The 80 -year -old honey grasshopper tree in Toronto’s licides neighborhood has been reduced to a stump, and angry residents say the developer illegally cut it, defying the city’s order to save it.
“It’s highly disappointing,” said Jyoff Katel, the co-chairman of the Leside Residents Association. “It is a matter of integrity and honesty.”
Many neighborhood residents say they understand the need for growth in 712 aglinton avenue East, but admit that they are destroyed by the loss of trees, which provide very important shadows during hot summer days and summer waves.
“It gave that corner a little character,” said Gary Tannan.
“In a broad daylight, the tree was taken down. People were crying,” said Ketal.
Municipal Councilor Rachel Chernos Lynn (Don Valley West) says the city has given concessions to the developer, allowing them to make the tree close to the road to maintain the road.
Lynn said, “It really makes me angry because I think we were taken advantage of, and what has happened is that he has prepared the system for his profit,” Lynn said.
‘What tree?’ The developer says that nothing was ever cut
Developer, Madcity, Details list of construction project On their website. They are not only consisting of a foreplex in the leside neighborhood consisting of five housing units, but they are also adding a garden suite.
Lynn said, “What was approved in the permit given for this property was within an area that protected the tree; the tree was never allowed down, and now there is a big huge hole.”
When contacted by Citynews, a Modcity Representative claimed that there was never a tree on the site.
“It did not happen,” the officer said during a phone call. “What tree?”
Fine for cutting a tree without a permit in Toronto Can be up to $ 100,000,
“While urban forestry prefers voluntary compliance, legal action can be taken against violations when appropriate,” reads Toronto’s website in the city.
Lynn says that the assets may not be sufficient to stop the developers, given the millions of dollars at stake in the properties.
“We worry that they are factors in the cost of business,” said Don Valley West Councilor. “One of the things I am doing is asking to put the province in the applied law that perhaps they should not be able to get a permit if they have done something like this.”
While the permit lives in the place, Lin tells Citynues that the developer has submitted a new application to the property, meanwhile the construction stopped.