HUMBER COLLEGE AND PARKING

Humber College needs to do some work on some of its buildings. The City would require additional parking based on the usual formula. However, Humber College has requested an exception to this rule. If they are successful, less cement in the park! Lakeshore Planning Council has endorsed their request. The letter is below. (Note the last paragraph. That long promised Advisory Committee for the park needs to be put in place right away)

LAKESHORE PLANNING COUNCIL

185 FIFTH STREET, TORONTO ON M8V 2Z5

Ms. Susanne Pringle, Manager and Deputy Secretary,

Etobicoke and York Panel, Committee of Adjustment,

399 The West Mall

Etobicoke Civic Centre,

Toronto, ON

Dear Ms. Pringle:

Re: Minor Variance Application A204/08EYK, Parking

Lakeshore Planning Council was established in 1990 to involve the community in planning decisions and encourage good planning.

Minor variance A204/08EYK seeks to reduce the parking requirement for Humber College from 0.3 per student to 0.18 in order to refurbish 3 quadrangle buildings bringing the student population capacity up to 4610.

Humber College is located in the former Lakeshore Hospital Psychiatric Grounds now known as Col. Sam Smith Park. Maintaining this area as an environmentally sensitive area was the vision for this area and remains the community’s objective.

The application has the following advantages:

the three quadrangle buildings can be brought into service to implement the overall vision for the former Lakeshore Hospital grounds additional parking would add to traffic congestion within the grounds additional parking will detract from the green setting of Humber College and contribute to further urbanisation of the park lack of additional parking would encourage public transit us public supported expenditures would not be needed to be spent on additional parking

The Lakeshore Planning Council supports the application on the basis that the benefits outweigh the adverse impacts. The Lakeshore Planning Council believes that the four tests in the Planning Act (Official Plan, Zoning, Minor, and Desirability) are met.

We also recommend that the City form a Management Advisory Committee as originally proposed in the Parks Master Plan to help resolve all other future issues on this site.

Yours truly

Bill Denning, Chairperson