Letter to the Committee of Adjustments re development at my house
(A laneway house and a huge 3rd floor on the main dwelling which has eight (8) bedrooms)
Jan, 17, 2022
Re: File Number: A1250/21TEY 984 Ossington Ave
To Committee of Adjustment
From Margaret Stowe (co-owner 986 Ossington Ave, joined to 984)
Regarding any bylaw
variances – NO
Regarding the 3rd floor addition – NO
Regarding the changing of the front façade – NO
Regarding the laneway house –NO (just for the record)
The reason is the same for all, I won’t agree to or approve anything that is going to further devastate my property and quality of life here at 986 Ossington, adjoined to 984. Ever since George arrived in our neighborhood, life here has been varying degrees of hell, and I will lay it out for you right now in full because for us there is too much at stake. Please read it.
George is an absentee landlord who has zero discretion about who he rents to and cares nothing about the negative affect that he has had, and is having, on this neighborhood which he has invaded. We had a beautiful life before he arrived. Families were driven out by George’s tenants, I watched it happen. George’s tenants at 980 Ossington (the site of his first laneway house) destroyed two of our summers when they partied with a very loud group in the backyard almost every day for up to 8-10 hours. I called the bylaw office several times and contacted Beaunest Management several times but it didn’t make any difference. Many times, I left my house crying on a beautiful summer day just to get away from it. The young family next door to them couldn’t even go out into the backyard with their two young daughters, there were guys with no shirts drinking and yelling. That family was soon gone, driven out. I saw my next door neighbors take their visiting friends inside on a summer evening because being out on the porch was too unpleasant. And soon they were gone too, and unfortunately they sold to George who is now in the process of swallowing us up too. Our life has been impacted so greatly that we are mired in depression about our home, and there is a good chance we will have to leave our home as it gets more and more unbearable here. We are being driven out too, and out of Toronto which would have a devastating effect on our ability to make money.
George just wants to pack as many people in here as he can, and he seems to have a bottomless pit of money to do it with. He ripped 984 Ossington apart on the inside, and along with work he was doing gutting 980 Ossington, there were jackhammers starting before 8am every morning till night for months, with ZERO thought or consideration for those of us who live here. We are two quiet seniors, and we have two quiet young tenants that have been here for 10 years. When George was renting 984, I left a note for the agent to please have consideration and not make this “party central,” but it did no good, he populated the house with a group of young kids, who hang around on the front and back porch, literally two feet from my kitchen door and porch, smoking weed constantly, coughing and talking loudly acting like our porch is their living room. Our privacy is completely gone. There is no way I can have a friend over anymore or enjoy a meal on my back porch, if they’re around, and they usually are. Our backyard space used to be a place for peace and respite away from the city, but now it is filled with young partiers and constant construction. Quality of life here is approaching zero thanks to George’s development. And now he wants to build a 3rd floor for more of this. I say NO!!!!
From the day the 984 tenants arrived on Aug 1/21, they partied every day till 4-5 in the morning, on our shared porch. I could not function in my office and kitchen. And I don’t know what George did to our adjoining interior wall when he was ripping the insides out, but that wall is so thin that the loud group of young people next door in their kitchen, where they congregate, is literally right there in my kitchen and office with me! I have lived here for 15 years and have only heard my neighbors on the other side of that wall a couple of times. I feel like the house is ruined!! I now hear every word they say, and their voices are very loud, and there are often constant ‘beats.’ I have recordings that prove this. I record everything since the city advised me to record George’s tenants at 980 Ossington (the ones that drove everyone out). We have good tenants in our upper. They have complained of noise, and they know what’s going on next door. If we lose our tenants, who will we get to rent? Will I tell them - “By the way, there’s a group of loud kids next door who hang around all day and night, front and back, talking loud and smoking weed.” If a 3rd floor goes on, there will be even more but now they will be peering down on us from above too. This gigantic 3rd floor will also block out a lot of sun from that direction, and combine that with the hours of sun lost by the laneway house, it’s not a good picture for us. And this is our new reality, thanks to George. This is no longer the house we bought. And now we are being asked to endure another year of George’s construction and destruction. We can’t take it. We’re being driven out too.
For the record, the new laneway house will have a disastrous effect on us. It not only changes his property but it also changes OUR property, in big ways. George is dominating and devastating OUR SPACE. I bought a house with a peaceful backyard of gardens and greenery and a private garage that I could use as a private space. Now all of that is gone. George has robbed us all of our privacy. George and his tenants rule.
We don’t want a laneway house in OUR backyard, half way up the backyard, inches away, with big peering windows. George already has one laneway house, and that has had enough of an impact here already. He shouldn’t be allowed to put two here. It’s too much. But it appears we have ZERO choice in the matter. Where is our right to the quality of life we bought into? Why is our neighbor allowed to take that away? Thanks Toronto. And as soon as the weather gets warm, the gang next door will once again be out on our shared porch for hours talking loudly and smoking weed, two feet away, and the jackhammers and saws will be going from morning to night once again. And that beautiful ray of sunlight that’s streaming into my kitchen right now will be gone forever, the laneway house will block it. This is easily provable with photos or video. We love our house, but now things have changed, and the worst is yet to come. Soon we will have two LARGE WINDOWS peering right into our private porch and kitchen 10 feet away. People will be coming and going (and hanging around) right outside our garage door and in the backyard. I called the city to ask about objecting to a laneway house but was told there was nothing we could do. I believe the family at 978 got the same response when they objected to the first laneway house George built. They now have peering windows and a monstrosity next door.
I feel sick to my stomach at the horrible thing that is shortly about to happen to my beautiful home and my quality of life, but it seems to be happening to us whether we like it or not. For us to tear up our roots at this point would be a terrible upheaval, affecting all aspects of health. This is the affect that George is having on us. Maybe the reader can imagine for themselves what it is like to be in our shoes. What if it was your house?
With another year of construction ahead we face a new ugly mess and another horrible summer. No one ever maintains 984, garbage or snow, nor did they at 980 which looked like a trash ghetto for years. Now it appears there is a business set up there at 980 Ossington. To add to this, there is also construction going on at 982 Ossington which is being gutted and a 3rd floor added. There has been a pile of mattresses on the porch for months, it looks like a flophouse. Soon it will right on our doorstep, again. This is what life is like here now.
For the record, I will not allow anyone to place one foot on my side of either the roof of the house or the roof of our garage. I won’t let you use my house for these purposes.
That’s how I feel about the situation. NO to all variances. He has already done too much. What’s the point of bylaws anyway if absentee landlords can just walk all over it.
Sincerely,
Margaret Stowe
986 Ossington Ave