City must protect our neighbourhoods

Re The house that ‘landed from space’ in Cabbagetown, Aug. 11 Your article concerning the Cabbagetown house and the battle with the neighbours is just one of several such battles being fought around the city.

In almost every case, these battles involve disruption to existing neighbourhoods by either a developer or a new homeowner who wants to build an obviously unsympathetic and (certainly in the case reported) outrageous project.

These applications are tacitly supported by the city’s planning department, which rubber stamps them after an apparently cursory examination.

Any so-called “minor variances” to city bylaws are allowed by the Committee of Adjustment, unless neighbours turn up in numbers to oppose the plan.

Those neighbours either must be knowledgeable themselves or hire an expert to have any chance of getting their objections heard.

Nobody from the city acts on their behalf and planners do not have to attend to justify their support of the application.

Many councillors refuse to get involved in cases like these, making life even more difficult for the neighbours.

It is time for the city planning department to show some respect for the people who live in Toronto and turn down applications for unsympathetic development.

Although some may argue this is merely NIMBYism, it is not. It is a matter of protecting existing and established neighbourhoods.

Failing that, why not just throw out the planning and building bylaws altogether and let the market decide. Jim Roche, Toronto