Vaughan Condo Development Leaves Residents Angry

The corner of New Westminster Drive and North Park Road where the buildings are plannedPic: Elad Benari

"If there’s really good public transportation, people who don’t have a lot of money will take it."Pic: Gila Martow

A call to Ward 5 Councillor Alan Shefman was not returnedPic: City of Vaughan

A recent decision by Vaughan city council to allow the building of more condos in a Thornhill neighbourhood has left its residents upset.

Last week, city councillors approved an amendment to a plan which would allow the construction of two more high-rise condos at the intersection of New Westminster Drive and North Park Road (near Bathurst and Centre).

The area already houses seven high-rise condos and the amended plan which was proposed by Liberty Development could allow for as many as nine towers to be built in the neighbourhood.

“They approved the final plan in 2004 and now they’re changing it,” said Dr. Gila Martow, a Thornhill resident who is running for office in Vaughan’s Ward 5. “I could understand if they had to change it if there was some special reason, but to just change it because the developer wants to change it and the city sees more revenue is unfair to the people who purchased. You have to always find the right balance between being fair to the people who already live there, being fair to the builders and developers, being fair to the people who are going to be moving into the area, and meeting the city’s needs. We can’t go overboard pleasing one party and ignoring the needs and wishes of everybody else.”

One of the concerns expressed by the residents is that the neighbourhood is already crowded with traffic, and more condos will only make it worse.

“I’m very very disappointed that they’ve been allowed to build another tower in our area since there is just so much density there already,” said Marilyn Snider, who lives in the building at 50 Disera Drive. “I’m so concerned about ambulances or fire trucks getting in and out of the area. It’s already impossible to get in and out of the streets now, and they’re very small.”

“People in the townhouses across from Westmount say that when there’s a Passover Seder or Friday night dinner, the cars are parked two blocks way from the apartment buildings, and people haven’t even moved to half the buildings yet,” said Martow. “Half the units are still empty. 80 of the units in the condo towers are still not sold.”

Martow suggested that public transportation should be improved in the area if high density residence is planned.

“I don’t understand the logic of bringing the subway to Highway 400 and concentrating on meeting the province’s mandate for high density development in the city by developing New Westminster, which is not a regional road. It’s a neighbourhood. I could see high development along a regional road that has a subway,” she said. “I’m not saying that we shouldn’t have developments, but give us public transportation and let’s develop around it. There’s no point saying people should take public transportation when they don’t. It’s two fares in York Region. By the time you get to the city you’ve spent more on your fares than you would’ve spent on gas. If there’s really good public transportation, people who don’t have a lot of money will take it.”

Another concern by the residents of the towers which have already been constructed is that their view would be blocked when the new towers go up. Lionel, a resident of 60 Disera Drive in an apartment facing west who did not wish to publish his last name, told Shalom Life that when he bought his apartment, he was told by the salespeople that in the future there would be town homes in the neighbourhood but that promise “was never on paper.”

“We have this beautiful panoramic view. And now we’re going to lose that. We may still have a little corner to look through,” he added.

Kareen Maizells, property manager of the buildings at 50 and 60 Disera Drive, said that the residents bought condos with the expectation that the neighbouring development would be townhomes, and that the new buildings would decrease the value of their units.

“Why change the plan? We had a plan and people bought around there based on that plan,” added Martow. “Why do we have to go now and change the plan? Our city now has a reputation that if you buy a house and it’s zoned near you for something, you cannot trust that the city wouldn’t change it.”

The residents also expressed their concerns over crime in the City of Vaughan. Elliott Frankl, who is running for city council in Ward 4, told Shalom Life that the high-density development would lead to “increased crime in the area.”

“[The city] told us crime was not up in the area but we’ve already had several robberies in our building, and they’re disputing that,” said Snider.

“As far as I’m concerned, Thornhill is like a suburb. And most of Thornhill is low-rise. I don’t think it should be made into a downtown…It makes the townhomes unhappy, to be in the shadows of the condos, and I don’t blame them… People move to the suburbs to get away,” said Lionel.

“They’ve already approved the building, and we don’t have a fighting chance,” condcluded Snider.

A call by Shalom Life to the office of Ward 5 Councillor Alan Shefman, who represents the area in question, was not returned.

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