Who do city staff work for? All of us, right?

In the case of 931 Pinecrest Rd.,however,we have been made to wonder.

The property was built to be a duplex.  Nonetheless,its current owner transformed it several years ago to a six unit building without participating in the required process.  Upon their most recent inspection,city staff found just two units occupied, with a third tenant signed up and ready to move in.

The owner subsequently filed a rezoning application for permission to operate the property with four units.

This was reason enough for consternation to local residents, who rightly protested that the surrounding communities of Britannia Heights and Queensway Terrace North are filled with such illegal conversions.  Enough is enough, they said, asking the city to not reward this activity and, more importantly, to preserve what is meant to be (the city itself zoned the area as such)community of singles, doubles and semi-detached homes.  That was the view expressed at a public meeting this spring, and the one that local city Coun.Alex Cullen agreed to defend at council.  Flash forward to late August, and 931 is making its first appearance before council's planning committee.  The good news: planning staff were saying no to the fourplex.  But, the second of a three-part motion on the agenda was recommending that committee give the owner a triplex. In their usual reasoning for this type of thing, staff said such a rezoning would meet the intensification goals of our Official Plan,etc.,etc.  We've heard it before and, more often than not in the communities we cover,the landlords get the thumbs up. What's different here is that the community were prepared only for the fourplex application. That's what the public meeting was about and that's what the city has on its notification sign that's been on the property for weeks now.

What a lucky man the owner is.  Not only does he have a very capable agent in architect Angelo Spadola, but clearly city staff decided to donate their expertise and advise him on this 'compromise'that everyone can live with.

Everyone but local, resident homeowners.

The city is obligated to hear the public on rezoning applications.   Non-bureaucrats normally can't stand technicalities but,in this case, we must protest on one.  This is a new rezoning application and should have been treated as such.  The city literally gave first notice of this new application on the committee meeting agenda.

The public minutes of the meeting contain an interesting addendum: it seems the city is exercising a bit of a technicality after all, and invoking the Planning Act as justification for not going back for new consultation.

The residents in this case would seem to have more reason than ever to believe that, as one put it,the city itself is becoming the greatest threat to communities.