Emerson House
It has now been over two years (September 16, 2019) since the OLT (Ontario Land Tribunal) decision on Emerson House, previously known as E.V. Royale.
We are in contact with the City's development department on a monthly basis. As part of the developer's obligation to meet the OLT decision, they need to make 9 submissions to the City before they could continue the development. Once the submissions have been made the development department distributes these documents to the appropriate department for their review and approval. Once all documents have been approved, the developer is then sent back to OLT for final approval.
Up until late December, only 2 minor submissions had been made. However, recently a few of the major reports have been submitted to the City. Our City Liasion Director periodically meets with the development department for our area to review these latest submissions and answer any new questions we had.
We will continue to provide additional updates as more information is gathered.
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“This doesn’t work for the community. This doesn’t work for council”
- Mayor Bonnie Crombie March 21, 2018
Erindale Village Condo a Springboard to Change on the Credit
EV Royale saga a mini-history of development tug-of-war, says John Stewart
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~ Please note: "EV Royale" changed its name to "Emerson House" since this article was written ~
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OPINION by John Stewart, Mississauga News
Thursday, June 25, 2020
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“It is not to be expected that the village will remain frozen in time.”
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With those words, Local Planning Appeal Tribunal Vice-Chair Mary-Anne Sills shattered the hopes of the 100 homeowners in the “culturally significant landscape” of Erindale Village and approved a highly-contested application for the eight-storey EV Royale condominium beside historic Erindale Community Hall.
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Sills, the mayor of Belleville for 18 years before becoming a tribunal hearing officer in 2007, handed down a decision on June 12 to approve a project that opposing villagers consider totally incompatible with their “Springfield on the Credit” homestead.
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“We’re all devastated,” says ratepayer head Jane Phillips. What they thought were indisputable faults with the 96-unit building — its scale, conflict with heritage values, traffic problems, proximity to the Credit River and violation of “village” precepts — didn’t stop its approval.
Not only that, but residents had to wait nine months after the hearing for an answer and the application — although subject to several conditions, such as an updated traffic study — was basically approved as is.
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“It’s a quiet village, which there are very few of left in Mississauga,” says Phillips, who lives on the street closest to the site. “If you really want to maintain heritage, don’t be messing around with heritage places.”
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“I’ve lived here 58 years,” says unofficial village archivist Brad Schneller, whose mailing address was originally Box 49 Erindale before being upgraded to RR#2 Cooksville. “I’ve seen all the changes. It’s just a massive building. It will demolish the village.”
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Not so, found Sills, supporting city planners who recommended approval. Council unanimously rejected their advice and hired expensive outside legal and planning advisers to argue against their own professionals — with predictable results.
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Another big bill and another resounding loss.
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Councillors now get to express their outrage, blame Ontario’s Growth Plan mandate and avoid the wrath of local voters.
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The site north of Dundas east of the Credit, where Piatto Restaurant has long been a culinary landmark, is underutilized land ripe for redevelopment and identified for intensification and higher-order transit, the ruling pointed out.
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The city’s recently-completed Dundas Connects plan recommends six storeys, noted Sills, subtly pointing out that newer village homes have been intensified themselves, with much larger building footprints and heights of three storeys.
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The heritage attributes will be conserved, Sills believes, because of design considerations. Architect Rick Mateljan, vice-chair of Mississauga’s heritage committee, testified for the applicants, suggesting the 43-metre distance to the nearest home, grades changes and heavy tree cover will minimize impacts.
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The strong architectural statement of the building will engage the street, becoming a marker and provide a gateway into the village, he suggested.
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The first multi-residential building in a historic village that is “by far the tallest building,” as the decision noted, is indeed a marker.
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The EV Royale story is so captivating because it miniaturizes our fraught relationship with development.
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It’s a marker of both our historic past, in which we try to take solace and pride, and our uncertain future, in which we pray we can have some faith.
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Despite the objections of Erindale Village residents — who’ve been fighting an application for a highrise condominium on the property beside the historic Erindale Community Hall on Dundas Street West for six years — it has now been approved by the Local Planning Appeal Board.
– John Stewart
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John Stewart is a retired longtime journalist with the Mississauga News. His column, My Back Pages, appears each week.