Toronto councilor Paula Fletcher on Thursday asked the Ontario government to clean up a mess in the city’s studio district that she helped create.

‘Filmport is a wonderful development, but we need to maintain the studio district,’ Fletcher told a press conference at City Hall, urging Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals to intervene and stop a Toronto Film Studios complex from morphing into a big-box retail complex anchored by a Wal-Mart store. Filmport is the long-awaited megastudio expected to open shortly. The project is spearheaded by Ken Ferguson, president of TFS.

‘We need a high-end studio and holes in the wall where great things happen,’ she said of the need to mix Filmport with older soundstages on the city’s waterfront.

Fletcher, flanked by Toronto architect Ken Greenberg and former Toronto mayor David Crombie, took aim at SmartCentres, the big-box consortium that includes TFS-parent Rose Corp., for appealing to the Ontario Municipal Board after its original application to rezone 629 Eastern Avenue was denied by the City of Toronto.

The dilemma for Fletcher and Mayor David Miller is that both politicians supported TFS’ successful bid to build Filmport, while ignoring warnings from the local film and TV industry that the launch of the megastudio would enable TFS to transform its 629 Eastern Avenue into retail and commercial space.

SmartCentres has asked the OMB to rezone 629, 633 and 675 Eastern Avenue, or around 19 acres, to accommodate a 700,000-square-foot retail development.

The OMB is also considering rezoning another eight acres at 721 Eastern Avenue, in the heart of Toronto’s embattled studio district.

McGuinty’s government is being asked to declare a provincial interest on the waterfront, which is the city’s only way to overturn an OMB ruling.

Critics contend that Toronto’s studio district cannot afford the loss of more soundstages to retail sprawl. It already has giant Price Chopper and Canadian Tire outlets in its midst.

The city overlooked a rival bid from Britain’s Pinewood Shepperton
Studio and its Canadian partner Castlepoint Developments to approve the TFS Filmport development.

Kelly Carmichael, a spokeswoman for the East Toronto Community Coalition, says rival studios on Toronto’s waterfront insist they will also ask to have their land rezoned for retail development to protect their own interests if the OMB tribunal rules in favor of the SmartCentres application for redevelopment of 629 Eastern Avenue.

TFS’ Ferguson declined comment on the grassroots opposition to the SmartCentres redevelopment. Executives at SmartCentres were unavailable for comment.