Bayview mansion listed at $13.8 million sold

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A BAYVIEW MANSION — listed at $13.8 million — sold last month, marking a major milestone in the city’s real estate market, says the property’s real estate agent.

“It’s the highest sale price in Toronto for the past two years,” says agent Barry Cohen.

The mansion at 32 High Point Rd., near Bayview Avenue and Lawrence Avenue, boasts a circular driveway, negative edge pool, tennis court and hot tub on its two acres. Within the home, built by Valleymede Homes for the owner of that company, there are six bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, a wine cellar, home theatre and heated flooring.

Cohen says the sale bodes well for the Toronto real estate market.

“I had 32 home sales in the months of May and June — a personal record,” he says. “Our market’s become global, and with low interest rates and a sound banking system, the world sees us as a safe climate to invest and to live in. We’re the world’s choice right now.”

Police officer shoots dog near Bridle Path

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A DOG SHOT by a police officer in the Bridle Path area has survived, according to Toronto Police Services.

On May 28 at approximately 3 p.m., a uniformed officer, responding to an unrelated call in the area, observed a dog running loose and acting in an aggressive manner on Royal Oak Drive.

Attempts were made by the officer to determine the owner of the dog, without success.

The dog then approached the officer, who kicked it back.

“The dog approached again in an aggressive manner, went at the officer, and that’s when the officer in self-defence shot the dog,” said Toronto police Const. TonyVella.

The investigation into the matter is ongoing.

“Anytime a police officer discharges his or her firearm, the professional standards unit will investigate the circumstances around the shooting,” Vella said.

Townhouses for Bayview?

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AN APPLICATION TO build a row of townhouses on Bayview Avenue has some residents wondering if the unique character of the neighbourhood is at risk.

Members of the community crowded into a consultation meeting, on June 8, at St. Andrew’s Junior High School, to discuss an application to build eight, three-storey townhouses at the corner of York Road and Bayview Avenue. Reza Akbari, the applicant, would like to see the official plan and zoning bylaw on the site, just south of the York Mills Plaza, amended to permit the development.

But many residents in the area said that if the application were approved the neighbourhood’s character would be dramatically altered.

“It’s just a drastic change in the area there,” said David Bawden, president of the York Mills Ratepayers Association. Bawden said the area, which is made up of single, detached homes, should stay that way.

“We do have a school down the road, and we do have a place of worship across the road, and we do have townhouses going in on the Bridle Path. But in this particular area, it’s well established as single-family homes. And all up and down Bayview are new, single-family homes.”

The site currently contains a two-storey house. It would be demolished and replaced with a row of tall, narrow townhouses that would front onto Bayview Avenue.

Neil Carter, the constituency assistant to Coun. Cliff Jenkins, confirmed that the councillor had to declare a conflict of interest on the matter. The councillor’s own house is too close to the proposed development site, and therefore he is unable to comment.

Willowdale’s Coun. John Filion was assigned the issue. He said the major problem with the application is that if it were approved it could make it easier for more developers to purchase properties designated for single, detached homes and create similar projects.

“It would certainly set a precedent, or could set a precedent, for similar developments on Bayview on that section of Bayview,” Filion said.

Other residents said the development would have a negative impact not just on the neighbourhood as a whole, but also on the people who live adjacent to the property.

“It’s partly the effect that it has on the general appearance on Bayview Avenue, and most directly, it has a serious impact on the people with homes within view of this,” said John Nicholls of the York Mills Gardens Community Association. “You have to think about the people who live near such developments. If your house backs onto this, then it’s a major concern.”

The designs include an outdoor deck in the rear of the building that would rise six to seven feet above ground.

“ The people will be in their townhouses taking in their sun, staring into their neighbour’s backyard.”

“The people will be in their townhouses taking in their sun, staring into their neighbour’s backyard,” Nicholls said.

The developer has taken the comments from the consultation meeting and is expected to submit an amended application. That will go to to community council in the fall, and a final decision will be made by city council after that.

Condo controversy

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A CONTROVERSIAL FOREST HILL development proposal will go to the Ontario Municipal Board pre-hearing this month.

Minto 201 Developments Inc. first submitted the application in 2006, which sought to demolish a five-storey apartment building and two detached houses at 620 Avenue Rd.

The buildings, which border the lower Village and are across from Upper Canada College, would be replaced with an 18- storey, 58-unit, residential condominium building, including 108 underground parking spaces. One of these properties was the Etta Flick house, added to Toronto’s heritage property inventory in 2006, at 215 Lonsdale Rd.

Despite a number of revisions to the original proposal — including a new rental housing replacement strategy — city planning staff concluded that the proposal failed to comply with the city’s built form and housing policies.

“We’re obviously pleased by it,” said Jennifer Kennedy, president of the Forest Hill Homeowners’ Association, of the decision. “Our primary concern is the scope and scale of the project and the associated impact on the community.”

Not everyone agreed with the decision, however.

“We think that the plan we have submitted is sensitive to the transition issues,” said Chris Sherriff-Scott, a senior vice- president at Minto. “We think it’s a fine project, done by an outstanding architectural firm that takes into consideration the sensitivity to the community that the [city] staff don’t agree with.”
“We’re not going to slight the architectural firm,” said Brian Maguire, secretary of the Forest Hill Homeowners’ Association. “They have a good reputation. So it’s less the ultimate design of it and just the magnitude of it.”

Kennedy concurred. “It’s a massive, massive building in a planning sense,” she said.

“It occupies almost the entire lot. It is much taller than anything on that side of Avenue Road. It has much higher density than anything on that strip of Avenue Road, either side. Do we understand that that building that’s currently there is likely to be developed? Absolutely. We are not antidevelopment. We would welcome a sensitive development that respected the community as a collective,” Kennedy said.

What would constitute such a development?

“That’s not for us to say, particularly when it’s before the OMB,” she said.

The pre-hearing is scheduled to take place at the Ontario Municipal Board on July 10.

Michael Bryant steps down; school trustee to run?

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ST. PAUL’S MPP Michael Bryant is leaving his seat to take a new position with the City of Toronto.

On May 25, Mayor David Miller announced the appointment of Bryant as chief executive officer of the recently formed Invest Toronto corporation.

Speculation as to who would run in an upcoming byelection to fill Bryant’s seat — which he has held since 1999 — includes Josh Matlow, the school board trustee for St. Paul’s. Despite rumours, Matlow says he has made no definitive decisions yet.

“I haven’t made any decisions at all,” he says. “When it comes down to it, I’m in the middle of a number of different projects in my community that I want to see through to fruition.”

Although he’s undecided about his future political endeavours, Matlow is clear on the conditions he would require should he ultimately decide to run.

“At the end of the day, I’d want to know that there would be room in my party for a voice that would be able to honestly reflect the priorities and the views of my constituency,” he said.

At the time of publication, a date for Bryant’s departure had not been set. Others rumoured to be potential candidates for the position include Helen Burstyn, chair of the Ontario Trillium Foundation, and former Winnipeg mayor Glen Murray.

Ontario judge and Village resident succumbs to cancer

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A LONG-TIME Forest Hill resident and Ontario Court of Appeal judge, the Honourable Justice Stephen Borins, died on June 13 after a long battle with leukemia.

Messages flooded the website set up in honour of Borins by the Benjamin Park Memorial Chapel, with words of condolence from family, friends, work associates and students.

“Stephen will be remembered for his dedication to his family, unqualified integrity, rigorous pursuit of justice and passion for the law, loyalty to friends and ongoing enjoyment of tennis, books, film, the Cape and St. Maarten,” said his obituary.

Born in Toronto in 1934, Borins attended Forest Hill Collegiate and the University of Toronto. After that, he served as a professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University and the University of Toronto. In 1990, he was appointed to the Ontario Court of Justice and in 1997 joined the Ontario Court of Appeal.

A funeral service was held at Forest Hill’s Holy Blossom Temple on June 16. Borins leaves behind his wife, Elaine, his daughter, Gwen, and three grandchildren.

Tearing down a local institution?

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A TORONTO PUBLIC Library Board decision to declare the Deer Park Public Library a surplus property has some local residents fuming over the lack of community consultation on the issue.

On June 15, the board approved the motion put forward by the city librarian, which allows Build Toronto, headed by Mayor David Miller, to assess the site’s potential for redevelopment — with the promise that a library will remain in Deer Park, even if it means condominium units are eventually developed on top of it.

“We haven’t been consulted or heard anything,” said Joannah Lawson, a Moore Park resident with three children who regularly use the library.

Build Toronto’s mandate is to “unlock the value in underutilized lands owned by the city and its agencies, boards and commissions.” But some argue the library is far from underutilized.

“That library’s full of programs for people from six months old all the way up to 90,” said Susan Froese McHardy, a Deer Park resident. “We don’t have anything else in this area like it where the kids go, retired people go and where the teachers go.”

School board trustee Josh Matlow agreed. When the idea to build condominium units above North Toronto C. I. first emerged, Matlow said it was important to inform the public from the outset.

“I know that the norm is to barrel ahead with the plan and then try to sell it to the community,” he said. “But my view is that, from step one, you should contact the local ratepayer association, bring them into the discussion and say, ‘This is what we’re looking at, and we want you to be a partner.’”

A representative from the Build Toronto corporation, who did not want to be quoted, said there haven’t been any information meetings yet because the corporation itself is in its preliminary stages.

Ila Bossons, a Summerhill resident who uses the library, agreed that consultation is unnecessary until plans are officially proposed: at this point, it’s just too early in the process to know what is being discussed.

“It is disingenuous to complain about lack of consultation when no proposal seems as yet in city planning’s hands,” Bossons said. “It should be well-known that every development proposal, by law and by custom, will be accompanied by a public consultation process.”

The library, located just east of Yonge Street on St. Clair Avenue, is prime real estate for intensification, particularly with its proximity to a subway station.

“We don’t have anything else in this area like it where the kids go, retired people go and where the teachers go.”

But Build Toronto’s report estimates that a new library on the site would cost $6.6 million. The corporation still has to assess the property to see if developing the site, and asking a developer to also build a public library, is financially viable.

Coun. Michael Walker, who spoke at the library board meeting, said he would like to see a review of the site completed, much like the Yonge Street and Eglinton Avenue review that included a plan for another Build Toronto surplus property: the vacant TTC bus terminal lands just west of the intersection.

“We should hold a public meeting, and the Build Toronto bureaucrats could explain themselves,” he said, “but then defer it until we do that review and some planning for the site.”

Rosedale’s tragedy

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A CHILLING PHOTOGRAPH, taken a mere three minutes before two Rosedale residents were shot and killed one year ago, was released by Toronto Police Services at a news conference on June 10.

Dylan Ellis and Oliver Martin, both 25, were shot and killed just after midnight on June 13, 2008. Det. Sgt. Gary Giroux said he hopes the photograph will convince witnesses to come forward with information about the seemingly random murders.

“[The photo] shows Dylan Ellis and Oliver Martin laughing in the front seat of the SUV, best friends. They’re on top of the world, they have their whole lives ahead of them, and they’re out for an evening with their friends, and they don’t have a care in the world,” Giroux said. “That’s exactly what the photograph depicts to us, and three minutes later, they were deceased.”

The photo was taken by Martin’s girlfriend, who was sitting in the back seat of a Range Rover SUV that was parked on Richmond Street, Giroux said. The group had left their friend’s house after watching a basketball game when their friend called to ask that they return to the home to return a set of keys that had been borrowed earlier. They had circled back and parked the car when an individual approached Ellis.

“[He] looked out the driver’s side window, by turning his head to the left, and acknowledged this person with a greeting that was something consistent with,

‘How’s it going?’” Giroux said.

Shots were then fired into the SUV, hitting Ellis. Martin then told his girlfriend in the back to get down. The shooter repositioned himself and fired through the front windshield, striking Martin in the chest. Martin’s girlfriend called police immediately, but both men died at St. Michael’s Hospital.

Giroux stressed that no one, except for their friends, would have known the car would be returning to the scene of the shooting.

“It’s the lack of motive that I find challenging in this investigation,” he said. “I have not been able to find another case that is similar to this one in regards to the lack of motive, which I find troubling.”

The Ellis family issued a statement.

“We are doing the best we can and are trying very hard with a lot of love and support to live the way Dylan would want us to,” they wrote. “He lived in a very joyful, loving and sharing way. We think he would be proud of his family and all of his friends for the way we are managing our lives without him.”

Summerhill loses iconic filmmaker & beloved resident

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SUMMERHILL RESIDENT AND well- known filmmaker Allan Winton King died on June 15 at the age of 79 after a brief battle with a brain tumour, diagnosed in April.

King’s 53-year career included work in news programming, documentary film and television series.

Works specific to Toronto included King’s 2003 Dying at Grace, which followed five patients at the palliative care unit of the Salvation Army Toronto Grace Health Centre, and 2006’s EMPz 4 Life, which explored the racial stereotyping of young black men in Toronto.

“Allan was a Canadian film icon,” said Lisa de Wilde, chief executive officer of TVO. “Allan’s films had a way of illuminating our shared humanity. Through intensely personal stories, he challenged us to consider new perspectives.”

Earlier this spring, TVO honoured King’s career during the week-long Allan King Film Festival. From 1989 to 1999, King served as president of the Director’s Guild of Canada. In June 2008, King was inducted into the Canadian Film and Television Hall of Fame.

Sunrise explosion site to be cleaned this month

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THE SUNRISE PROPANE site, which saw a fiery explosion last August, will be cleaned this month.

“The area is going to finally, finally, finally begin its cleanup,” said Coun. Maria Augimeri at a news conference on June 4.

A numbered company has taken stewardship of the site. The cleanup should take about one month, Augimeri said.

The neighbourhood was hit by several explosions last summer when a propane tank exploded at the Sunrise site.

Augimeri added that residents in the Murray Road area have agreed to rename Hanover Park after Bob Leek, district fire chief, who died of a heart attack while he was fighting fires caused by the explosion.

The city has spent $2 million on funding the cleanup so far.

North Yorkers to be honoured at Walk of Fame

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NORTH YORK NATIVES Howie Mandel, a television personality, and design duo Dean and Dan Caten, of high-end fashion label Dsquared2, are among the Canadian luminaries being honoured in September as inductees into Canada’s Walk of Fame.

“This year’s inductees are a perfect illustration of what the Canada honours represent,” said Peter Soumalias, president and CEO of Canada’s Walk of Fame in his June 16 announcement. “Their achievements are truly astounding, and continue to resonate throughout the country and around the world.”

The honourees are chosen annually based on excellence in their chosen field, from arts and science to athletics.

Mandel currently hosts two NBC hit shows, Deal or No Deal and Howie Do It.

Dsquared2’s Dean and Dan Caten have dressed a who’s who of musical stars from Madonna to Lenny Kravitz.

Other honourees this year include Blue Rodeo, Raymond Burr, Kim Cattrall, Tom Cochrane, Robert Munsch and Chantal Petitclerc.

North York’s NHL team a long shot?

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A NEW AND unique proposal for the city’s second National Hockey League team was revealed recently — and has strong connections to the North York community.

The business plan, unveiled by an organization with no previous professional sports experience, proposes a second team for the Toronto region. Named the Toronto Legacy, the plan centres on diverting 25 per cent of the revenue generated by the team to fund seven identified charity organizations.

One of the organizations named is Herbert H. Carnegie’s Future Aces Foundation. Carnegie, a North York resident, hockey legend and Order of Canada recipient founded the charity, which has awarded more than $440,000 in scholarships to students since its establishment in 1987.

“When I met Mr. Carnegie, and I saw the kind of man that he was, and then bought his book and read his story, I was just blown away by his example,” said Andrew Lopez, creator of the Legacy Group.

“From that moment on, he became literally one of my heroes, and I thought, if I ever got to this point, how fitting would it be to honour Mr. Carnegie’s legacy.”

In addition to contributing to Carnegie’s foundation, Lopez said they would also build a stadium at Downsview Park to host the team’s games.

“We think, from a strategic perspective, Downsview Park is the perfect location for an arena,” Lopez said, listing the central GTA location and accessibility both by public transit and major roadways as its appeal. “It’s our first choice.”

The first row of seating in the proposed 30,000-seat stadium would be named Future Aces Row and would be reserved for charities, scholarship recipients and similar groups.

Bernice Carnegie, executive director of the foundation and Herbert’s daughter, said the proposal would allow the organization to do more for the community.

“By being part of this particular initiative, it would mean that we could do so much more to help young people,” she said. “To have a corporation actually look seriously at saying the first thing on their agenda is to do that, that’s unusual.”

The uniqueness of the model has not precluded it from being attractive to investors, Lopez said.

“If a second team in Toronto can actually be a reality, there is no shortage of investors,” he said, adding that eight different groups are currently interested in
the project. “We’re really out to determine the best corporate citizens to become our partners. We technically have a billion and a half on the table. We have more interest than we require, to be honest with you.”

Although unsure of the possibility for success with the proposal, Carnegie said she is optimistic.

“ When I met Mr. Carnegie, and I saw the kind of man that he was, I was just blown away by his example.”

“I really don’t know whether it has a chance, but if you don’t ask, you don’t get,” she said. “You have to have young people out there that want to dream big.”
Lopez said he likes his chances.

“I think we have as good a shot as anyone else,” he said. “In Toronto it can work, and if we get the opportunity, we’ll make it work.”