It seemed like a win-win. A developer’s bid to transform a historic landmark in the Village, though fiercely opposed at first, had come to gain widespread support from the Toronto LGBTQ neighbourhood.
After months of consultations — with community members, local organizations and city staff — the builder delivered a proposal to convert popular, long-standing drag bar Crews & Tangos into a 14-storey tower with 165 residential units. The development would be in the heart of the Village, on Church Street, just south of Maitland Street. City council approved the plans in 2022.
Then something changed. In 2024, the developer, Graywood Developments, submitted a new application for a tower with 48 storeys and more than 570 units.
Crews & Tangos would still have the right to return, the developer said, but community members say they felt betrayed.
And while the new proposal was rejected by the city earlier this month — council said it was not in keeping with the Church Street Village Character Area policies that call for “limited growth” and a “low to midrise pedestrian oriented main street character” — the community isn’t celebrating.
That’s because Graywood Developments has appealed the decision to the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT), which neighbourhood advocates fear is part of a trend of developers and real estate investors turning to the provincial tribunal to override the city’s rules and create larger, higher-profit projects that don’t take community interests into account.
“It’ll be an Armageddon of the Village as we know it,” said Connie Langille, president of the Church Wellesley Neighbourhood Association, noting the Village has long been known for its LGBTQ history, entertainment and community spaces.
“This is where people feel safe. It’s a beacon, it’s a sanctuary, it’s a refuge,” Langille said.
Another real estate giant wanting to build higher in the area is set to have its case heard at the OLT this summer. Investment firm KingSett Capital filed an appeal after the city rejected its proposal for a 28-storey mixed-use tower on the northeast corner of Church and Wellesley in 2024. City staff had said the plan did not follow Church Street Character Area policies. Its OLT hearing is set for June.
Graywood Developments did not respond to the Star’s request for comment. KingSett Capital declined to comment.
Advocates believe developers in the neighbourhood are watching how these cases unfold to see if they, too, can pursue large projects that city council would likely reject. The appeals come after changes by the Doug Ford government that advocates say have given developers more confidence to win at the OLT.
In 2021, the province merged the existing Local Planning Appeal Tribunal, Environmental Review Tribunal, Board of Negotiation, Conservation Review Board and Mining and Lands Tribunal into one body: the OLT. The Ford government created it in an effort to resolve land planning disputes faster and increase housing supply.
According to a 2022 analysis by the Hamilton Spectator, OLT decisions from January to August of that year favoured developers 97 per cent of the time.
Michael Cook, a land use planning and development lawyer at Davies Howe LLP, said the province has taken several steps over the last few years to get more housing built in the midst of a housing crisis.
While he doesn’t believe there’s one particular piece of legislation that would motivate developers to appeal now, he said, “I think there’s been a turn in the developers’ favour in terms of the policy regime; in other words, what’s permitted by (provincial) policy.”
The OLT, for its part, said, “each appeal is heard and determined on its individual merits.”
“The Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) is committed to high quality, independent, fair and principled resolutions of the matters brought before it,” a spokesperson said in a statement to the Star. “Tribunal decisions are based on the facts, the applicable law and policy, the merits of the case, and the evidence presented.”
‘Everyone feels like it’s a golden ticket’
The Village has experienced a growing wave of development over the last 15 years, and with it a permanent loss of LGBTQ venues and heritage features, Langille said.
“Everyone feels like it’s a golden ticket, and they want to cash in,” Langille said, adding that developers don’t have connections to the community and KingSett, in particular, has bought and sold several properties in the area.
The city in 2013 identified the Village as a Yonge Street “character area” to protect its heritage properties, pedestrian features, retail streetscape and more, and to ensure growth in the area respected the integrity of the neighbourhood.
In 2022, it seemed Graywood was respecting that preservation. That’s why the most recent proposal came as a surprise to those who had provided input and support for the developer’s initial application, and who say they were not consulted about the more recent changes.
The 2022 plan was for a 14-storey mixed-use building with 165 units that included non-residential space at the ground level with room to accommodate entertainment uses. In its 2024 application for a 48-storey mixed-use building, Graywood proposed 576 residential units, retail space and “queer supportive programming” on the lot. Graywood noted in the application that, as requested through the previous process, Crews & Tangos and Boutique Bar both received offers to return.
The new application also said Graywood appreciated the efforts and collaboration of the community and key stakeholders throughout the process to permit a 14-storey building, and added that it was “committed to building on that established goodwill to advance the project and deliver new housing, commercial, and community spaces that positively contribute to the future vitality of the Village.”
Langille said she had been excited to work with Graywood on its original application, but the highrise later proposed by the developer would “dominate the entire landscape of the Village” and contribute to the loss of its unique character.
The latest design “rises straight off the street” without adequate setbacks, towering over the nearby buildings with materials that don’t match the neighbourhood, Langille said.
“Folks need to realize that the iconic areas in Toronto aren’t going to remain unless all of Toronto more or less bands together and says, ‘These areas are important. They bring worth and value,’” she said.
Coun. Chris Moise (Ward 13, Toronto Centre) said the community feels “deceived.”
He emphasized that Canadians are not immune to the impact of another Donald Trump presidency, noting the U.S. government recently issued an executive order that refuses to acknowledge the existence of trans people.
“We’re trying to protect the little that we have,” he said.
What changed?
Kristyn Wong-Tam, NDP MPP for Toronto Centre and the former city councillor for the ward, said they worked alongside city planners, urban designers, preservation staff and even the economic development office to engage in months-long conversations with Graywood Developments and contribute to the proposal that was approved in 2022.
They believe Bill 23, the More Homes Built Faster Act, motivated Graywood to change its plans because it puts “more power into the hands of developers.”
“The (original) application was approved in June 2022, Bill 23 came into effect in November 2022, and now we see this new application which seems to throw everything we agreed upon, all the negotiated revisions, just out the door,” they said.
The OLT also experienced a significant change in 2021. That year, provincial policy limited the rights of “participants” to making only written submissions. Previously, they could give presentations at the hearings.
Cook, the lawyer, explained that third-parties can present at OLT hearings by getting “party” status, rather than “participant” status, but doing so requires much more time and resources.
Paul Farrelly, the chair of the neighbourhood association’s heritage committee, said that although developers on Yonge Street can build 70-storey buildings, the city’s North Downtown Yonge Site and Area Specific Policy protects Church Street from this type of development.
The city passed the bylaw in 2013 (with several consultations, including with the neighbourhood association). Seventeen developers appealed it, Farrelly said, but the neighbourhood association raised $50,000 to hire an expert witness, and the case was settled so that the Village would maintain its lowrise character.
Now, KingSett’s appeal threatens the policy again.
”(Developers) keep coming back, because there’s no limit; they have all the money in the world to be able to come back and try again,” Farrelly said.
Langille noted the tribunal’s members are appointed. They may not be urban planners and they may not be from Toronto, but they’ve overridden many decisions the city has made.
Coun. Gord Perks, chair of Toronto’s housing and planning committee, said generally most developers would prefer the certainty of getting approval from the city, rather than going to the OLT and involving a third party. But there’s a “particular struggle” on Church Street, he said.
He added the city manages growth in a way that improves the livability of Toronto, designating certain areas as suitable for highrises and others for midrise development. It also makes considerations for areas, like the Village, that have social and cultural importance to the city.
“So our whole official plan is being called into question by developers saying, ‘No, I just feel like building a tall building anywhere,’” Perks said.
The neighbourhood association, which has retained party status for KingSett Capital’s OLT hearing, is now scrambling to raise $50,000 and hire an expert witness. They started a GoFundMe, and hope to find someone who could speak to their argument about heritage, height and more.
They believe the result of the KingSett case will set the stage for Graywood’s case, and could eventually decide the fate of the Village.
