By Hedy Korbee
Mediation appears to be the next likely step in a dispute over a proposed ten-storey condominium project in the heart of Birch Cliff.
The Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) convened on Monday for its first meeting regarding the controversial condo proposed by Altree Developments at 1615-1641 Kingston Road, between Birchcliff and Lakeside Avenues.
The online meeting was a designated Case Management Conference, a largely procedural session used to set dates for hearings, identify parties and participants and discuss the possibility of alternate dispute resolution.
Led by OLT member, Blair Taylor, a consensus emerged among lawyers representing the various parties that mediation would be an appropriate next step in the process.
This means that the parties would have confidential discussions to try to come to a mutually acceptable settlement and preclude the need for a formal hearing.
The mediation could be facilitated by an OLT member or an alternate appointed by both the Chair of the OLT and the Ministry of the Attorney General.
“Possibility for a settled outcome”
Ian Flett, the lawyer for the Birch Cliff Village Community Residents Association, said disputes such as this one lend themselves to mediation because policies in Ontario generally support intensification.
“The application as it exists is very problematic. But I think most reasonable people could acknowledge that a mid-rise building could be built on that site at some point,” Flett said in an interview.
“There’s no question that my client is prepared to take this all the way through to a contested hearing, they’ve already hired a land use planner, they’ve identified issues to do with transportation planning, and the development in its current form, just won’t cut it. So if it’s needed, we go to a contested hearing for 10 days, and we hammer the table, we cross examine the other side’s witnesses, and we will do that. If on the other hand, there’s a willingness by the applicant, to have a candid conversation, to make some concessions, and of course, it’ll require concessions on our part and concessions on the part of the city and perhaps other parties, then there is the possibility for a settled outcome.”
The Ontario Land Tribunal case was initiated by an appeal from Altree Developments after it failed to get a decision on its planning application from the City of Toronto after the requisite 120 days.
With Altree as the appellant and the City of Toronto as the respondent, one of the goals of Monday’s meeting was to determine the other official parties in the proceedings.
The community association was successful in its bid for official party status as was the Toronto District School Board through its subsidiary, the Toronto Lands Corporation.
Birch Cliff resident John Hartley was granted party status in a personal capacity by the OLT because he lives adjacent to the proposed ten-storey condo.
However, Taylor reserved a decision on whether Hartley could obtain party status for two tenant organizations that he represents: Tenants Have No Rights Association and SOS Save Our City Association.
Both organizations were incorporated in the last week and claim Hartley as the sole director.
He was told to submit in writing the reasons for his party status request as well as letters of patent, and a list of officers and directors.
Participant status was granted to all 89 residents who applied, which means their written statements will be considered by the OLT but they don’t have the right to speak at the hearings.
Notably, TDSB trustee Parthi Kandavel was granted participant status with the caveat that he must speak as an individual and not in his capacity as a trustee or as a representative of parents.
The next one-day Case Management Conference will take place on May 18 to allow time for city staff to submit a report to Toronto City Council, which will take a vote on the city’s position.
Hedy Korbee is a Birch Cliff journalist.
