Built Heritage News is reporting that the Toronto Preservation Board has voted unanimously to designate Davisville Public School at 43 Millwood Road. This recommendation to save the 1962 building will now move to Toronto and East York Community Council on June 14 then to City Council. As reported by BHN, deputations against designation went on for an hour. Such designation might complicate prospects for a modern facility and a neighborhood community centre or hub. The latter has been a favored project of a community group assisted by Josh Matlow (Ward 22). Principal Shona Farrelly among others objected to retaining the building because it’s current condition is challenging to repair and unsuitable for its current occupancy as a community school. BHN goes on to report: “There is fear that designation would translate into the loss of funds for a new school, even though the province has already allocated 15 million to build one. The parents and school principal had put together a video outlining all the issues with overcrowding in a school that was designed for a different purpose.” Hero of Play event rocks Davisville Junior Public School 

The annual Banff Road Street Sale, between Eglinton and Soudan will be held Saturday (June 11, 2016) . from 8 a.m, to 2 p.m. This, enjoyable event involves 15 households and offers varied items like toys, books, games, paintings, china, furniture, jewelry, clothing and hot dogs and beverages. Map 

Ottawa mayor Jim Watson has confirmed that the van seen tumbling into the giant sinkhole (see video) on Rideau Street yesterday has now been buried in tons of cement. The unfortunate locksmith parked his vehicle in just the wrong spot. Now his van, fuel and all, is gone forever. Maybe he’s lucky he did not go in with the van. He had asked to try to move it but it was determined to be too dangerous. Moments later, it tumbled into the sinkhole. Police said it could not be retrieved because equipment needed to lift it out would have collapsed the sides of the sinkhole. Overnight. dozens of trucks started pulling up to the edge of the hole to dump 2,700 cubic metres of cement into the hole in an effort to stabilize it. Other crews worked to pump water out. Mayor Watson tweeted about the efforts as they unfolded. here is still no word on what caused the crater to open, but there are a few strong theories now being floated – including soft soil in the area and construction deep below the street linked to the capital’s new light-rail transit system. Previous 

The van on Rideau Street is now under water #ottnews #sinkhole pic.twitter.com/l6Gk5WjM2s

— CTV Ottawa (@ctvottawa) June 8, 2016

"Lean" concrete is being poured to fill sinkhole. We appreciate the efforts of all skilled workers & 1st responders pic.twitter.com/uYIaTP81Oz

— Jim Watson (@JimWatsonOttawa) June 9, 2016

A 30-year-old man tried to drag a 13-year-old girl out of a Dollar General store in Citrus County Florida Tuesday right in front her mother. The woman grabbed her daughter and fought a tug of war through the store until an off duty sheriff’s deputy intervened. The video below is from the store’s surveillance and was posted on the county sheriff’s office Facebook page. The brazen attack occurred just before noon. Although the surveillance video has no audio, the deputy said he could hear the screams outside the store. Citrus County is on the north end of the Florida gulf coast. The accused Craig Bonello, 30, is said to have mental issues.

The 1st Annual SHOPPERS LOVE. YOU. Run for Women takes place on Saturday, June 11, 2016. If you are wondering, it is in fact owned by Shoppers Drug Mart. Some 1,250 participants will take part in this run/walk for which Shopper’s says it will donate $10 per participant to the cause of assisting women who suffer from depression or related mental conditions.

THE NAME

It is being held in 14 cities but in Toronto it is a 5-kilometre affair which will close streets as set out by police below. It’s on pretty much from dawn until whenever, so be warned. The name is rather subtle.  The police announcement calls it Love You but it appears in Shoppers material as Love. You. (Note the periods).

START/FINISH LINE: Grosvenor Street, east of Surry Place, Full road closed

Westbound: Grosvenor Street, Full road
Southbound: Queen’s Park Crescent East, Full road
Westbound: College Street, Westbound, curb lane
Northbound: Spadina Avenue, Northbound, curb lane
Eastbound: Bloor Street West, Eastbound, curb lane
Southbound: Bay Street, Southbound, curb lane
Westbound: St. Joseph Street, North side, curb lane
Northbound: Queen’s Park Crescent, East, Full road looping around
Southbound: Queen’s Park Crescent, West, East side lanes
Eastbound: Front driveway of Queen’s Park (on south side of Legislative Building)

Set aside the evening of Tuesday, June 21 for an important public consultation meeting focusing on Leaside’s traffic problems. This is the first of several public meetings organized by the Leaside Property Owners Association (LPOA) on long-term solutions. The meeting is in the William Lea Room at Leaside Gardens.

Bloomberg News as copied in the Globe and Mail is telling of a combined venture on Yonge Street at the Summerhill crossroads with the former CP Rail station. The parties are RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust, Tricon Capital Group Inc. and Diamond Corp. They are said to be planning to develop a combined retail and residential project in the area. The joint venture agreed to buy the real estate – a row of high-end boutiques and a block of land – for $85-million, sources tell Bloomberg. RioCan’s interest is said to be in the retail portion, and it intends to buy into the high-rise rental tower and new retail development planned for the site, the people said. The deal is for the Shops of Summerhill, with about 31,000 square feet of fully occupied retail space, and an adjoining block of land that contains a four-storey office building and a parking lot with the potential for a high-rise tower, the people said. Other investors have agreed to take stakes in two additional properties in Woodcliffe’s Summerhill portfolio: a defunct train station built in 1915 that now houses one of the largest LCBO stores, and a development site that contains a low-rise office property that can be expanded to a nine-storey tower, the people said.

The Leaside Property Owners Association has released results of its survey of the large development proposed by the Diamond Corporation in collaboration with Dawsco Corporation, owner of the land known as 939 Eglinton Ave. E. This property extends south along Brentcliffe Road to Vanderhoof Ave. The size of the concept has caused Jon Burnside (Ward 26) to call it the “Big Daddy” of developments inspired by the arrival of LRT service along Eglinton. It would feature four towers — 19, 20, 31 and 34 storeys. The information below was prepared by the LPOA and appears to be a digest of the complete survey, which was done in February and March.  Big Daddy condo will set tone for land east of Laird  

2,169 individual responses were received (once duplicates and out of area responses were removed). The M4G postal code has a total of 3,741 houses and 2,882 apartments (6623 households). Approximately 18% of respondents lived in the same household as another respondent, so it would appear that we received at least one response from over 25% of Leaside households, which we consider to be a very good response rate, considering that many responses came from people who were NOT already on the LPOA mailing list and therefore made their way to the survey via other notifications.

Almost 76% of respondents were aware of the development proposal (and 69% of respondents were aware of it because they’d read about it in Leaside Life) prior to receiving the survey. 22% had been unaware of the proposal until they received the survey notification.

Almost 92% of respondents felt that high-rise (over 11 storeys) buildings were inappropriate for this site. Only 5.5% thought they were appropriate. 78.5% were in favour of a mix of low and mid-rise buildings (up to 4 storeys, and 5-11 storeys) with just over 12% supporting all mid-rise development. 7% supported various mixes of mid and high-rise and low, mid and high-rise, with only 0.74% supporting all high-rise.

Not surprisingly, given the above results, 92.67% of respondents did not think that the development proposal for 939 Eglinton E. was appropriate for Leaside. A mere 4.32% thought it was appropriate, with 3% saying they didn’t know.

90% of respondents did not think that the building massing and number of dwelling units were appropriate for the site. 63% thought that the amount of public open space proposed was inappropriate. Opinions were much more divided re: office space and retail space although it would appear that over 40% were either in agreement with the amount of space provided or didn’t disagree with it. (Unfortunately, space limitations meant we weren’t able to quantify that question).

Traffic congestion was of extreme concern to 87.5% of respondents. A mere 0.79% had no concerns at all about this issue. Almost 70% were extremely concerned and another 15% very concerned about local school capacity. Less than 5% had few or no concerns about this issue. Sense of community was of considerable concern to 83% of respondents, as was shadowing of the neighbourhood, and parks and open space (just over 75% each). 90% expressed at least some concern about the ability of the current utilities to support the proposed development and 85% had at least some concerns about the appearance of the proposed buildings.

Questions related to the intensification of the entire Laird Eglinton Focus area showed major concerns with traffic increases on both major and residential streets (90% and 95%), increase in population (85%), increase in on-street parking on residential streets (87%), impact on community cohesion and safety (80%), impact on community amenities and shadowing by tall buildings (77%), and lack of space in local schools and lack of parks/open space (75%). About 70% were very concerned about the adequacy of the local utilities, 67% were quite concerned about lack of affordable housing and visual appearance and character, and 43% about the lack of affordable daycare. Just over 52% had major concerns about the impact of intensification on the existing businesses in the Leaside Business Park.

In general, the small percentage in favour of the development were also those with the fewest or no concerns about the issues, although there were a few who supported the proposal/high-rise development and still indicated great concern with things like traffic congestion – apparently not connecting the impact of high density development on things like traffic and space in the schools.

About one third of respondents (731) provided additional written comments regarding the proposal for 939 Eglinton – some of them quite long and very thoughtful. Well over 90% of the written comments indicated that the respondents thought that proposal was too big, too dense, too high and out of character for the Leaside area. Many felt that the proposal was insensitive and motivated by greed. Traffic congestion (existing and future) and the existing lack of space in local schools was mentioned repeatedly. A great deal of frustration was expressed that the Official Plan and existing by-laws are constantly being challenged by developers, who take proposals to the OMB – which most think is very developer-friendly.