[URBAN NOTE] "Toronto’s Baby Point seeks heritage status to fend off ‘monster homes’"

[rfmcdonald]

Jeff Gray's article in The Globe and Mail interests me, as I'm interested in old Baby Point.

The entrance to the enclave of Baby Point, nestled in Toronto’s west end near Jane Street north of Bloor Street, is guarded by stone gates. A little way inside, you find a cluster of 90-year-old Tudor-style homes ringed around some tennis courts and a log-cabin-style clubhouse.

On a recent weekday afternoon, the front lawns buzz with safety-earmuff-wearing landscaping crews – a clearer indicator of the area’s wealth than even the BMWs in the driveways. But all is not well in this exclusive neighbourhood, where some fear a coming wave of new buyers will tear down the area’s historical houses to build “monster homes.”

After the stucco-and-brick house at 68 Baby Point Road went up for sale earlier this year – later selling for $2.7-million – neighbours and local preservationists rushed to apply to have it designated as a heritage building, pointing out that it was built for Toronto Maple Leafs founder Conn Smythe, who lived there until his death in 1980. The proposal, which would block the new owner from tearing the house down or changing some of its heritage features, goes before Etobicoke York Community Council on Sept. 7.

But No. 68’s new owners say they just found out days ago about the push to designate their house, according to a friend who said they did not want to be identified.

“It’s a growing family, young family. They want to be able to make expansions or extensions to the house or rebuild it from scratch if they wish to. They paid $2.7-million for it and they don’t want to be controlled by anybody,” said the owner’s friend, Maz Ekbatani, a local real-estate agent, who will ask community council on Wednesday to delay their decision on his friends’ behalf.