Serving The Community

development as a rally cry

On a summer evening in 2019, a community consultation meeting was held in a school gymnasium for the Pinnacle Development located at 5475 Dundas St. W.  The topic of the evening was the developer's application to build high rise towers well and above what had already been approved by the city.

So great was the proposed change, that by the time the meeting was underway, every seat in the gymnasium was filled and the walls of the gymnasium lined with residents wanting to hear what was being proposed for the neighbourhood. 

After a presentation from the developer the floor was opened and the community was given the opportunity to share their thoughts and concerns...and there were many.  From infrastructure, to schools, to traffic, and a dozen other issues, resident after residents shared their concerns over the proposed overdevelopment of the site.  

Time quickly passed, and when the meeting was adjourned by City Planning there were still dozens of arms in the air wanting to be heard.

That desire to be heard sparked an idea in the mind of Peter Morris, a long-time resident of the neighbourhood—South Eatonville needed a residents association.

Grass roots organization

Shortly thereafter Peter drafted a flyer and printed over a thousand flyers and began to deliver them himself door-to-door across the neighborhood.

The flyer explained what had happened at the Pinnacle Community Consultation and invited concerned residents to email him if they'd like to join a residents association. 

Over one hundred households did, and shortly thereafter the first unofficial meeting of the South Eatonville Residents Association was held at St. James United Church.  

During that meeting, the community outlined the goals of the organization, how as a community we could actively participate and advance the cause of South Eatonville, and affect real change on municipal issues.  The meeting adjourned with the goal of forming a board and getting work underway. 

The formal establishment of sera

Following the first informal meeting of the SERA membership, 7 individuals volunteered to be members of the board.  Throughout the Fall of 2019, they worked to shape a vision and strategy for SERA, and begin the work of building relationships with local government to exert influence on the issues that mattered to the community.

With a strategy in place, key documents like the organization's bylaws written, and a growing interest thanks to word-of-mouth and additional flyer drops, SERA held its first formal General Meeting on the 22nd of January 2020. 

On that night, mirroring the Pinnacle Public Consultation, in the packed gymnasium of St. Matthew's Church on Bloor, the residents of South Eatonville formally established their residents association.  

In the year since then, the SERA board has worked tirelessly despite the new realities of COVID to ensure the needs of the community are being addressed.  From traffic, to development, to schools, SERA is advocating for the community affecting change in South Eatonville both big and small.