Long Branch residents fighting against massive condo project steps from the lake.
It took a lot of lobbying by Long Branch residents to slow down a massive multi-condo development being planned for 220 Lake Promenade steps away from the lake.
More than 1,000 residents have signed an online petition and are raising funds to halt the five tall buildings planned for 220, 230, 240 Lake Promenade and 21, 31 Park Blvd., that stands to affect 548 tenants, many elderly, living there for decades.
Councillor Amber Morley finally said she is against the project as planned.
“I have since let the applicant know that I cannot support this application, at this location, in its current form,” she wrote in a newsletter on August 9.
Residents claim the five-building Long Branch development is to be a construction zone in a residential area for 10-years and force out more than 500 seniors.
The proposal, which has been working its way through the system, seeks to build a five-tower development that will include 30-story condos as well as multiple 12-story towers, which residents said will quadruple the density of the area.
Residents said as many as 548 mostly-elderly tenants will be forced to find apartments elsewhere that are affordable.
“An application this large would still have considerable negative impacts on those tenants and require many people to be displaced in an extremely difficult rental market,” according to the city.
Morley said she has convened a working group to review the plan.
The planned development means the demolition of 220, 230, 240 Lake Promenade and 21, 31 Park Blvd., that stands to affect 548 tenants.
“The applicant made several changes in response to the feedback they received, including additional amenity space and park land considerations, but were clear that they are unwilling to adjust the scale of the proposal,” she said in a bulletin.
The significant concerns remains the height and density proposed at the location, which is in the middle of a residential area served by local roads.
The developer can continue with the City’s development application review process, potentially making further revisions, until a report is prepared by City Planning and goes to City Council for a vote.
Or they can choose to appeal their application to the provincial Ontario Land Tribunal.
Residents of the planned site said they have been unable to eat or sleep as they fret about their next home.