Will the Riviera Motel on Lakeshore Road have a close encounter with a wrecking ball in the near future?

Motel balcony is in a dangerous state of repair, decides to close down rather than do repairs.

By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON April 11, 2012  We didn’t “do it” but Our Burlington did get the ball rolling when we took a complaint to the Burlington Bylaw enforcement Officer asking her to investigate the state of the Riviera Motel on Lakeshore Road.

Burlington responds to complaints from the public when it comes to the state of a property – they are proactive when it comes to signs.  They don’t have people driving up and down the streets of the city looking for problems.  But when they get a complaint – they take action.

The Riviera Motel is one of the motliest looking things in the city from the outside – we had no idea what it looked like from the inside but it was an eyesore from the street side and from the walkway along the lake’s edge.

It took a while to get enforcement people out to the property.  They had to pull together a team from the building code department and people from the fire department but eventually city staff served a notice on the owners of the property to either bring the building up to building code standards or the place would be shut down.

The owners decided to shut the place down and we are advised that they expect an application for a demolition permit to be made in the very near future.  That will clear the site and get rid of an ugly, ugly and probably unsafe building.  Then what?

The property is owned by a group of European investors whose interests are represented by Mayrose Tyco who have the right at this point to put up a structure that will soar 22 storeys high.  When the height and density were given to the property developer more than 15 years ago the idea was to end up with a “landmark” structure that would define the city.  Define certainly didn’t expand into definite now did it.

Were a developer to approach the city today and ask for height of 22 storeys, the uproar from the Save Our Waterfront crowd would be heard in downtown Toronto.  All we hear right now about this project is – WHEN?  City hall is having close to conniptions with the pace at which developers get shovels into the ground.

The Medica One project on John Street  at Caroline is in “going nowhere” mode and may have been turned into “dead in its tracks”  if the city requires Nick Carnacelli’ s Carriage Gate organization to re-apply for the zoning they were given in 2009.

When the zoning for a 17 storey structure was given, then citizen Marianne Meed Ward delegated to city council several times demanding better transparency for the community.  She wanted to see a smaller building and a better street-scape.  Carnacelli won that battle but has apparently not met with all the undertakings he agreed to in 2009.  Meed Ward is now the Council member for the ward the development is located in – it will be a different conversation at Council when this one comes up next.

 

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2 comments to Will the Riviera Motel on Lakeshore Road have a close encounter with a wrecking ball in the near future?

  • Harry Mc Mahon

    I agree with Shannon Gillies, The place needs to be demolished.

  • Shannon Gillies

    Never has a structure been so worthy of demolition. Any word what happened to the long-term residents that were being helped out by the Region of Halton?