Pre-hearing set for Chatsworth OMB fight

The fight over a proposed condo development on Chatsworth Drive will have its pre-hearing at the Ontario Municipal Board on April 22.

A date will be set for the official hearing on the matter, and an “issues list” will be created, outlining what topics are allowed to be argued during the hearing.

In advance of the pre-hearing, Councillor Christin Carmichael Greb met with nearby residents to give them updates on the city’s efforts and to let them know the fight is continuing.

“The community is very opposed to it,” she said. “The neighbourhood designation is a big issue — it doesn’t fit the character of the neighbourhood.”

Other issues, she said, are encroachment, traffic and proximity to ravine land.

The former site of the Fifth Church of Christ Scientist is surrounded by single family homes and sits on a one-way street southwest of the Yonge-Lawrence intersection. The proposed development has been fought by the community for more than a year, and was already seen as controversial before a demolition team hired by the developer took down seven trees without a permit.

Lions Demolition was fined $5,000 per tree last month.

Carmichael Greb said she will continue to back the community all the way through the OMB hearing, which is expected to be scheduled for the fall.

“Just from a planning point of view, this is not responsible development for the area,” she said. “This isn’t a site where you can put a 6–7-storey condo building.”