General Suburban Updates and Rumours

[The85]

"It's just a bit of venting, no?"

This is the opinion that I take. To answer the question about whether they know how ridiculous they sound: No, they don’t. And they rarely talk to anyone who would even think it, let alone tell them as much.

To them, their beautiful backyards with pools they worked so hard on and spent so much money on, instead of “backing onto a green space,” will now be “overlooked” by a three storey building. That’s probably a tall building to you if every building in your neighbourhood is a single family home.

I don’t agree with them, but I can sympathize. Change is often not easy. Many people complain about it. In this case, the only beef I have is with the media outlet taking advantage of these residents’ frustration and publishing their rather thoughtless quotes. It’s a non-story when you think about it: new development is approved, some people are less-than-happy about it. Couldn’t all developments be described that way?

Sounds like the zoning to permit townhouses has been in place since 1994 - over 20 years. If these residents bought within the last 20 years, they should have done their research and checked the zoning of the adjacent properties to understand that townhouses were permitted as of right and could some day be built and then made an informed decision on whether to buy their own homes from there. Listening to a real estate agent say the adjacent property "backs onto greenspace" or "protected woodland" might be true for the moment, but they need to dig deeper than that. A good real estate agent will check the adjacent zoning for their clients.

If these residents have lived here prior to 1994, they would have been notified and circulated for input back when the zoning was changed. They should have aired any concerns to the city then when public participation was fair game.

Unfortunately I have little sympathy for these residents and they do sound ridiculous. However, where I do sympathize is in protection of the trees. Back in 1994, local policies to protect natural heritage resources such as trees were much more relaxed than today. Development permissions granted in 1994 would likely still stand as the policies in place at this time would be grandfathered in and still apply today, despite updated environmental policies.