amend the Woburn Community Zoning By-law Number 9510, as amended, with respect to 3817 Lawrence Avenue East, being Part of Lot 9, Registered Plan 3356, as follows:

(B) Site Plan Control:

enact a By-law to lift Site Plan Control from the southern portion of the Trustees of St. Stephen’s Presbyterian Church lands along Shoredale Drive when the amended Zoning comes into force; and

(C) authorize such unsubstantive technical, stylistic or format changes to the Zoning By-law amendment as may be required to properly carry out the intent of this resolution.

(2) The subject lands contain St. Stephen’s Presbyterian Church which fronts onto Lawrence Avenue. Access to the parking area at the rear of the church is available from two, one-way driveways onto Lawrence Avenue East. The parking area is currently paved but unmarked. The southern portion of the lands which have frontage on Shoredale Drive are currently vacant and have remained primarily grassed, except for the asphalt church parking area which encroaches approximately 10 metres (33 feet) into this portion of the lands. There are three fair sized trees along the Shoredale frontage of the property. Surrounding uses include a residential apartment building to the west along Lawrence Avenue and single family dwellings along Shoredale Drive, a residential apartment building to the east, and single family dwellings on the north side of Lawrence Avenue and on the south side of Shoredale Drive.

(3) The subject lands are designated Place of Worship along the Lawrence Avenue portion of the property and Low Density Residential in the interior of the property along Shoredale Drive and are zoned Place of Worship (PW). A Preliminary Evaluation Report was before the Scarborough Community Council on April 1, 1998 at which time it endorsed the processing of the application in the normal manner, subject to the application being amended to address setback and parking requirements on the retained parcel (the Place of Worship fronting onto Lawrence Avenue), and the lotting configuration being modified to create three single family lots with consistent frontages on Shoredale Drive. The application has been amended in these regards.

(1) The application was circulated to various technical review agencies, none of which expressed objections to the proposal. A Consent Application to convey the proposed three single family lots has also been submitted in conjunction with the Zoning By-law Amendment application and will be considered by the City at a later date following consideration of the Zoning By-law Amendment application. In response to the circulation of the consent application, which was circulated to all properties within 60 metres (200 feet) of the subject lands, one letter was received from Jim Simpson and Carolyn Cheong of 3801 Lawrence Avenue East, Unit 604. The letter explains that they, along with at least 75 other parents, walk through the church property along an existing pathway while accompanying their children to Willow Park Elementary school, which is located on Windover Drive south east of the church property. The letter requests that a pedestrian pathway be provided along with the proposed three homes, otherwise pedestrians will have to walk 3 times as far to take their children to school.

(2) Planning staff in consultation with Toronto District School Board (TDSB) staff have reviewed this matter and are of the opinion that a pedestrian walkway is not necessary at this location. Firstly, once the shortcut is no longer available, there is a safe alternative pedestrian route along public roads. Residents and children walking to Willow Park Public School from Lawrence Avenue, west of the church property, would now have to continue walking across Lawrence Avenue to Susan Street, east of the church property, and then south to Windover Drive. It certainly is a longer walk for pedestrians but within the TDSB guideline for walking distances to schools. Secondly, public pedestrian paths which are established and maintained by the City are ordinarily walkways which connect one public street with another or with a park. In this instance if a pedestrian walkway were established, it would connect the Shoredale Drive public sidewalk and the rear parking area of the church. The potential conflict between pedestrians and vehicles raises safety concerns. A continuous pedestrian connection between Shoredale Drive and Lawrence Avenue would require the dedication of private church lands to the City. This would necessitate the reduction of the proposed three lot frontages to accommodate a walkway, thereby undermining the feasibility of this project.

(3) The general character of Shoredale Drive to the south and immediate west is that of two storey single family dwellings on lots with 15 metres (50 feet) frontage. As directed by Council, the application was modified to provide for consistent lot frontages of 13.4 metres (44 feet) for each of the three lots proposed. The lot frontages and lot areas proposed are comparable to the neighbouring lots in the area and will fit into the existing fabric of this stable residential community. One single family dwelling is proposed on each of the three lots. The proposed building setback development standards will be identical to those applied to the neighbouring single family dwellings. The proposed single family dwellings will be sited in an effort to preserve two of the three existing trees on the subject lands.

(4) This proposal is consistent with the Official Plan which promotes the maintenance of stable, low density, residential neighbourhoods. It is a terrific opportunity for creating additional housing stock compatible with the existing character of the neighbourhood, and providing ‘closure’ between the single family community on Shoredale Drive and the more active Lawrence Avenue. The Official Plan stipulates that residential development of one or two dwelling units per parcel such as the subject proposal shall not be subject to Site Plan Control. Therefore, I am recommending Site Plan Control be lifted from the subject lands after the proposed Zoning By-law amendment comes into force.

(5) Parking for the church is currently provided on an unmarked asphalt parking area at the rear of the church building. The Trustees undertook parking counts on ten Sundays between September 1997 and March 1998, and the average parking demand over this period was 41 parking spaces. The applicant has prepared a parking lot layout plan which provides 52 parking spaces at the rear of the church. This is an adequate supply of parking to serve the existing church. I am recommending a parking standard of 5.3 parking spaces per 100 square metres (1076 square feet) of gross floor area be applied to the church property to reflect the proposed parking supply of 52 spaces and the existing church size of 970 square metres (10,440 square feet). Any new additional gross floor area proposed in the future will be subject to the General Parking Regulations for all Zones which requires a minimum of 7.7 parking spaces per 100 square metres (1,076 square feet) Place of Worship gross floor area.

(6) The required minimum side yard building setback for the church is one-half the height of the building on each side. Based on the existing building height of 14.8 metres (48 feet), the required building setback on each side is 7.4 metres (24 feet). As directed by Council, the applicant is proposing to amend the side yard building setback requirement to reflect the existing side yard setbacks of 6 metres (20 feet) on each side of the building. The revised setback standard will reflect side yard setbacks which have existed for several years without any known adverse impact on the surrounding properties.