Proceeds will go towards hiring legal counsel, planner, and experts

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A group of Beach residents are hosting a day-long concert to raise awareness about and funds to stop a controversial condominium development from going up at the foot of Neville Park Boulevard.

The Beach Lakefront Neighbourhood Association (BLNA) is looking to raise $100,000 to hire legal counsel, a development planner and the various experts needed to mount a convincing case against the development at the Ontario Municipal Board.

To do so, the community group is hosting the B.A.C.K. the Beach awareness and fundraising concert at Kew Gardens on Sunday, Sept. 7 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The free-of-charge event will feature a wide range of musical acts including Jesse Cook, The Skydiggers, The Mississippi Hippies and Batucada Carioca among others.

Radio personality Spider Jones will serve as the event's master of ceremonies.

The event will also include a live auction featuring a guitar signed by the Barenaked Ladies and an original painting by Elizabeth Berry.

Committee member Leanne Rapley also said hundreds of volunteers have also come forward to help with the event, which will also include a barbecue and an art show and sale.

"We hope that people will attend and hear our message," said Rapley, referring to the BLNA's goal of rejecting inappropriate local development, specifically a proposal for Neville Park Boulevard.

An area resident since 2005, Rapley said that this isn't a not-in-my-backyard situation but an inappropriate development application that just so happened to have been made for a street in the Beach community.

"It's a situation that could affect any area," she said, adding that the concert is another way for the BLNA to let the city know that it strongly rejects this development in their community.

"There's a lot of local concern. It's an issue that is important to lots of people."

For more information about the B.A.C.K. the Beach concert, visit www.blna.net

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DEVELOPMENT DETAILS

Over a year ago, Dermot Sweeny of Sweeny Sterling Finlayson and Co. Architects alongside partners George Kaiser and Neheel Suleman put forth a proposal to build a five-storey, 16-unit condominium building with one detached house.

This proposal required that the city amend its official plan and rezone 2 and 4 Neville Park Blvd. and 438 and 440 Lakefront Lane. The developers were asking for a variance of 5.4 metres in height and 1.34 times more than the permitted density of the area.

However, they've since revised their application taking into account community feedback like maintaining more trees on the site as well as reducing the development's height and density.

Despite the modifications, the BLNA is continuing to remain vigilant in its efforts to maintain single-family homes in the lakeside community. Many neighbours feel the development is simply too big and out of character with primarily single-family home community.

The city is expected to take a position on the revisions this fall.

Ward 32 (Beaches-East York) Councillor Sandra Bussin is also against the project and has been supportive of the residents' efforts.