CCFEW Feb 2005 Newsletter

Citizens Concerned About the Future of the Etobicoke Waterfront Februrary 2005

Annual

General

Meeting

CCFEW’s Annual General Meeting will be held

on Thursday, March 10

, at LAMP, beginning at

7:00 pm. We are very pleased to welcome Glenn

Coady as our guest speaker this year. Glenn is an

accomplished birder with a wealth of

ornithological knowledge. He is co-author of the

Greater Toronto Bird Checklist and Reporting

Guidelines. He is a regional coordinator for the

Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas, an authority on the

birds of the GTA, and Photo Quiz Editor of

Ontario Birds. He is also one of our bird walk

leaders.

Glenn will be speaking about arctic birds. Most of

us only see arctic birds when they venture south in

the winter, but Glenn has made numerous trips to

Canada's north to study, and document our arctic

birds. He will be sharing some of his experiences

and video from those adventures.

We will also be electing our Board of Directors at

the Annual General Meeting. The board positions

are: President, Vice President, Secretary, and

Treasurer. Serving on the board is a rewarding

experience. I recommend it to anyone who is

interested in making things happen in our

community.

If you are interested in becoming more involved,

but don’t want to commit to being a member of the

executive, our monthly planning meetings are

normally held on the second Monday of each

month (except July and August). Everyone is

welcome to attend.

Beavers In The City

Many people have been excited to see resident

beavers at Colonel Sam Smith Park over the last

few years. It is wonderful to see animals normally

associated with wilderness making their home in

the city, but there is a down side. Beavers eat a

lot, and one of their favourite foods is tree bark.

The beavers have lived-up to their industrious

reputation by felling many trees and shrubs in

search of food.

When a naturalized area is used by wildlife in a

natural way (for food), should be be surprised?

Should we be upset? Should we do something

about it? Now that they are here, there's not too

much that can be done. Many of the shoreline

shrubs will regenerate quickly, but we have lost

larger trees that will take much longer to replace.

The TRCA has now protected many trees with

wire cages, but it's not practical to try to protect

every tree and shrub.

Although this problem has become more serious

here in the past year, it is not unique. It occurs in

many places around Toronto, including the

Humber Bay Parks. Hopefully, the beaver

Protected & unprotected trees at Col. Sam Smith Park

CCFEW NEWS

February 2005

population will stabilize at a level that is

sustainable for the park's vegetation.

Where To Now for CCFEW?

Lately I've been wondering if CCFEW is due for

some redefining. For as long as I have been a

member, we have had a large silent majority, and

a small minority who are actively involved. That

is still the case, but the active minority have many

work, family and other volunteer commitments

which make it very challenging to take on

meaningful project and advocacy roles. Is it time

for us to reassess and refocus our efforts? How

should we be reaching out to the community to

draw in more like-minded people as active

members? Should we establish a presence on the

web? Do we have the resources to maintain a

relevant website?

I would welcome discussion on this issue at any

time, but our Annual General Meeting would be

an excellent opportunity to share your views.

Keeping Track of the Birds

The CCFEW bird walks continue to be the most

popular CCFEW activity. A few hardy souls will

show up in even the worst winter weather, and

warm weather walks can draw as many as 30

participants.

In October, we published the CCFEW Bird

Checklist. It lists 159 species seen on past walks

with columns for 5 separate lists. The checklist

was printed just in time for the October walk.

Fortunately, the list also includes some blank

spaces for new species, because on that walk we

saw a migrating Golden Eagle fly overhead.

Another new species for the list!

Arsenal Lands Development

Have you been wondering what will become of

the land to the west of Marie Curtis Park? This

area is known as the Arsenal Lands, and it will

soon be a public park. The Toronto and Region

Conservation Authority, the Peel Region

Conservation Authority, and the Cities of Toronto

and Mississauga are cooperating to create a new

park on the border of the two cities. On January

, the plans for the park were unveiled at a well

attended public meeting.

There are some changes planned on the east side

of Etobicoke Creek, but most of the changes and

development will be on the west side, in the area

that is currently fenced off. A variety of amenities

will be centred around the existing water tower:

picnic areas, washrooms, a children's splash pad,

and parking. “The Common”, an open area

bordering Lakeshore Boulevard, will be an

unstructured open space that can be programmed

for events and festivals. The idea is to keep the

parking and amenities close to Lakeshore

Boulevard, where their high visibility should make

them safer and less prone to vandalism.

The southern portions of the park will be for

passive recreation. The woodlot will be preserved

and the open areas targeted for habitat restoration

and regeneration. Although all of the current

Marie Curtis Park is currently in the City of

Toronto, it appears likely that all areas to the west

of Etobicoke Creek will be managed by

Mississauga, and the area east of the creek will be

managed by Toronto.

The plans for the area to the east of the creek are

less extensive and, at this point, less well defined.

The most significant changes are reduced areas of

mowed lawn and increased naturalization adjacent

to the creek. This will force a relocation of the

parking lot. It will probably be moved closer to

Forty-second Street. There are many benefits of

shoreline naturalization, but the most obvious one

is that it discourages Canada Geese from using the

park. They prefer a clear line of sight between the

water and their grazing area.

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CCFEW NEWS

February 2005

Arsenal Lands / Marie Curtis Park Concept

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CCFEW NEWS

February 2005

Parking Versus Green Space

There have been many factors delaying the start of

construction on the new Father John Redmond

Secondary School on Colonel Sam Smith Park

Drive. One important factor has been parking.

Parking requirements have been an issue at the

Lakeshore Grounds site from the beginning, and

the problem hasn't gone away. The problem is

that if all of the facilities on the Lakeshore

Grounds provided all of the parking spaces they

were required to, with no shared use, there

wouldn't be much green space left. Several shared

use arrangements have been made: Humber

College and the Separate School Board are using

the city lot at the Power Plant, and the Assembly

Hall is expected to use some of Humber College's

spaces in the evenings.

Humber College is required to provide 0.235

parking spaces per full time student. With

enrollment at the Lakeshore campus expected to

reach 5000, they will need more parking. Some

time ago, Humber secured the right to use the

vacant portion of the RL Clark Filtration Plant for

additional parking. The playing field for Father

John Redmond Secondary School is planned to

occupy part of the same parcel of land. Humber is

understandably reluctant to give up that potential

parking without either a reduction in the parking

standard or an alternate parking site.

City planners meanwhile are in the awkward

position of asking Humber to provide more

parking without paving more greenspace. Clearly

there are some important and difficult choices to

be made. Should the local residents support a

reduction in the parking standard with the goal of

maintaining greenspace? How will the

surrounding neighbourhoods be affected if there

isn't enough parking on site? Will a shortage of

parking result in increased transit use?

We believe this is an important issue that needs to

be addressed, and it is not limited to this site. The

same issue emerged in the Long Branch

“Avenues” study. Some desirable types of

business are discouraged along Lakeshore

Boulevard simply because they have no way of

providing the number of parking spaces mandated

by the zoning bylaws.

Sherway Development

Although it is well away from the lakeshore, and

not within the scope of CCFEW, we have been

watching with interest and concern the events

unfolding around the development proposal at 700

Evans Avenue. This is the former Sheridan

Nurseries site, and now the proposed location for a

990 unit, 32 story condominium complex.

At first, it was hard to take this proposal very

seriously. While some areas around Sherway

Gardens are zoned for high density residential

development, this isn't one of them. The final,

scaled-back, proposal still exceeds the the height

limit by 7 times, the density (units per hectare) by

3 times, and the floor space index (the ratio of

floor area to lot size) by 2 and a half times. Surely

a proposal like this wouldn't get serious

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Father John Redmond Secondary School Site in Late January

CCFEW NEWS

February 2005

consideration, right? Wrong! The planning

department supported it, and without intense

community lobbying, it would surely have been

approved at council. It was ultimately rejected by

City Council, but the applicant has appealed to the

OMB, so the fight is far from over.

This scenario is very reminiscent of the kinds of

things we have seen and will, in all likelihood,

continue to see in and around the Humber Bay

Shores. Just because the Official Plan, the

Secondary Plan, and the zoning bylaw says that a

certain type of development shouldn't take place,

doesn't mean that it won't.

Even if a new development looks okay when

judged solely on its own merit, we need to be

careful about making exceptions to the rules. If

one applicant is granted exceptions, how can it be

justified not granting similar exceptions to the

neighbouring properties? This effectively creates

a new benchmark, a “new normal”, from which all

succeeding proposals will be judged. When the

rules are bent, we must be vigilant to ensure that

the community benefits, and that a precedent is

not set.

For more information on this situation, check

http://alderwood.info

Mimico Linear Park Update

The public meetings are over for now, and it

might seem that nothing is happening with the

Mimico Waterfront Linear Park, but things are

progressing quietly. There are a lot of approvals

required to make large-scale shoreline

modifications. The first step was the

environmental assessments. The TRCA received

provincial environmental assessment approval last

summer, and federal approval in December. The

TRCA is now preparing the necessary reports and

information required for applications for approval

under the Federal Fisheries Act and the Navigable

Waters Protection Act. At the same time, they are

negotiating the purchase of the necessary

properties and waterlots to implement the project.

Assuming all the necessary approvals and the

required properties are acquired, construction

could start in July of this year.

Community Websites

There are several websites devoted to issues and

events in our local community. Here are some of

them:

http://humberbayshores.org

is the website of

the Humber Bay Shores Condominium

Association. It is a good source of information

about current developments in the Humber Bay

Shores area.

Torontolakeshore.com

is the website of the

Lakeshore Community Partnership. It has a

community calendar and a variety of other

community information.

http://alderwood.info

is devoted mainly to news

and background about the proposed development

at 700 Evans Avenue.

http://www.newtoronto.ca

is devoted to the

issues around a new salt storage facility and Redi-

Mix cement plant on New Toronto Street.

http://www.onthelakeshore.com

is an

independent community information website.

http://www.lakeshorevillagewest.com

another community information website with a

slick appearance, but not too much local content

yet.

Another new and useful site worth knowing about

http://maps.google.com

It's not local, but it is

the newest and (for now) best way to generate a

map of anywhere in North America.

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The Contact Sheet

CCFEW Annual General

Meeting

Thursday, March 10th, 7:00 p.m.

at LAMP, 185 Fifth Street.

(see page 1 for more details)

Bird Walk Dates

9 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Humber Bay Park East

Saturday, April 2

Meet in the main parking lot

Colonel Samuel Smith Park

Sunday April 24

Meet in the south parking lot

Meet at 9:00 am, rain or shine. The walks

are free for all to attend.

Community Cleanup Day

Colonel Sam Smith Park

Sunday, April 17

8:00a.m. - 3:00p.m

CCFEW Monthly Planning Meetings

Monday, April 11

Monday, May 9

Monday, June 13

These monthly meetings are used mainly

to discuss current issues, projects and

policy positions. As always they are open

to anyone who is interested in attending.

Meetings are normally held on the

second Monday of the month at 7:30p.m.,

at LAMP, 185 Fifth Street.

CCFEW Contacts

Citizens Concerned About the Future of

the Etobicoke Waterfront

Mail: 6 Meaford Ave,

Etobicoke, ON

M8V 2H5

Phone: 416-253-9811

E-mail:

ccfew@sympatico.ca

This newsletter was printed on

recycled paper containing 100%

post-consumer fiber.

CCFEW Membership Renewal Form

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Address: _____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

Phone: ___________________ E-Mail: __________________________

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Mail this form along with a cheque/money order payable to “CCFEW” to:

CCFEW, 6 Meaford Avenue, Etobicoke, Ontario M8V 2H5