Week of November 1st (Halloween Edition!)
A legal fight over a local cemetery (spooky), the long shadow of development at Yonge and Davisville (spookier), and the best of Halloween in the neighbourhood (spookiest)
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Local fight over Mt. Pleasant Cemetery may go to the Supreme Court
Last week, Mount Pleasant Cemetery was in the headlines - and it had nothing to do with ghouls and ghost stories.
Instead, it was due to two competing editorials both published by the Toronto Star (here and here) on the longstanding dispute between the Friends of Toronto Public Cemeteries and the Mount Pleasant Group of Cemeteries (MPGC).
For decades, the two have been locked in various legal battles regarding the services the cemetery offers and how it is run. The Friends claim that the cemetery is ultimately a public asset that’s being inappropriately run for private interests (of the Board and executives). MPGC claims these concerns are simply those of nosy neighbours who don’t want change in their backyard (such as the new Funeral Centre built over a decade ago despite some local resistance).
The courts can’t quite seem to agree either. In 2018, the Ontario Superior Court found in favour of many of the Friends’ claims - such as the need for the Board of Directors to be publicly elected. Earlier this year, the Ontario Court of Appeal overturned that ruling and found that MPGC’s structure was largely fine. Now the Supreme Court has been asked if they will hear the case. And on and on it goes.
What is interesting to me about this debacle isn’t the ins-and-outs of public and statutory trusts as those are the kinds of things only a lawyer could love. However, it is interesting to explore what this saga means for one of our more pressing issues for our area: public outdoor space.
Clearly, we are short of it here in midtown - and will only become more so as development continues to explode in the coming years. In that context, Mt. Pleasant Cemetery becomes a pretty critical amenity to the livability of Davisville - albeit one where the community has very little influence.
This arrangement may by okay in some areas. For example, the flexibility MPGC has to operate like a business may be part of the reason it can afford to keep the cemetery as beautiful as it does. Similarly, the fact that MPGC has a cash reserve could simply be a sign of preparedness to avoid the underfunding of ongoing maintenance that plagues public spaces in much of the rest of the city.
But in other aspects, the lack of public control could be challenging. We saw this most clearly when MPGC decided to close its gates during the early pandemic. The claim at the time was that MPGC was forced to so as social distancing requirements weren’t being adhered to on the grounds. Whatever one thinks of the public health rationale for such a decision, if the community is counting on the cemetery as part of its essential greenspace, it feels problematic that it has no say in such a decision. Next time there may not be a pandemic to justify it.
We’ll see where the saga goes from here. Ultimately it feels like it would be a much less consequential and fraught discussion if the City and province were more proactive about public space in midtown. But they largely haven’t been…and so the debate around Mount Pleasant Cemetery continues to be an important one.
If you’re keen to participate, I’m sure Friends of Public Cemeteries page or MPGC’s quarterly newsletter will have information on how.
Review process begins for massive tower at Yonge & Davisville
A month ago, I covered the resubmission of a development application at 733 Mount Pleasant. As a result of changes in the provincial legislation regarding density near transit, the site proposal had grown from 9 to 27 storeys. The public meeting that ensued went about as well as you would expect.
A proposed tower at Yonge & Davisville is the latest to see an upward revision. Early this month, the developer resubmitted a two-tower proposal with heights of 45 and 30 stories for a total of 821 units – up from 34 and 25 storeys for 450 units.
It is no surprise to see the property targeted for massive development, as most of it is currently the type of above-ground parking lot that will soon be an endangered species in this city. It is also right next to a subway station, which both the City and Province agree is the only place it really makes sense for towers to get remotely this big.
But this project faces a ton of hurdles to become reality. The original, much more modest proposal already raised the ire of City Planning for what it would do to the overburdened water and sewage capacity in the area. The impact on the retail strip currently at the corner is also issue: while the heritage building housing Starbucks will be maintained, the rest of the shops will be lost – including the beloved (and SUPER cheap) produce stands.
Oh, and regarding the expected shadowing of the new Davisville Junior Public School playground next door…
Yes, it seems likely that someone will. The City consultation will be coming soon – in the meantime, the South Eglinton Ratepayers’ and Residents’ Association (SERRA) is probably your best contact for updates and to participate in feedback for the project.
Creativity shines on a socially distant Halloween
Halloween was certainly more subdued this year, but many still found interesting ways to make it fun.
The good folks at the AppleTree Group – who in a normal year would run a bunch of programs out of June Rowlands Park all year long - ran one such event, with a virtual Pumpkin Parade contest for prizes from our local businesses. Click through to their feed to see the winning entries (I’m partial to the Van Halen one, personally).
Time to start planning a submission for an in-person parade next year…hopefully?
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