MAY 16, 2006: THE SCARBOROUGH MIRROR

DAVID NICKLE

A proposal to transform a strip of under-utilized industrial land on McNicoll Avenue into a seniors housing development complete with daycare and social services was turned down by the Scarborough Community Council last week.

The proposal by the St. John's McNicoll Centre, an offshoot of the St. John's Chinese Anglican Church, was to have seen the irregularly shaped piece of industrial land redeveloped with four buildings - the largest being a 17-storey apartment building.

In total, the site would contain 578 senior apartments, as well as medical offices, commercial units, a cultural recreation hall and a place of worship.

The proposal had the support of local Ward 39 Councillor Mike Del Grande (Scarborough-Agincourt), but that wasn't enough to convince councillors who were worried about eroding Toronto's industrial lands.

Del Grande tried to convince his colleagues to approve the site because it offered much-needed amenities to his northwest Scarborough community.

"This group came to me and said they're prepared to provide community services, community space, et cetera, and when you take that into account, take into account the odd shape of the land and the fact that this will bring 390 jobs into the area (it's supportable)," Del Grande said.

"It's just north of the Chester Le community, which is a pretty rough area of town and there aren't places for kids to go to bounce the basketball, I'm looking for this group to provide that. We're talking about outreach to the community."

Del Grande convinced exactly one-half of the councillors there, but that wasn't enough. The site is flanked by a retirement home on one side and active industrial lands on the other, and the community council heard from George Bairstow, controller at NUCAP Industries Inc., who was worried that the seniors' needs would be incompatible with his business's daily operations.

Ward 44 Councillor Gay Cowbourne (Scarborough East), who is also council's seniors advocate, said that on balance she could not countenance a development that had the potential to erode the city's employment districts.

"To me this is almost verging on the immoral," she said.

"We have employment districts there for specific purposes - they're there for jobs. Before long the whole of Toronto is going to be leaving our city boundaries to go to work and find jobs."

The matter goes before Toronto council at its May 23 meeting.