TCDSB request to bulldoze homes to build school 'not fair': report

CTV Toronto: Small victory for homeowners The fight may not being over, but residents are pleased with an inquiry officer's ruling. Naomi Parness explains.

A Toronto school board's request to expropriate more than two dozen homes to build a new school is not fair or necessary, a new report has found.

The report is the culmination of several hearings between an inquiry officer, homeowners and the Toronto Catholic District School Board. It was written by Inquiry Officer David Vine and released Monday morning.

In February, the TCDSB asked residents whether they would move out of 30 townhomes in the area of Bayview and Cummer Avenues, and found that most of the residents weren't willing to go.

At the time, the school board said it was considering expropriating the land -- a move that would force residents to leave -- but hoped to resolve the issue in a less extreme way.

Under Ontario’s Expropriation Act, a public agency can take property for "a purpose deemed to be in the public’s interest, even though the owner of the property may not be willing to sell it."

The board wants to repurpose the land for a new all-girls school, which would replace nearby St. Joseph's Morrow Park Catholic Secondary School. St. Joseph's is on leased land, and the board will be required to vacate the building in the next few years.

The board proposed a three-storey building adjacent to the townhouses, but the plan was rejected by the community. When that pitch was shot down, the TCDSB offered home owners market value for the townhomes, but found that most were not willing to accept the deal.

When the board began to consider expropriation, 21 of the residents came together to hire a lawyer and fight back.

The inquiry officer met several times with the homeowners' lawyer and the board before issuing a recommendation on Monday.

Vine wrote in the report that the TCDSB presented evidence and testimony supporting the expropriation of the land, but said he didn’t find the demographic predictions for the area convincing.

The TCDSB said that the school would need to hold 800 students, with room for an additional 300 in the future.

"The numbers in general are valid, however, there is no way of knowing how many of the families moving into the area will be Catholic School supporters, how many will have secondary school-aged daughters and how many of those will wish to attend a single-gender school," he wrote.

Vine recommended the board build a smaller school on the land adjacent to the homes, meaning they would not need to expropriate land.

He called the plan for a larger school "unnecessary and unreasonable."

Vine added that if the board does decide to go ahead with expropriation despite his recommendations, they should extend the vacancy date by a year to give the homeowners time to relocate.

"It is clear from the evidence called that the taking of the above-noted lands is not fair, sound and reasonably necessary in light of other viable alternatives," he wrote.