Committee of Adjustment – Update

The Committee of Adjustment letters have went out, and then the Community Planning for Toronto and East York district recommended the following conditions to be imposed to my variance application:

• The variance to building height of 10 metres apply only to the roof access portion of the building as whon in the drawings received by the Committee of Adjustment on January 23, 2013; and,

• The proposed utility/roof access be limited to 4.8 metres by 2.98 metres in size as shown on Roof Plan drawing received by the Committee of Adjustment on Janunary 23, 2013.

Their comments are:

The subject property is located on the east side of Chisholm Avenue between Lumsden Avenue and Doncaster Avenue just west of Main Street. The property is designated “Neighbourhoods” in the Official Plan, which requires new development in the established residential areas to have regard for existing physical character of the surrounding neighbourhood, including sales and massing of the buildings. The property is zoned R1C Residential in Zoning By-law 6752 of the former Borough of East York. The purpose of the Zoning By-law is to respect and reinforce a stable built form and to limit the impact of new development on adjacent residential properties.

Planning Staff identified concerns with the height variance. A building with a height of 10 metres would not be in keeping with the buildings in the area where buildings have complied with the Zoning By-law.

The proposed plans show that the height is only for the roof access room and is set back from the front of the house. This should mitigate the impact of the increased height from the street.

As such, should the Committee of Adjustment approve this application, Planning Staff recommend that the variance for building height only apply to the roof access portion of the building as shown in the plans that have been submitted to the Committee of Adjustment dated January 22, 2013. The roof access room should also be limited to 4.8 metres by 2.98 metres in size as shown on the Roof Plan drawing in the above set of drawings.

So I am hoping that this means that planning division has no issue with my roof top access room and now it’s really up to the Committee of Adjustment to approve my variance request with the added conditions. Wednesday, March 27, 2013 is the date of my hearing, and I’m hoping for the best.