It bears all the hallmarks of what many in North Toronto call the "monster-home" invasion: a portable toilet, massive grey-brick walls, and angry neighbours.
Welcome to the dead end of Dawlish Avenue, near Bayview and Lawrence Avenues. Behind the metal guardrails, there was once a little wooded ravine. Trilliums, neighbours say, used to grow. Local children would camp out at night in summer. If you were lucky, you might spot a red fox slinking through the underbrush.
Now, it's a construction site.
On a lot that spills into part of the ravine, two new houses are rising, replacing one more modest old one at No. 209. Those who live on the nearby Lawrence Park streets have been left fuming at a six-metre retaining wall that cuts into the ravine.
It's a story familiar across the city, where new money clashes with old, and larger homes are transforming affluent neighbourhoods like Rosedale and Forest Hill. City officials say their opposition is usually swept aside by the province's planning tribunal, the Ontario Municipal Board, long accused of ignoring local concerns.
Worse, in this case, several neighbours feel the houses are bigger than they thought they would be, based on what the OMB approved. City inspectors have concluded the builders have actually followed the approved plans. But urged on by complaints, the local city councillor has asked inspectors to review the site once again.
Back in 2005, when the little band of Dawlish Avenue dissidents appeared before the OMB, they say they didn't stand a chance. First, they say they spent $30,000 of their own money on a lawyer. But they ran out of money before the hearing began.
What followed was a courtroom drama that at one point hinged on whether the Dawlish ravine was actually a ravine, in a debate that recalls the hair-splitting Bill Clinton went through defining the term "sexual relations."
According to OMB member Jason Chee-Hing's written decision, the then-developer's arborist argued the land was not technically a protected ravine, but "an isolated piece of backyard with trees on it." Under cross-examination, even the city's tree expert acknowledged it did not meet the legal definition of ravine but was listed as one because of the city's "mapping system."
The OMB ended up approving the developer's plans to mitigate the effects on the ravine by replanting trees. But in a city where permission to cut down a single tree on private property used to fire up lengthy debates at city council, the OMB okayed the chopping down of various large Norway maples, which Mr. Chee-Hing said was city policy. They were an "invasive species."
Ravine or not, Mary Usher-Jones has backed onto it for 22 years and raised twin boys who used to climb the trees here, even the "invasive" ones. She said far too many have been cut down.
One recent victim must have been 100 years old, she said: "It just breaks your heart. I had to leave the house when that chainsaw came out."
The man behind new houses is Payam Khazanbaik, 32, a latecomer to the story. He bought the land after the fight at the OMB, which was between the previous owners and the neighbours. He says their anger shouldn't be transferred to him. And he is adamant that he is following the approved plans to the letter, including pledges to plant new trees and address drainage problems.
All the neighbours have done, he said, is cause delays and force him to hire a surveyor to show city inspectors he was in the right.
He said the whole thing has him reconsidering whether to move his young family into one of the homes: "We never expected this kind of welcome in the neighbourhood."
City Councillor Cliff Jenkins (Ward 25, Don Valley West) said he would tell city inspectors to take another look, but acknowledged there was little the city can do.
Calling the OMB a "continuing nightmare," he sounded resigned to the speed and scale of the changes to parts of his ward: "In many neighbourhoods, the new monster homes are now in the majority."
Correction: Payam Khazanbaik is the owner of a house under construction at 209 Dawlish Ave. He does not own the house next door at 207 Dawlish Ave. Incorrect information appeared in a story in Globe Toronto on Saturday.