Metaphors aplenty: OMB approves condo buildings that will literally overshadow Queen’s Park

This is probably ironic only in the Morissette sense of the word, but Queen’s Park now knows what it feels like to be a residents’ association in Toronto: the Ontario Municipal Board, which has never seen a condominium it didn’t like, has rejected pleas to preserve the skyline around Ontario’s historic legislature building:

[Opposition parties and the Speaker of the Legislature] fear—along with architectural heritage experts—that the decision to allow the condo towers on the northeast corner of Bloor St. and Avenue Rd. would spoil the singular view of the Legislature looking north up University Ave.

The Star‘s Chris Hume is chuckling from a little bit of schadenfreude. Watching provincial politicians suddenly discover that the OMB’s rulings can be—gasp!—controversial, divisive, vexing and/or shortsighted is enough for us to join him.

Now that Queen’s Park has discovered it exists in the centre of a burgeoning metropolis, perhaps the folks at “the lege” will get even more involved in the city’s affairs. We’ve heard that there are a bunch of folks at city hall who would love to have some additional input on things, like, say, transit.

• Liberals urged to protect Legislature skyline from condo development [Toronto Star]
• Hume: From Queen’s Park, it all looks ‘local’ [Toronto Star]
• Speaker fights to save view of Ontario legislature [CBCNews.ca]
• Speaker pleads to save Queen’s Park vista [Toronto Sun]