Canada Square April 2021

           

Dear Mayor Tory and City Councillors

Your agenda item MM31.27, a motion brought by councillors Matlow and Wong-Tam, is a matter of urgent concern to the members of Eglinton Park Residents’ Association. Our own turf is small, the nine square blocks of Toronto in the northwest corner where Yonge meets Eglinton. We are houses and towers, owners and renters, tucked between Eglinton Park and Yonge. Our small piece of the city will soon have six or more new towers, and the wards to the east and south-east of us have many more.

            Yonge and Eglinton has seen extraordinary population grown. Meanwhile, jobs and services are stagnant, and local schools, parks, and community facilities are ever more overladen. To our eye, the big piece of city land, the old TTC bus barns and surface station, is the only place where we can provide those crucial spaces, services, and facilities in ever shorter supply. And the location, the hub, where line 5 will cross line 1, is the perfect spot to build an economic and cultural magnet, not a transfer point.

            So it is crucial to step back, think well, consult widely, and gather good advice while things are still fluid. Built form and social function need to fit well.

            EPRA, over the past months, has been part of a solid coalition of seven local groups in three wards, six of them RAs, one a condo community. In our alliance, agreement, on this matter is unanimous, and enthusiastic. We are keen to see swift, creative discussion, to make best use of these lands to serve both our very local 9-block residents, and our bustling Midtown, a critical economic, cultural, and social space vital to our whole big city.

            Accordingly, we urge you to vote for this motion.

            Sincerely,

            Tom Cohen

            Chair, EPRA