Mimico Residents Push Back on Controversial Mid-Project Density Increase
Over the wooden fence in Christine Tremblay Callan’s Etobicoke backyard looms a three-story structure, still under construction and stretching almost to the end of the deep narrow lot next door.
But it’s not the height or the size that’s up for debate, the issue is what that building will eventually become.
After the detached home on the site at 63 Station Rd. was sold in early 2024, construction started on a four-unit residential building, which didn’t require any special permissions under new city rules to increase density in neighbourhoods. But the owner now wants to build eight units, with 13 bedrooms instead of 11, making it an apartment building.
Some neighbours are calling it a “bait and switch,” saying it adds too much density to the neighbourhood, and accuse the owner of going ahead without permission from the city for the new plan.
The owner denies he’s already building an eightplex without permission and says the proposed added units are needed and appropriate around a transit station.
The site is zoned as residential, but apartment buildings are allowed. There is one across the street, as well as other multiplexes in the neighbourhood. But apartments require a different set of technical criteria, which means the owner needs to go to the city’s committee of adjustment, a tribunal appointed by city council to decide on property owners’ zoning requests.
Neighbours have come out in full force against the plan.
“The main issue is for us that they came in with it being a fourplex and halfway through they’re trying to change it to an eight-unit apartment, which is doubling the density,” said Tremblay Callan, who has lived in the neighbourhood, near Mimico Go Station, for 16 years.
“There’s an invisible footprint that we all have, right? We have storage, we need our cars, garbage.”
The owner’s original application to the committee of adjustment for the eightplex requested 10 variances (changes to the zoning). The builder’s team made some revisions after meeting with city staff, including adding bike parking, one parking spot at the back, some soft landscaping and enclosed waste storage, eliminating two of the variances and reducing the scope of another.
There were around 150 letters of objection to the project sent to the committee of adjustment to the eightplex, with a range of concerns including about parking, privacy, flood risk, and garbage, as well as 13 letters of support.
The applicant requested a deferral in April, to have time to communicate the changes to the public and committed to public consultation. There’s no date set yet for the case to return.
A heated public meeting in early May at a local church saw residents angrily accusing the owner of a “bait and switch.”
The owner of the property is listed as IconicSmart Inc., with Shahram Esfandiari listed as the sole director.
In an email to the Star, he said the move from four to eight units is not a bait and switch, but an attempt to design a “flexible structure” given how rapidly the city’s bylaws are changing, with the introduction of multiplexes in neighbourhoods citywide and major transit station areas, which are targeted for more density.
The decision was driven by city policy and “shifting demographic needs,” he added. “There is a clear mandate to increase density near major transit hubs like the Mimico Go Station.”
He was originally thinking the fourplex would serve large extended families who wanted to live together. But the team is now shifting to target young professionals who use transit, and seniors, providing “missing middle” housing — options in between tiny condos in the sky and larger detached homes.
Esfandiari added he decided not to attend the public meeting, a decision many residents questioned, and left it to a team of professionals working on the project instead, because English is not his first language, and he finds “high-tension, high-stress public environments difficult.”
One of the accusations at the public consultation was that the building is already being constructed as an eightplex without the necessary permissions.
A city inspector visited the site in early May, and according to public orders on the City of Toronto’s website, stated that plumbing rough-ins had been installed for more future kitchens than the original plans called for, and an additional door on the northeast had been installed without a building permit.
The owner was advised to stop unauthorized construction and obtain the required permit revisions by June 24 or revert to the original plans.
Esfandiari said an additional door was added as an additional exit for the four-unit building and they are “in discussions” with the inspectors as they review it. He said they have followed the four-unit permit “exactly” on the plumbing and have requested a meeting with the inspector to clarify concerns and make sure they comply.
Neighbour Duncan Farnan called the move from four to eight units a “slap in the face to residents.”
“The biggest issue is it does set a precedent for other neighbourhoods,” he said over the sound of construction work, on a recent cloudy weekday.
“If a developer can do this in the permitting process, then other developers will say this is the way to do it,” he added. “Just build it and then you’ll ask for the variances.”
Blair Scorgie, the planning consultant for the project, noted that the neighbourhood is zoned for a variety of housing types.
In general, he said part of the neighbourhood concern is “tied to the rules” and what can now be built there.
“Change is tough,” he said. But the city is trying to accommodate gentle density near major transit stations.
“This is a purely electric, multi-unit residential building that is fully accessible,” he said, “filling a “tremendous housing need.”
There may be opportunities to use frosted glass for privacy, or do some additional planting on site, he added, to address some of the outstanding concerns. Another meeting is scheduled for later this month.
But many neighbours so far are not satisfied.
“It’s like Cinderella,” said Gaby Schachter, whose yard the exit door overlooks, on the other side of the project from Tremblay Callan’s.
“They’re trying to shove a foot that doesn’t fit into a shoe.”
This article was first reported by The Star
