Sample Letter concerning Garden Suites for Tory & Layton

/in /by

mayor_tory@toronto.ca            

councillor_layton@toronto.ca

April 2022

To the offices of Mayor John Tory and Councillor Mike Layton: 

I am writing to you as a concerned resident of North Rosedale.  Recently (Feb 4, 2022) you passed Garden Suite zoning by-law, but you unexpectedly included duplex, triplex, fourplex and low-rise apartment properties.  

I am very aware that the city of Toronto has a housing crisis and as a largely single family residential area we are not going to be the solution to address affordable housing.  However, we do want to stay on the radar as an area that should be considered and protected as we bring something special to tapestry of the city of Toronto. 

Fontra, CORRA and TO Residents Association have asked you to re-open the matter of Garden Suites due to what is deemed an over-reach with the inclusion of duplex, triplex, fourplex and low-rise apartment properties along with further concern surrounding the following: 

  • New Garden Suites by-law will allow for the destruction of primary residences -as a heritage district, we are always concerned about any zoning that makes it easy for developers to outbid folks and teardown to build duplex, triplex or larger in the middle of our heritage and single-family home areas.
  • This by-law does not go far enough to protect the loss of tree canopy and green space.
  • “One size fits all” does not protect the variances that make our neighbourhoods special and unique and that must be protected.
  • Any by-law that impacts so greatly should be communicated more broadly to those impacted. 

I would like to lend my voice to support Fontra, CORRA and TO Residents Association in asking you to protect neighbourhoods of both homeowners and renters while you drive to ensure the city’s health in making it easier and faster for builder, developer, and speculator to address affordable housing.  

Please reconsider Garden Suite zoning by-law and remove duplex, triplex, fourplex and low-rise apartment properties from this by-law. 

Sincerely yours,