Ontario Land Tribunal
Tribunal ontarien de l’aménagement du territoire
ISSUE DATE:
November 29, 2023
CASE NO(S).:
OLT-23-000846
PROCEEDING COMMENCED UNDER subsection 34(19) of the Planning Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. P.13, as amended
Appellant:
Recep Nejat Sezer, Danielle MacIntyre
Subject:
By-law No. 784-2023
Description:
To permit a 25-storey building with 299 residential units including 30 rental replacement units
Reference Number:
22 138769 STE 14 OZ
Property Address:
16, 20, and 26 Cosburn Avenue
Municipality/UT:
Toronto/Toronto
OLT Case No.:
OLT-23-000846
OLT Lead Case No.:
OLT-23-000846
OLT Case Name:
Sezer & MacIntyre v. Toronto (City)
Heard:
November 23, 2023 by Video Hearing
APPEARANCES:
Parties
Counsel
Danielle MacIntryre Recep Nejat Sezer 10000022450 Ontario Inc. 10000022453 Ontario Inc. 10000022478 Ontario Inc. City of Toronto
Michael Romoff Michael Romoff Adam Brown Sean Brown Jason Davidson
Cosburn Developments Limited
Matthew Lakatos-Hayward
MEMORANDUM OF ORAL DECISION DELIVERED BY A. MASON AND HUGH S. WILKINS ON NOVEMBER 23, 2023 AND ORDER OF THE TRIBUNAL
INTRODUCTION
1This first Case Management Conference (“CMC’) was convened with respect to appeals of a Zoning By-law Amendment (“ZBA”) approved by the City of Toronto (“City”) pursuant to s. 34(19) of the Planning Act (“Act”) by Danielle MacIntyre and Recep Nejat Sezer (together “Appellants”) concerning the properties municipally known as 16, 20 and 26 Cosburn Road (“Subject Lands”). The Subject Lands are owned by 10000022450 Ontario Inc., 1000002453 Ontario Inc., and 10000022478 Ontario Inc. (together “Applicant”).
2The Subject Lands are located on the north side of Cosburn Avenue between Broadview Avenue to the west and Logan Avenue to the east and are currently occupied by two single detached dwellings and a three-storey residential apartment building housing 30 tenants and including surface parking.
3The Applicant filed applications for rezoning with the City in April 2022 to allow for redevelopment of the Subject Lands with a 27-storey residential building. Ultimately, a recommendation report for a 25 -storey building (“Building”) was put forward by City staff and adopted by Toronto and East York Community Council and City Council, with final passage of the implementing zoning by-law on July 19, 2023 (“ZBA”).
4The Appellants filed their appeals of the ZBA within the statutory time frame with the same appeal letter, citing objections related to sunlight and wind tunnels, parkland dedication, cohesion of the Building with the surrounding neighbourhood, parking, and constraints on the future redevelopment of the block caused by the Building.
NOTICE
5An Affidavit of Service sworn on October 24, 2023 by Justin Niddrie attesting to the giving of notice for this proceeding, was marked as Exhibit 1.
REQUESTS FOR STATUS
6In advance of the CMC, the Tribunal received a written request for Party status from the Applicant. The request was unopposed. As owner of the Subject Lands, the Tribunal recognized the Applicant’s interest in the matter and granted Party status.
7Also in advance of the CMC, the Tribunal received a written request for Party status from Cosburn Developments Limited (“Cosburn”), it being the owner of the properties located nearby at 5-19 Cosburn Avenue and 8-40 Gowan Avenue and the subject of applications with the City for a tall building redevelopment. Although generally supportive of the Applicant, Cosburn requested Party status to monitor the appeals as its interests and positions are similar under the current Applications. No objections were raised by the Applicant, City, nor the Appellants, and the Tribunal granted Party status to Cosburn.
PRELIMINARY MATTERS AND NEXT STEPS
8In advance of the CMC, the Appellants filed a request for summary dismissal of the MacIntyre appeal for failure to qualify as an Appellant pursuant to s.34(19)(2) of the Act, for not having provided oral submissions at a public meeting nor to have supplied written submissions to Council (“Summary Dismissal”). The Appellants also filed a request to proceed with a Motion for Dismissal without a hearing of the Sezer appeal pursuant to s. 34(25) of the Act and s. 19(1) of the Ontario Land Tribunal Act (“Motion for Dismissal” – together with Summary Dismissal, “Motions”). In the written request, the Applicant asked that the Motions be heard at the CMC and the Notice of Motion and materials were duly filed in advance.
9Until a few days prior to the CMC, communication by the Appellants with the other Parties and the Tribunal was without the assistance of Counsel. However, at the CMC, the Appellants attended with joint Counsel Michael Romoff, who advised that he was only attending for the purposes of the CMC to request an adjournment and would not carry on as Counsel thereafter. He explained that the Appellants had diligently sought specialized Municipal counsel and planning experts to represent them but had been unsuccessful due to conflicts between all the firms contacted and the Applicant. Counsel also advised that his clients intended to retain alternate counsel with subject matter expertise, and to pursue their appeals, but needed more time to prepare responses to the Motions and an Issues List and Procedural Order.
10Counsel for the Applicant and the City objected to the request for additional time, citing the fact that the appeals were filed in August 2023 without any subsequent communication from the Appellants despite multiple attempts as well as a lack of response prior to the CMC to any of the Motion material. Cosburn also objected to the Appellant’s request for more time.
11The Tribunal considered the likely prejudice to the Appellants if they were required to respond to the Motions without proper counsel. Since the Applicant seeks to bring the Motions to dismiss the appeals, in this case, the prejudice to the Appellants by proceeding without proper counsel would be greater than any prejudice to the Applicant in hearing the Motions at a subsequent CMC.
12The Tribunal ordered that a second CMC be scheduled for the Parties in order to bring forward a Procedural Order (“PO”) and Issues List (“IL”), with the intention of scheduling a Hearing and also to hear the Motions.
13The Tribunal scheduled this further CMC for Thursday, December 14, 2023 at 10:00 a.m., to proceed by video.
14Parties and Participants are asked to log in to the video hearing at least 15 minutes before the start of the event to test their video and audio connections:
GoTo Conference: https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/442599157
Access code: 442-599-157
15Parties and Participants are asked to access and set up the application well in advance of the event to avoid unnecessary delay. The desktop application can be downloaded at GoToMeeting or a web application is available: https://app.gotomeeting.com/home.html
16Persons who experience technical difficulties accessing the GoToMeeting application or who only wish to listen to the event can connect to the event by calling in to an audio-only telephone line: +1 (647) 497-9391 or Toll-Free 1-888-455-1389. The access code is 442-599-157.
17Individuals are directed to connect to the event on the assigned date at the correct time. It is the responsibility of the persons participating in the Video Hearing to ensure that they are properly connected to the event at the correct time. Questions prior to the Hearing event may be directed to the Tribunal’s Case Coordinator having carriage of this case.
18In advance of the second CMC, the Tribunal directed the Parties to exchange a draft Issues List and Procedural Order by Thursday, December 07, 2023 and that a final joint IL and PO shall be filed with the Tribunal by Tuesday, December 12, 2023.
19The Tribunal directed the Appellants to provide their response to the Notice of Motion by Thursday, December 07, 2023, and if necessary, that Reply materials should be filed by the Applicant by Monday, December 11, 2023.
ORDER
20The Tribunal confers Party status on 10000022450 Ontario Inc., 1000002453 Ontario Inc., and 10000022478 Ontario Inc.
21The Tribunal confers Party status on Cosburn Developments Limited.
22The Tribunal orders that a second CMC will convene on Thursday, December 14, 2023 at 10:00 a.m. by Video Hearing.
10No further notice will be given.
12The Panel members are not seized.
“A. Mason”
A. MASON
MEMBER
“Hugh S. Wilkins”
HUGH S. WILKINS
VICE-CHAIR
Ontario Land Tribunal
Website: www.olt.gov.on.ca Telephone: 416-212-6349 Toll Free: 1-866-448-2248
The Conservation Review Board, the Environmental Review Tribunal, the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal and the Mining and Lands Tribunal are amalgamated and continued as the Ontario Land Tribunal (“Tribunal”). Any reference to the preceding tribunals or the former Ontario Municipal Board is deemed to be a reference to the Tribunal.```