3459-3461 Dundas St West Community Consultation Meeting on Sept 3
OLT Decision for Application at 2453 - 2469 Bloor Street West
3459-3461 Dundas St West Community Consultation Meeting on Sept 3
The City has received a Zoning By-law Amendment application for 3459-3461 Dundas St West and resultantly City Planning has scheduled a virtual Community Consultation Meeting for the evening of September 3rd at 6pm.
A plan has been proposed to redevelop this space into a 7-storey mixed-use building with retail on the ground floor, containing 34 residential units, 38 bike parking spaces, and 0 vehicle parking spaces. Next month's meeting, consisting of a short presentation of the proposal by the applicant, followed by a presentation from City Planning Staff, and concluding with a Q&A session, will allow you to view the proposal and share your thoughts.
Councillor Perks, City Planning staff, and the applicant will be in attendance to help answer any questions that may arise. You can register for the meeting here: https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/b8ab74f0-2a70-4c78-a22f-7b3d59465cd7@f0bc8ec6-9ed8-4d0c-9189-411ad949cc65.
Further information on the project and what is being proposed can be found on the City's Application Information Centre website here: http://www.toronto.ca/3459DundasStW.
OLT Decision for Application at 2453 - 2469 Bloor Street West
In January 2024, a complete application was submitted for 2453-2469 Bloor St W which proposed a 13-storey mixed use building. The application proposed 260 square metres of ground floor retail and 91 dwelling units, with 111 bike parking spaces and 40 vehicle parking spaces.
This application was considered by City Planning staff to be unsuitable to the location. Instead, staff recommended, and City Council approved in their May 2024 session, an altered application that is 10-storeys high with similar residential unit counts and ground floor retail, with altered massing.
In response to Toronto East York Community Council and City Councils decision to approve an altered Zoning By-law Amendment Application for 2453-2469 Bloor St W, the applicant filed an appeal of this decision with the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) on May 27, 2024. There were extensive discussions between City staff and the applicant’s team to try to resolve the matter to avoid a contested hearing. No resolution was reached.
On October 16, 2024, the applicant filed a revised proposal with the OLT to increase the height to 16 storeys. That revised proposal was rejected by Council at its December 17, 2024 meeting.
A community group, the Swansea Area Ratepayers’ Association (SARG) was a party at the hearing. They were represented by a lawyer and presented expert planning evidence. SARG’s evidence supported the City’s position, namely that 16 storeys was simply too much intensification for this site, considering the limitations associated with the site and the potential for a negative precedent to be created.
A hearing took place in March 2025 and a decision was received earlier this month: the OLT decided in favour of the applicant’s 16-storey proposal and rejected the arguments made by the City and SARG. There is no further route of appeal to this decision. This is not the outcome that Councillor Perks was hoping for, but our office will work with City Planning and the applicant to do our best with the outcome that we’ve landed on and work towards an application that works best for everyone in the neighbourhood.
More information on the original application can be found on the City’s Application Information Centre website here: https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/planning-development/application-details/?id=5309673&pid=717775.
More information on the City Staff approved building, and their reasoning for their changes to the original application, can be found in the staff report here: https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2024/te/bgrd/backgroundfile-243974.pdf.
The full staff report on this item is available on-line at https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2024.TE12.2.
Communication from Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre on the Parkdale Parkette Temporary Closure
It is with a heavy heart that Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre (PQWCHC) must inform you of a difficult decision regarding the parkette at 1229 Queen Street West, our Parkdale site. After thorough consideration and in consultation with Toronto Parks and Recreation, the Centre has made the decision to install temporary fencing around the parkette, to restrict all access and to support remediation work on-site. This is not a decision we made lightly, as we recognize the mixed emotions this may evoke for everyone who cares about this space.
We are saddened that we must restrict open access to this vital public space, which many of you, over 25 years ago, contributed to building. The parkette was designed to be a place of respite, community and connection for clients of the health centre and everyone in the neighbourhood of Parkdale. For years, it has served that purpose by literally being a living room for many who do not have balconies, backyards, porches or housing.
We also recognize that, for a vulnerable segment of our community, the parkette was more than a public space; it became a refuge. It was a place where our outreach teams could connect with individuals experiencing homelessness and challenges with substance use, and provide a pathway, without judgment, to connection, community and care. Many of you are aware of the systemic issues that have converged: the removal of a nearby encampment, a critical lack of shelter beds and affordable housing, the ongoing toxic drug epidemic, and post-pandemic, the shifting landscape of support services, including the recent closure of Supervised Consumption Services across the province. These factors have created safety concerns and a need for social supports that exceed the capacity of any single organization to manage effectively.
We also want to acknowledge the community members who have expressed safety concerns and distress over the past months, including those who have had experiences that affected their real and perceived sense of safety. We understand that witnessing the visible hardship caused by the profound insecurity of homelessness is deeply unsettling especially when coupled with the presence of substance use. Your concerns about the safety of the parkette and surrounding neighbourhood have been heard.
Our dedicated staff and partner organizations, in cooperation with Toronto Police Services, Parks and Recreation and other city services have worked tirelessly to foster safety and support in the neighbourhood. However, given the volume and complexity of community needs we have witnessed in recent months, and our fears about escalating tensions, we have determined that temporarily restricting access to the parkette is the only viable course of action at this time.
While access to the space will be temporarily closed, we want to assure you this closure will allow us to make meaningful improvements to the space. We have already engaged the city to remediate the wear and tear the parkette has experienced, with the goal of restoring it for future community use.
The improvements will likely include design features to encourage pedestrian use of the concrete walkway, reseeding for grass growth and possibly installation of some additional hardscape asphalt or concrete in areas where ponding occurs.
In the wake of the parkette closure, we are immediately ramping up our efforts to:
We understand this fence will not solve the complex challenges we face in Parkdale. This is a temporary measure, not a systemic solution. We ask you to join our call in advocating for a future where every person has a safe place to call home and access to the health and social care they need.
At this time, we are unable to provide a specific timeline for reopening the parkette, however our desire is to see a reopening in fall. We are actively working toward a sustainable, safe and compassionate path forward, one that prioritizes the well-being of everyone.
To make a donation for the breakfast program you can do so at pqwchc.org/donations. Also email us at [email protected] if you would like to contribute volunteer time to this program.
Should you have questions, feedback or concerns please contact us at [email protected]
Thank you for your understanding, your compassion and your commitment to building a healthier and safer community for all.
Angela Robertson - Executive Director
Friends,
As part of the George Street Revitalization (GSR) project, the City continues to relocate existing shelter programs to new and enhanced facilities across Toronto. The 2299 Dundas St. W. Men’s Shelter will create a safe space for 80 men experiencing homelessness. This program will provide case management to assist clients in securing permanent housing and access to onsite healthcare and mental health supports, including a Managed Alcohol Program. The anticipated construction completion date for this shelter is Winter 2026.
The shelter will be staffed 24-hours a day, seven days a week and offer specialized programs that will provide health and housing support to help residents improve their health and move toward permanent housing.
Services and features of the shelter will include:
• Onsite healthcare, including personal support workers, nursing, medication support, and access to an in-house physician.
• Access to health services, including a Managed Alcohol Program (MAP) and the Annex Infirmary program which provides short-term medical observation, care, and recovery support to clients experiencing health challenges.
• Case management to support clients secure permanent and supportive housing.
• Mental health services and referrals to a wide range of additional community supports
Shelters in our city provide essential support to individuals in immediate housing crisis, act as a stepping stone to permanent housing, reduce reliance on other high-cost services (e.g emergency rooms), and bring people indoors, by providing an alternative to sleeping in parks, sidewalks, or transit shelters.
If you are interested in supporting the shelter, through the offer of programs that benefit shelter residents, participating in community events or partnerships, or donating goods, please email [email protected].
There will be a community event to welcome the shelter to the neighbourhood once construction is completed. Updates will continue to be shared as the project progresses on the City’s webpage at toronto.ca/2299dundas.
If you would like to receive future updates, ask a question or share an idea, you can reach the project team at [email protected] .
Sincerely,
Gord
Friends,
On June 10, 2026, the Infrastructure and Environment Committee voted in favour of urging the Ontario government to immediately implement a deposit-return program for non-alcoholic beverage containers.
Currently, Ontario operates a successful deposit return system for alcohol, seeing an average of 75 percent of all empties returned to Beer Stores each year. The deposit return provides a consumer incentive to consciously recycle. This system must be expanded to include all beverage containers.
Ontario is one of Canada’s only provinces without a deposit-return program for non-alcoholic beverages. As a result, Ontario has the lowest beverage container recovery rate in Canada—at roughly 50% of containers being recycled. Other provinces such as Alberta, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia have an expanded deposit return program and see recovery rates 50% higher than Ontario. The Ontario government proposed expanding the deposit return program to include non-alcoholic containers in 2023 but has yet to do so.
The City of Toronto will join the Peel Region, the City of Waterloo, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, and the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative in urging the Ontario government to immediately implement a deposit-return program for non-alcoholic beverage containers.
The IEC Committee received a letter of support from the Canadian Beverage Association to expand the Deposit Return Program as the current mixed recycling system is inefficient, resulting in higher cost for producers with worse outcomes.
You can hear my comments on the matter at the IEC meeting here: https://youtu.be/73ZTlD1yDIU
As we push for ways to be more sustainable, I encourage you to participate in the Plastic Free July challenge, a global campaign encouraging individuals and communities to cut down on single use plastics throughout the month of July. We can use this movement to make incremental changes in individual habits but also to mobilize as a community to influence our governments and businesses to adopt sustainable practices.
Sincerely,
Gord
Friends,
This week at City Council we adopted a landmark funding deal in which $1.5 billion in funding will be provided to the City of Toronto to reduce development charges in partnership with the provincial and federal governments. The full City Council agenda can be reviewed here: City Council - Meeting 42 - TMMIS
The City can now reduce its residential development charges by 40 to 60 per cent for the next three years, and use this funding to pay for major infrastructure projects including our road network, water infrastructure, and enhanced transit capacity to support a growing population. These reductions will apply across the board for residential development. Deeper development charge discounts (60 per cent) will be offered to units with two or more bedrooms, to help incentivize building more housing for families.
At a time when our housing market has slowed down, these development charge reductions will help make projects more financially viable, build more of the kind of housing we need, and make homes more affordable for residents. It will also help generate an estimated 143,000 jobs through construction and related industries.
This funding deal was inspired by the City’s successful Purpose-Built Rental Housing Incentives program.
The first phase of the program, launched in fall 2024 with more than $1.2 billion in financial contributions from the City of Toronto, supported more than 8,000 rental homes, including more than 2,000 affordable homes.
Building on that success, with the greater financial stability provided through the $1.5 billion in federal and provincial infrastructure funding, the City of Toronto is now in a position to launch a new phase of Purpose-Built Rental Incentives.
The second phase of the program will support up to 10,000 new rental homes, including a minimum of 2,000 affordable rental homes. We will prioritize shovel-ready projects and City staff will review and approve applications on a rolling basis over the coming weeks and months.
We are proving as a city that there is a crucial role for government to steer development towards building housing that Torontonians can afford to live in. In doing so as a municipal government, we are influencing other orders of government to invest in Toronto with us.
Sincerely,
Gord