Nestled in old Toronto, The Beaches is a quiet, quaint neighbourhood where homes are relatively small with a similar charm. But a home rebuild has neighbours in the area upset.
As the Sesame Street song says, “one of these things (on Glen Stewart Crescent) is not like the other”…
“I mean, it’s too tall, it’s too big and it’s upsetting too — because the whole street was against it,” said Heather Reier, who lives nearby. “We voiced that very strongly.”
She is talking about the ‘monster’ home now being built on her street. At more than 32 feet tall, the rebuild at 29 Glen Stewart Cres., dwarfs the home next to it.
The owner of the home nextdoor posted her complaints to Facebook, pointing out that the lot will be subdivided — meaning, not one, but two of these massive homes will be squeezed in side by side on their street to make 29A and 29B Glen Stewart Cres.
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“We all paid a premium to be on this crescent, to have the view,” Reier said, gesturing towards the giant structure that mars what was once open sky. “To have all that undermined with something that’s such an eyesore, it’s upsetting.”
Despite how much the homes in question may be obstructing views, the construction project manager of 29B Glen Stewart Cres. says the builds are not obstructing zoning laws.
“We have all the permits and what we’re doing here is according to rules and regulations here,” said Carmen Mastorianni, whose team hasn’t yet started putting the beams up for 29B Glen Stewart Cres.
The city backs his claim up. According to zoning laws for the area, the maximum allowable height is 10 metres or 32.81 feet. The proposed height for the home at 29 Glen Stewart Cres., is 32.78 feet.
Mastorianni says he’s received his fair share of angry comments and says he’s tried to convince concerned neighbours that the new homes are a good thing.
“They’re actually going to get an improvement to their property and the value is going to actually go up,” said Mastorianni.
Some neighbours on the street told Global News that they took their complaints to the city. Area councillor Brad Bradford said the city is working to ensure resident concerns are being addressed, and that the development is being built within city limits and laws.
That response is not enough, says Taanis, a neighbor who asked to be identified by her first name only for safety reasons,
“I just wonder at what point, we stop — at what point we say, well this is enough, houses are getting too tall,” she said.