Excerpt:
A contentious proposal for an 11-hectare Muslim community development in Thornhill Woods was the focus of a jam-packed Ontario Municipal Board meeting in Vaughan Tuesday.
Fears over the incompatibility of a high-density residential development, which was to include two 17-storey apartment buildings, among a low-density suburb has drawn opposition from a neighbourhood group called the Preserve Thornhill Woods Association (PTWA).
Members of the group behind the project, the Islamic Shia Ithna Asheri Jamaat of Toronto (ISIJ), came to the meeting in two school buses ready to push back, filling the council chambers to capacity, and forcing a side room to open up for another 70 or so people.
“People are passionate about the communities they live in … People want to make an informed decision,” ISIJ member Sukaina Sumar-Ebrahim told CBC Toronto.