Columbus project feud heats up
Community fights against plan to redevelop centre and school
North York residents scrambling to save their cherished Columbus Centre from demolition and redevelopment have stepped up their fight against the $70-million plan and are asking the province to intervene.
They’re angry about the proposed project at Dufferin and Lawrence, which would destroy the current building and a nearby Catholic high school in disrepair, and replace them with a joint facility housing a new centre and school.
The Catholic school board and Villa Charities, a non-profit that operates the Columbus Centre, are partners in the venture.
In a letter to Education Minister Mitzie Hunter on Monday, a grassroots group set up earlier this year to oppose the deal asked her to appoint an investigator to review details of the school board’s finances.
“We request that the Minister of Education make a thorough investigation as to whether the Toronto Catholic District School Board is behaving responsibly in their administration of public funds,” said the letter, which was signed by Ian Duncan MacDonald, a co-founder of the group, the Columbus Athletic and Social Association.
The feud over the project, which has erupted in the past year, has seen local politicians, residents and members of the Columbus Centre — built 40 years ago by Toronto’s Italian community — line up against the school board and Villa Charities.
The school board had not seen the letter to Hunter, a spokesperson said Tuesday.
But “the board has followed and complied with all the directions from the minister regarding this project and will continue to do so,” spokesperson Emmy Szekeres Milne told the Star in an email. “If the ministry asks, we would be happy to provide whatever information is requested.”
MacDonald, an artist and writer who’s been a regular at the centre for 30 years, says many of the 4,000 members are dismayed at the 400,000-square-foot redevelopment plan and feel alienated by the lack of consultation. They’ve been waging war on social media, in protests outside the centre and with signs across the neighbourhood.
“Something doesn’t smell right,” MacDonald said. “There’s no way they should keep going forward.”
But Villa Charities president Anthony DiCaita said they are consulting residents and those who use the Columbus Centre.
After Toronto city councillors rejected the application for the project, the partners appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board. But they put off a hearing scheduled for this month until public consultations have been completed in the new year, DiCaita said.
A consultation hosted by Villa Charities and run by an outside organization is scheduled for Wednesday evening and was fully registered with 100 people expected, he said.
A public meeting set up by MacDonald’s grassroots group scheduled for next week is expected to draw a raucous crowd.
“We’re listening and asking them for their feedback,” DiCaita said. “We’re trying to address some of the issues they’ve raised.” When the community complained early on that initial plans didn’t include a swimming pool, the plans were changed to add one, he said.
DiCaita accused some critics of having “a specific agenda” and spreading rumours about the project, which is also being publicly opposed by local MPP Mike Colle.
Colle was one of the first to get behind the urgent need to address overcrowding at Dante Alighieri in 2011, and helped secure $32.8 million from the province to expand the school.
But after six years of changing plans, a school still in disrepair and a community that might lose an iconic centre, “I feel betrayed,” he said.
If approved, the project could break ground next fall.
A spokesperson for the minister said Hunter has received the letter and it is being reviewed.
Hunter has discussed the concerns regarding “the current status of the project” with the board, which has agreed to “pause and work to address community concerns,” Richard Francella said in an email.
“It is our expectation that the partners are working on solutions to address these concerns and it is the minister’s expectation that community input will be taken into account in the proposed design of the overall project.”
Ministry approval is required for school board capital projects to proceed, and that hasn’t yet been granted for the development involving Dante Alighieri.