The Toronto Community Council recommends that City Council refuse to issue a permit to remove the trees located at 14 Riverside Crescent.

The Toronto Community Council submits the following report (February 23, 1998) from the Director, Development and Support, Toronto Parks and Recreation, Commissioner of Community Services:

Purpose:

City Council is required under Municipal Code, Chapter 331, Article III, to decide whether or not to approve an application to injure or destroy trees on private property that are in a healthy condition and thirty centimetres in diameter or greater. The Community Council as a standing Committee of City Council under the procedural bylaw has been authorized to hear public deputations if any and make recommendations to City Council on, among other things, matters covered by tree bylaws which are contained in the above mentioned section of the Municipal Code. An application for a permit to remove two trees on private property that the applicant feels are overgrown and too close to the house has been filed by Dyann Jane Sheppard, 14 Riverside Crescent, Toronto, Ontario, M6S 1B6, owner of 14 Riverside Crescent.

Recommendations:

That Toronto Community Council hear public deputations if any, and recommend that City Council adopt either 1 or 2 below:

(1) Refuse to issue a permit to remove the trees;

(2) Issue a permit for tree removal conditional on the applicant agreeing to plant replacement trees on her property to the satisfaction of the Director of Development and Support.

Comments:

The trees in question are thirty-five and thirty-seven centimetre diameter blue spruce in fair condition. In the opinion of Urban Forestry staff, the two spruce trees are structurally sound and viable specimens. The designated Humber Valley Ravine is in close proximity to the trees in question and therefore these trees are important environmentally as part of a ravine system. The spruce trees provide excellent habitat for many native bird species.

A notice of application sign was posted on the property for the required 14 day posting period, in order to notify the neighbourhood and provide an opportunity for objection to the application. One written objection was received in response to the application to remove the trees in question, a copy of this letter has been forwarded to the Community Council Secretary for the Community Council to review.

Contact Name:

Richard Ubbens

Telephone: (416) 392-1894

Facsimile: (416) 392-6657

e-mail: rubbens@city.toronto.on.ca

(A copy of a letter of objection dated February 2, 1998, mentioned in the foregoing report from the owners of 210 Riverside Drive, addressed to Mr. Andrew Pickett, Toronto Urban and Forestry Department, was forwarded to all Members of Council with the agenda of the Toronto Community Council for its meeting of April 1 and 2, 1998, and a copy of thereof is on file in the office of the City Clerk).

Ms. Dyann Sheppard, Toronto, Ontario, appeared before the Toronto Community Council in connection with the foregoing matter.