A local neighbourhood group is concerned about an approved plan to construct a 42-storey tower in their area, raising a long list of fears about the new development in an open letter shared earlier this month.
The group, which calls itself “Concerned Residents of Willowdale,” has various concerns about the planned tower at 2810–2816 Bayview Avenue.
Among the group’s fears, they claim that the construction of this new tower will put them at risk of a rare type of cancer and even the potential for excavation of the adjacent site to collapse their homes.
A representative of the group reached out, sharing concerns about the City’s approval of the plan “right behind single-family homes.”
The proposal site occupies a major street steps from a key intersection, a subway station, and Highway 401, though residents of single-family homes to the rear are fighting back. Google Street View.
“This decision overrides zoning laws, ignores health and safety risks, and sets a dangerous precedent for all Toronto neighbourhoods near transit,” reads the email.
The group shared a letter in which they raised a number of health and environmental concerns regarding the excavation phase of the approved project.
Most notably, the group states that “Deep excavation and construction for this tower will release airborne silica dust to [the] surrounding neighborhood, a Group 1 carcinogen. Silica dust is well-established cause of lung cancer and incurable lung diseases such as silicosis.”
The group argues that “While construction workers are legally protected by safety protocols, including wearing a half-mask particulate respirator with N-, R-, or P-series filters and a NIOSH APF=10 rating when working within 25 metres of silica dust sources, residents have no comparable safeguards.”
Indeed, construction workers are afforded more protection than bystanders, but on-site measures for dust mitigation, like spraying material with water during excavation and working behind netting or tarps, are typically employed to prevent the spread of dust.
If the risk reached levels where there was evidence of health impacts to neighbours, there would undoubtedly be insurance implications along with several documented cases of Toronto excavations contributing to silicosis in neighbouring homes and businesses.
However, the group argues that Toronto’s Dust By-law 1088-2018 [8] “does not regulate more hazardous large commercial construction projects like this one,” and calls the project “a serious public health risk.”
To support this claim, the letter cites a report prepared by radiation oncologist Dr. Michael Tjong that notes the dangers of silicosis from construction, and calls for greater municipal oversight into projects built in close proximity to residential homes.
But while this cancer threat is framed as clear and present, provincial figures suggest that the disease is extremely rare even in people with direct exposure.
According to Cancer Care Ontario, workplace exposure to crystalline silica leads to approximately 200 diagnosed cases of lung cancer each year in Ontario.
To put that into perspective, the Canada Job Bank notes that there were 596,000 people working in Ontario’s construction industry in 2023, or about 7.5 per cent of Ontario’s total workforce at that time.
There is indeed evidence suggesting construction workers are at a much higher risk of silicosis than other professions due to sustained long-term exposure, but there is no substantial research or evidence that one could point to to argue higher rates of the disease in people living in the vicinity of a short-term excavation.
Another concern raised by the resident group in their letter is the fear that the deep excavation required for the development’s underground parking component would undermine surrounding homes.
In their letter, residents write that “The proposed tower includes three levels of underground parking, requiring excavation of at least 10 metres deep. This degree of deep excavation, especially immediately adjacent to the property line, poses a serious risk of undermining the structural integrity of neighboring homes.”
The group posits that “The stability of older low-rise foundations can be compromised by soil shifting, vibration, and groundwater disruption, potentially resulting in cracked foundations, water ingress, or even long-term structural failure.”
While all of this is true in certain circumstances, deep excavations extending to property lines are commonplace in Toronto. Houses suddenly collapsing due to proximity to these excavations is not an issue you hear about in the news, at least not to the degree being suggested here.
Modern excavation operations — especially those built to lot lines — are not in the business of getting sued to oblivion, and stringent precautions are taken to ensure that these exact concerns do not come to fruition.
I’m not a doctor, nor an engineer. So I can’t sit here and tell you with 100 per cent certainty that these claims are overblown fearmongering.
I’m also not here to throw the term NIMBY around, but what I can say is that the group’s almost 1,800-word report is entirely devoid of any specific local examples of these fears coming to light, and makes no mention of Toronto’s ongoing housing crisis or demand for new homes close to transit stations.
However, it does dedicate a whole section of 120 words to “Unsafe Traffic Volume onto Narrow Local Streets,” and another 136-word section decrying “Loss of Privacy.”
