Charitable North End thrift store can stay where it is
Court rules for landlord in zoning fight with city
THE CITY HAS LOST a legal battle with a North End landlord whose victory allows a charity to keep operating a thrift shop in her building.
The court decision to dismiss the city’s zoning charge comes as a relief to Welcome Inn Community Centre, which runs the 4,500-square-foot thrift store at 520 James St. N.
“Today’s ruling is the completion of many years of struggle by our landlord and this victory means that New Horizons and Welcome Inn can continue, without interruption, to keep creating a healthy community in the North End,” executive director Jen Kellner said in an email after Wednesday’s ruling. The thrift shop’s proceeds go toward the charity’s programs, which include a food bank, youth drop-in centre, after-school programs and seniors’ din-
ing.
The decision by justice of the peace Donald Dudar also comes as a relief for landlord Lory James, who says she has spent $16,000 on legal fees, and months in court.
“It’s been an insane amount of my life,” she said Wednesday.
The city’s bylaw department didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The thrift store, which existed decades before Welcome Inn took it over in 2008, is in the rapidly gentrifying North End, a subject of considerable discussion in recent years. It’s also near the west harbour, where the city is planning a massive residential and commercial redevelopment.
Just south of the thrift shop, Hughson Street Baptist and charity Indwell are building a 45-unit affordable-housing building and church. The nearby Jamesville social housing complex is expected to be razed and replaced with a mixed-income residential area.
Coun. Jason Farr, who represents the North End, called the court case’s outcome “fantastic,” adding many in the neighbourhood appreciate the thrift store.
The Ward 2 councillor said he hopes the city doesn’t appeal the decision.
“I would certainly not want to see that. It would be costly and futile as far as I am concerned.”
The land-use dispute goes back several years.
James says she’d received zoning violation notices a few times since she bought the property in 2000. They were settled without legal action, she says.
But in May 2013, the Torontobased entrepreneur was charged for using the property as a commercial business, allegedly contrary to the bylaw.
The city argued the property was residential and no longer carried the zoning it once did for second-hand retail.
James maintained the original use of the 23,000-square-foot building, a textile factory built in the late 1940s, had been grandfathered.
In his decision, justice of the peace Dudar recounted the history of the site, delving into its land use over the decades.
Dudar said he accepted on “reasonable and probable grounds that the commercial-retail use has been ongoing.”
“This is consistent with the defendant’s view that it had successfully established a status of legal, nonconforming use.”
Dudar also reserved a few lines to comment on the length of the case.
“The history of these proceeding has been extremely protracted, complicated in no small part by motions which could not have succeeded.”
James says Wednesday’s decision presents her with a “clean slate.”