In Toronto, it’s kids vs. condos
TDSB and Catholic schools brace for highrise neighbours amid new projects, pending turmoil
The clash between the holy grail of urban density and schools that anchor Toronto neighbourhoods is about to get worse.
It’s been at the heart of an escalating battle in North Toronto, where a 35-storey tower is soon to be erected next to John Fisher Public School, throwing families into uncertainty over whether the 500 students can safely stay put during construction or will be forced to relocate to another site six kilometres away. And it’s a sign of things to come. The Toronto District School Board has identified nine other schools that will soon feel the effect of adjacent or nearby highrise developments. In some cases, they already are. With those projects comes the inevitable turmoil over issues ranging from safety to traffic, noise, air quality and loss of sunlight in playgrounds and classrooms.
“We haven’t had many experiences of this historically,” says John Malloy, director of education at the TDSB. “But I would say we’re going to see these types of complex situations again.”
Two of the schools, Church Street Junior Public School near Carlton and Church Sts. and Jesse Ketchum Public School in Yorkville, are each facing the prospect of two new towers nearby.
The situation at John Fisher, brewing since 2012 after several lowrise properties steps away from the century-old school changed hands, has erupted over the past five months, with irate parents storming school board meetings, accusing the TDSB of not acting soon enough to protect the safety of students at the French immersion school.
Developer KG Group is seeking a demolition permit for the summer and insists relocating students isn’t necessary because safety is “our No. 1 priority.”
“Schools and school boards aren’t really brought into the mix of approving developments.” KRISTA WYLIE FIX OUR SCHOOLS CAMPAIGN
The uproar has sent school board officials scrambling to devise a consistent plan for dealing with potential future conflicts over new projects and how they affect nearby schools.
A strategy would include how soon to begin negotiating with developers and city officials about new applications and options for mitigating the effect on students.
It would also consider staff and funding that should be allocated, questions of whether the board should be looking for financial compensation in certain circumstances, and the TDSB’s role when contentious applications are appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board.
“As a result of the John Fisher situation, we’ve been forced to look at this more closely,” says Chris Moise, a TDSB trustee whose ward includes both Church Street Junior School and Jesse Ketchum. “We need to be at the table a lot earlier so our voices are heard.”
It’s particularly pressing at a time when soaring house prices and demand for living spaces have led to highrises sprouting up in family neighbourhoods and on ever-smaller lots.
“I’m all for growth and this is a reality in Toronto,” says real estate agent Sandi De Camargo, who has spent 20 years in the condominium business and has two children at John Fisher. But she says “poor planning” can undermine the very schools that are drawing people to neighbourhoods when it results in overcrowded classrooms or construction disruption. “And then it doesn’t make for great community living.”
De Camargo is among parents who, faced with the choice of sending their kids to class beside a construction site or having them bused across town, would rather pull them out of French immersion and enrol them in their English home school.
The problem is the schools are full. So Gabriel, 8, and Julia, 6, have no idea where they will be in September.
That dilemma prompted another unusual move by trustees last month as they faced the reality that jampacked schools around Yonge and Eglinton couldn’t possibly absorb an exodus of students from John Fisher and that many children could be forced to leave the area.
In response, they passed a motion to create a transparent “special placement process” that would determine which students go where. It also lays the groundwork “for similar situations affecting other schools as development in the city continues.”
As someone who chooses to live in downtown Toronto, Lyndon Morley is all in favour of bustling urban life. But he and other parents of kids at Church Street Junior School were baffled at a planning process that approved two highrise projects that will not only cast shadows on the classrooms and schoolyard, but also increase density in a neighbourhood where schools are already full.
“We’re already talking about putting portables on a very small lot,” says Morley, whose son Rowan is in Grade 3. He also worries about the bedlam of construction and what the influx of new residents will mean for local traffic and wear and tear on the school playground, which is already overrun by locals and their dogs.
Those kinds of challenges “are indicative of what we’re going to see more and more of” as urban density puts pressure on both school landscapes and their ability to accommodate students in their catchment areas, says Krista Wylie, co-founder of the Fix Our Schools campaign.
“Schools and school boards aren’t really brought into the mix of approving developments,” she says. “As we see with how the situation at John Fisher is unfolding, it’s very challenging.”
While boards bear the brunt of the criticism, she says, “they don’t have the power or resources to effectively deal with this.”
The city and the province have the budgets, staff and power when it comes to negotiating and approving — and ultimately the province controls board purse strings and the appeal process through the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB).
Boards funds are tight and participating in an OMB hearing could cost anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000, says Angelo Sangiorgio, associate director of planning and facilities with the Toronto Catholic District School Board. So boards often rely on the city to have their backs.
“The reality is school boards can’t stop development,” Sangiorgio says. “The best we can do is slow it down and express our concerns.”
In some cases, they also make deals. Developers can make financial contributions to be used for community improvement in the areas where they build, and the city may designate some of those funds to school boards.
Aproject near Yonge and Sheppard that affected the Catholic board’s head office and high school students taking classes there led to a donation of $250,000 from the developer that was invested in a play structure for the neighbourhood at St. Edwards Catholic School. KG Group has committed $1.1 million to the YongeEglinton neighbourhood of John Fisher, but none of those funds have been allocated to the school.
The TDSB has come under fire in the past for deals made behind the scenes. Two years ago, two milliondollar deals involving money quietly paid to the board by developers with projects affecting local schools exposed rifts between parents, local politicians and communities.
The payments — $1.5 million from a firm building near the Church St. school and $1 million resulting from a development near Lord Lansdowne Junior and Senior Public School near College and Spadina — drew criticism from the city and parents. According to the board, those funds were earmarked for the two schools directly affected by the developments with any remaining money going to neighbouring schools.
The TDSB’s Malloy says since he began his role 15 months ago, rarely has a day passed that the John Fisher issue hasn’t crossed his desk.
The lesson, he says, is that the board has to get involved early, flag concerns and “communicate clearly so that our communities understand exactly what we have responsibility for and what we don’t.”