Some 100 residents of the Bloor West Village area attended a lively meeting hosted by the BWVRA on the future of the Village. The sparks were provided by Christopher Hume, Urban Affairs Critic for the Toronto Star who appeared with Jennifer Keesmat of the Office for Urbanism.

Keesmat gave an overview of the virtues and vulnerabilities of the Bloor West Village, based on the B.W.V. Urban Design Study which she co-authored in 2005. She reminded residents of how lucky we are: “You, in fact, have something here that is the envy of the nation. This is what other areas are trying to duplicate: it’s pedestrian-oriented, transit-oriented and allows small retail to flourish.”

Hume, who toured the Village with the BWVRA two weeks earlier, had a different take. “The sidewalks are in appalling condition and I don’t think there is one planter that is not empty. That medical building near Jane is an abomination.” The neighbourhood works, says Hume, despite of all the indignities that it has sufferred.

Keesmat advised residents to use the Urban Design Study to build a consensus “vision” of what we want the Village to become. “So, when a new development application comes forward the community could say ‘we have a vision. This is what we’d like in our community,’” she said. Keesmat is currently working in the Annex on a similar plan involving a wide range of stakeholders. The impetus for that was the approval of a hugely controversial 32 story condo across from Varsity Stadium. The idea is to be ready: “You have a chance to get out ahead of the curve. Changes will come and you want development” she told one resident who complained about the long-vacant lot at Bloor and Harcroft Road.

“You can shout and scream and no one’s listening”, said Hume. “I have no faith in planners, the city planning department, no faith in our politicians, in city government.” So, he urged people to take direct action, and on this Hume and Keesmat found common ground. Hume says residents have to do an end run around Toronto’s hap-hazard and adversarial system of property development. Go for the “win-win”, he urged. Both he and Keesmat said that means talking to the owners where re-development is most likely to occurr: the No Frills, the Turner & Porter Funeral Home, the Humber Odeon and connected buildings; the Old Mill Pontiac car dealership. “Developers don’t want to go to the OMB”, Keesmat insisted, and she described how stakeholders across the board in the Annex are now trying to work together to avoid another nasty confrontation.

Both agreed that a new opportunity may be in the offing at the corner of Bloor and Jane where the future of the old Humber Odeon and the remainder of the block are in flux. If this is to become a “gateway” to the Village and to the rest of Toronto and envisoned in the BWV Study, then Hume and Keesmat said all the stakeholders should be brought together to develop a plan that takes in the whole block.

Where things stand:

- The B.W.V. Urban Design Study is a policy guideline but not law. Councillor Bill Saundercook recently asked the Planning Department to prepare it for more formal adoption.
It was comissioned in 2005 in response to the Humber Odeon condo proposal condo proposal. While there was community input, it requires broader community discussion and possible updates. A copy of the Study can be viewed on this site under Links at the right of the home page.

- The Humber Odeon’s redevelopment as a 10-storey condo is in limbo. The owner (the Wynn family) won approval for the building over considerable local opposition, but never applied for a building permit. The Odeon and the remainder of the buildings on the block have apparently been bought by a single owner whose identity and plans are unknown. The car dealership to the west on Bloor will also change. It is appaently to close in 2009. Taken together these raise the possibility of a more comprehensive plan for a “gateway” as described in the Urban Design Study.