A proposed 11-storey addition to the Belmont House long-term care facility in Yorkville is one step closer to city approval after councillors voted in favour of the controversial development on Tuesday.
Drama ensued at the Toronto and East York Community Council meeting this week when nearby residents took the floor to lodge complaints about the proposed development.
The project would add 168 long-term care beds and 30 assisted living units to the existing property at 55 Belmont St.
The 11-storey expansion has faced opposition from locals due to concerns about potential traffic increases, shadow impact and the required removal of existing greenspace.
The proposal will continue onward for consideration by Toronto City Council next month.
Currently, Belmont House comprises a 5-storey long-term care home and a 7-storey retirement home, both connected by a single-storey central building. The site is located on the south side of Belmont Street between Davenport Road and McMurrich Street, north of McAlpine Street.
The new development, designed by Montgomery Sisam Architects Inc., would be constructed on the northwest corner of the property, directly across from Belmont Street and would run linear to a number of the area’s historic homes.
In one last effort to convince councillors that the proposal is harmful to their neighbourhood, the owners and occupants of these nearby homes called on the city to consider alternate designs for the expansion.
Homeowners say they will ‘suffer’
Michael Mountford is the proud owner of a home on Belmont Street. He enjoys looking out at the beautiful gardens in front of nearby Belmont House while the sunshine drapes the property.
During Tuesday’s council meeting, he argued the current vision for the property would take that all away. He said the 11-storey expansion would threaten the daily enjoyment experienced by long-term care residents who use the outdoor space while also walloping neighbours with shadows from the new building.
Instead of seeing the proposed facility run along Belmont Street, Mountford said he wishes the expansion would be built in a north-south direction that runs perpendicular to his street and above the facility’s single-storey dining room.
He claimed the 11-storey addition would be easier to accept as fewer houses in the area would face obstruction.
“Residents would suffer less,” he told councillors. “Belmont House has the money [and] they have the funding to make this happen. There isn’t one homeowner who supports this proposal the way it stands today.”
“The design team lacks creativity to expand Belmont House in a way that works with the community and for the residents of Belmont House itself,” Mountford lamented.
Another Yorkville resident, Scott Cameron, suggested the proposed build would contribute to existing vehicle congestion issues along Belmont Street and create a myriad of traffic and construction woes for neighbours and long-term care residents alike.
“Belmont Street is already very badly congested during rush hours,” Cameron said Tuesday. “People use it to transit from Rosedale Valley Road and Yonge Street over to Bay and Davenport. There's no easy way for construction vehicles to access this construction site, short of creating a major traffic problem.”
“Toronto is losing its character as a city because of buildings like this,” he added. “This building is big, ugly and has no business being built so close to residential homes.”
Other homeowners like Bob Weeks — a notable name in Canadian sports media as a senior reporter at TSN — said he wishes the local community was more involved in the design process from its earlier stages.
“It’s about the poor planning of the build and the massive lack of cooperation for those of us who live on Belmont Street,” he told councillors. “From the start, this project was well advanced before we were even given notice of it, and there's lots of questions that we're still looking for answers to.”
“Many of us on Belmont Street are losing our minds,” he said.
City staff defend the project
The ABC Residents Association, a volunteer organization active in the Yorkville area, submitted a letter to city planners that argued the new build should be constructed on the south side of the site, along Davenport Road. The group said the 11-storey development would be a better fit there, slotted near other mid- and high-rise buildings in the area.
But the architect of the project, Robert Davies, said the stretch of land along Davenport Road would not yield sufficient space to justify the project.
He added the Ministry of Long-Term Care would not approve the cost and operations to make the relocation happen.
Operations inside the one-storey building at Belmont House — which includes the kitchen, dining, laundry, garbage and shipping rooms — would be disrupted if the addition was moved to the property’s south-end, Davies said. The north-south idea, as proposed by Mountford, would also cause disruptions to those services.
“For four different studies, we tried to stay away from the Belmont Street frontage, and at every turn, we came up with a project that wasn't feasible,” Davies said. “We need to maintain the functions of the building through any construction period.”
“[The northwest proposal] meets all the requirements that the ministry put to be able to fund and license beds, and it maintains all the operations of the existing building during construction,” he added.
Much of Tuesday’s arguing between the development’s leaders and local residents involved shadows that would be cast on nearby homes by the 11-storey expansion.
City staff concluded that shadows cast from the addition would mostly occur in the morning hours and are limited to homes abutting the north side of Belmont Street — roughly a dozen dwellings at any one time. Shadows would no longer pose an issue to those homes after 2 p.m., a study found.
Meanwhile, a separate transportation impact study determined all intersections surrounding the site are expected to operate at acceptable levels of service. Researchers found no improvements are required to accommodate the proposal.
In response to concerns over the loss of existing greenspace and impacts to various mature trees, the project’s landscaping plan would allow for 22 new trees to be planted, replacing eight trees that are intended for removal.
City staff also concluded the size of the addition is appropriate for the Belmont House site. Councillors said the 11-storey expansion aligns with an ongoing transition to lower building heights from the Yonge-Bloor intersection to the Belmont area.
A desperate need for long-term care beds
Maria Elias, the CEO of Belmont House, sounded the alarm over the importance of this project for aging Torontonians on Tuesday.
She told councillors 1,200 people are currently on the Belmont House long-term care waitlist, including 180 whose condition is considered “in crisis.” Another 350 people are on the assisted living waitlist. In total, roughly 9,000 people in Toronto are waiting for a long-term care bed, she said.
Although she recognizes the legitimacy behind the concerns raised by residents, Elias said the consequences of not going ahead with the addition would be far greater than any nuisance extended to a nearby homeowner.
“We feel that those inconveniences are well-worth the benefits that we bring back to the community,” she told councillors. “Many seniors are forced into care outside of Toronto due to a shortage of beds. As a charitable organization with land in downtown Toronto, it’s our obligation to take a look at meeting the changing needs of the community that we serve.”
“We have taken the opportunity to engage our community,” she added. “We have met with the ABC Residents Association, we’ve had two open houses with our neighbours on Belmont Street and we’ve also exchanged many letters and emails to enhance that community engagement.”
Ward 11 Coun. Dianne Saxe (University-Rosedale) expressed her sympathy to residents at the community council meeting who felt they were left out of the development process. But given the findings from city staff, along with the need for additional long-term care beds, she said the time to act is now.
“The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care sets very rigid rules for funding, and within those rules, this is the only opportunity that we have to provide desperately needed long term care beds in our community,” Coun. Saxe said.
Councillors’ decision to approve the proposal will go before city council on Feb. 5.
