goodwill of your core shopping customers, you are going to have to listen to the community and provide positive community benefits.
Learn More and Get Involved
BBBD will host some short meetings by zoom to update the neighbourhood on the public plans for the Dufferin Mall site and to answer any questions we can about our current work. These meetings will take place over the coming months and each will be the same, so you only need to attend one to get up to speed. Send an email to chair@buildbloordufferin.ca if you’d like to join one of our meetings.
Also, as always, if you want to get actively involved, just get in touch by emailing info@buildbloordufferin.ca. We need help with everything:
– building a campaign to pressure the REIT that owns Dufferin Mall,
– writing & distributing our newsletter,
– strategizing, networking, fund raising, whatever you can do.
We also know our neighbourhood has a wealth of expertise on issues related to development — things like planning, architecture, affordable housing, homelessness, community services, arts and culture.
Donate – please. Finally, we need to replenish our LPAT funds. When we were preparing for the LPAT hearing for the Bloor Dufferin site (a process that won our community a $17 million affordable housing land trust) we raised money with an incredible concert at the Burdock. Neighbours also bought our inspiring lawn and window signs to contribute. If you are in a position to contribute now, we would greatly appreciate your support. You can give online at https://secure.qgiv.com/for/babbd/
Thank you for reading this update and don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Sincerely,
Build A Better Bloor Dufferin
DOVERCOURT HOUSE: AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT WE NEED TO SAVE
Dovercourt House, just north of Bloor Street, is a vital space for professional dance and theatre rehearsals during the day—where people in our community practiced their livehoods—and also the go-to place for many social dance clubs on evenings and weekends.
There is a new lease holder for the building and many long-standing users may loose their dance homes.
For over two decades, the brick building with its sprung floors has been home to an eclectic mix of dance events. Tens of thousands of Torontonians have come through its doors to practice Swing, Latin and Urban as well as yoga, capoeira and more.
Our community needs spaces like the Dovercourt House that can support arts, culture and social gathering.
“The thing about Bloordale Beach is that it is totally a real Beach.” Now that the Duff Grove gardens are being shut down to accommodate construction of the new rinks, isn’t it time to guerrilla garden Bloordale Beach?
Build a Better Bloor Dufferin 