A new organization has been recently formed called "Fourth Street WAVE (Waterfront Access and Views for Everyone)" - email address fourthstreetwave@outlook.com
It consists of a number of residents from Fourth Street and the nearby neighbourhood. Their goals are :
- to see a Lake Window
parkette established at the foot of Fourth Street on the unassumed road allowance
as envisaged by the former City of Etobicoke and currently reflected in the
City of Toronto’s Official Plan.
- to eventually see all the lakeside road ends in South Etobicoke turned in to Lake Window parkettes under the management and ownership of the City's Parks Department
Here is the group's recent response to the email from Councillor Grimes' referenced in the previous post.
October
22nd, 2015
Thank
you, Michelle and Councillor Grimes
First, a
brief outline of the points covered in this response to you and Councillor
Grimes:
On
reading your email, our first response was surprise and a bit of confusion due
to the inconsistencies that, from our viewpoint, appear in your reply.
You
mention “Municipal Code, Use of Streets and Sidewalks
743-36, and 743-37” as a reference for your conclusions, but from the
outset, the code’s definition of a “boulevard” does not describe the situation
at this lake window at all.
As
defined by the above municipal code, a
boulevard is “that part of a public
street that is not used, or intended to be used, for vehicle travel by the
general public and is situated between the travelled portion of the road and
the adjoining property line”. The
extension of Fourth Street south of the guardrail is clearly not a ”travelled
portion of the road”. It is unassumed
road allowance and zoned G – green space – and, therefore, definitely not
a “boulevard” by official definition.
There is no problem with the owner of 53 Lake Shore
Drive encroaching on her own boulevard as defined by the code (see above), just
as almost every homeowner in South Etobicoke has historically done. A long established community norm, if you
like, is to install “minor encroachments”, as defined by the code, up to
approximately 1 – 1 1/2 metres from the curb.
A close-by example is the entire south side of Morrison Avenue.
You
reference a Google Street view that shows that the unassumed and untraveled
road allowance is a “natural extension of the yard at 53 Lake Shore
Drive”. It is true that it does abut the
owner’s property line but if you are suggesting
that just being next to public
land is the measure to be used for defining “a natural extension” to one’s
property and, therefore, maintenance rights over it, then every homeowner on
the west side of all the waterfront unassumed road allowances in south
Etobicoke should probably have the same right - not to mention all those
homeowners living next to any park or public land in the City that abuts their
own! Then, what about the unlucky homeowners
on the east side of these unassumed road allowances? Shouldn’t Mr. Zanini, the owner of 51 Lake
Shore Drive have the same rights as the owner of 53? What about the waterfront parkettes already
sign-posted and maintained by the city’s Parks department on the waterfront,
unassumed road allowances on Lake Crescent, Miles Road and all the others? Does this same criterion apply to them as
well? Do the owners on the west side
take maintenance over from Parks? As you
can see, these inconsistencies can end up appearing a little odd when examined.
A
better source of information might have been the City’s own map (www.toronto.ca/.maps - just enter the address) that clearly shows
the “travelled portion” of Fourth Street at this point, the property line and
the boulevard of 53 Lake Shore Drive in between them both as defined by the
code you reference. The remainder of the
green space south of the guardrail at the bottom of the travelled
portion is
shown as zoned G and, coincidentally, labelled as “Prince of Wales Park”, which, of course is what residents on
Fourth Street eventually want – for this public Lake Window to become a park in
every sense of the word!
In that letter he mentions that views of the
waterfront are being encumbered with encroachments at these lake windows and
asks staff to review the situation. He
asks for “the review to consider if these road allowances can be transferred to
Parks, Forestry and Recreation Services for public park purposes”. To our knowledge, that requested staff report
has not yet been filed, but the councillor’s welcome intention is very
clear. (Please follow up on this and let
us know how that request has progressed since its adoption).
Further to Councillor Grimes’ letter, it is
interesting to note that the owner of 53 Lake Shore Drive in 1993 was ordered
by the City of Etobicoke to remove a fence that substantially encroached on the
lake window. Afterwards, the owner planted thick shrubs in exactly the same
spot to replace the fence. Here is a photograph of the shrub barrier that
replaced the fence.
Both
fence and shrubs at this location have created serious barriers to lake views
and public access for decades. Given the
councillor’s position, it would
seem illogical that, based on history, this
same owner be allowed sole maintenance rights over this spot which, as stated
above, is not even her boulevard by definition. Yet “history” is presented as a
line of reasoning in your email.
That also begs a question – what exactly is the
official process for considering encroachments?
Do they not require an official public, appealable process with fees
etc.? Has anything like that ever
happened? Although, all of that is probably
a moot point given that Don Pardoe, Supervisor,
Etobicoke East York Traffic Planning/Right-of-Way, has told Fourth Street
residents in the past that legal encroachment or squatter’s rights on unassumed
road allowances are and have never been
granted.
If the
past has taught us anything, it is that, if the community as a whole is not
involved with stewardship of these special areas, unchecked, individual
homeowners can create encroachments that exclude the rest of the community from
visual and physical access to the lake and unfairly and arbitrarily increase
their own sense of personal, usable “property”.
History also tells us that Fourth Street was to
become the first Lake Window parkette under the City of Etobicoke’s
pre-amalgamation “Windows on the Lake”
initiative – again, referenced by the councillor in his support letter (see
drawing of proposed park at Fourth Street).
It is interesting to note the similarities of viewpoint between our
current councillor and Peter Milczyn from our previous administration, now our
MPP, who championed the initiative back then before amalgamation.
As proud Etobicoke waterfront residents, we are very
encouraged to note that our former City’s visionary proposal for public, lakeside
green space referenced above is mirrored in Toronto’s own Official Plan under “2.3.2
Green Space and Waterfront” policies
(see inset showing part of page 5).
The City’s
and the Councillor’s position is also very encouraging to us given that his
concerns
about “the public view of the waterfront … being adversely affected”, as
stated in his aforementioned support letter to community council, references
the recent amendments to the City’s Official Plan’s “Policies, Heritage Landscape Policies, Vista and View Corridors”.
As you are probably aware, on
April 3rd, 2013, City Council, which included Councillor Grimes’
vote, adopted the Heritage Policy revisions to the Official Plan. They included the heritage designation of some
local views of Lake Ontario. This now becomes official City policy and the
views on the list below are placed on the Heritage Register in the Official
Plan. Below is an extract ….
Views of Lake Ontario (and where those views originate) are as follows …….
o
Norris
Cres from Lake Shore Blvd W,
o
Miles
Rd from Lake Shore Blvd W,
o
Lake
Cres from Islandview Blvd,
o
Royal
York Rd from Sussex Dr,
o
Sand
Beach Rd from Lake Shore Blvd W,
o
Second
St from just north of Morrison St,
o
Third
St from just south of Morrison St,
o
Fourth St from
just north of Lake Shore Dr,
o
Fifth
St from Emerald Cres,
o
Sixth
St from Emerald Cres,
o
Eleventh
St from Emerald Cres,
o
Twelfth
St from Lake Shore Dr
Sorry,
Michelle, that our response has been somewhat long winded but, as you can see,
we saw quite a few puzzling inconsistencies in your reply to Janine and would
love to have them cleared up.
We
propose a meeting at City Hall in Councillor Grimes’ office so that a few of us
can meet with you and, hopefully, the Councillor, to go over the points we have
raised here.
In
conclusion, we love our street and community and are really excited about the
future potential of our own “lake window”.
We are heartened by the Councillor’s statements and the vision of our
former government and are confident that, by working together, its potential
can be eventually realized.
Regards
Fourth Street WAVE
(Waterfront Access and Views for Everyone)
