When people in Toronto rail against gentrification and urban intensification, it's usually for neighbourhoods like Dundas West or Parkdale. Or, more recently, Gerrard East, where a spring of Starbucks joints and glassy condos makes a run at some more rough-hewn, pre-existing charms. People don’t usually think about the Upper Beaches, where kids play ball hockey on streets with names such as Love Crescent and Kimberley Avenue. But it's here that a group of dedicated homeowners are taking a stand against a condo development that stands to threaten their community.

"It’s a Davis and Goliath story," says Jennifer Brass, smiling at the pun like she’s made it a hundred times before. Brass is a member of the Friends of the Glen Davis Ravine, a neighbourhood corporation headquartered on Glen Davis Crescent in the heart of the Upper Beaches. Since last fall, the Friends have been slaving diligently to protect the integrity of a ravine running behind their backyards (or the backyards of their neighbours) in the face of a proposed condo development spearheaded by the Kingston Road Development Corporation. Yes, it’s the Friends versus the Corporation. You’d have to pit someone named David against a literal Goliath to find a purer story of civic uprising.

The development in question is a proposed six-storey, 47-unit condo building at 580-592 Kingston Road, just up the hill from Glen Davis Crescent. The development is placed precariously on Glen Davis Ravine, a City-designated ravine at the bottom of Lake Iroquois. If the Kingston Road Development Co. has its way, the ravine itself will be threatened by a parking pad, concrete retaining walls, a paved walkway, and other features that are largely out of character with both the ravine and the sleepy little cul-de-sac below it. The developer has also applied for a rezoning variance, which could further increase the height of the building by 50 percent.*

"The developer has made no overtures in accommodating us," said Neil Sinclair, another friend of the Glen Davis Ravine (and, indeed, we couldn't get a hold of them either).

"Everyone feels strongly that the scale and the size of the development should not be occurring," Viive Ramaat told us on the phone a few days before we came down to see the ravine and the property being developed. Like the rest of the Friends, Ramaat works around the clock (when she’s not working her full-time job at Pearson International Airport) to spread awareness about the development and the effect it will have on the neighbourhood. Viive has put together bristle-board fold-out presentations explaining the major issues and the Friends have built a fairly detailed website in order to spread awareness. Apart from some fundraising, the Friends’ efforts (including a lawyer and a geological survey of the area) have been in entirely out-of-pocket. "We’re dead-ended," Ramaat says. "Support is kind of limited."

The Friends have found support in Councillor Mary-Margaret McMahon (Ward 32, Beaches-East York). "Our concern is primarily that the ravine protection bylaw has more teeth on it, or sharper teeth on it," says McMahon, who is "baffled" by the City’s apparent inability to enforce its own bylaw. She also mentioned bringing forward a motion to Council to strengthen the existing bylaw.

Beyond the issue of one of Toronto’s few existing geological features being threatened, the Glen Davis neighbourhood is also vulnerable to flooding. The neighbourhood, originally planned as a park, was built up in the mid-20th century atop already unstable Iroquois Lake bar sand. "Flooding is a big deal," said Friend Kip McCaskill, noting that the planned parking lots will further repel water downhill and that the older homes are not built to withstand it. The ravine is also essential to the neighbourhood’s water quality.

There’s also the building’s shadow, which will envelope the entire neighbourhood if the re-zoning is approved, as well as the privacy of Glen Davis Crescent residents whose backyard gardens and patios will be clearly visible to the proposed condo’s residents. "It’s an old-fashioned thing—your backyard and your gardens and your neighbourhoods," says Patricia Aziz, who lives just around the ravine’s bend on Glen Oak Drive, and has pitched in to help the residents of Glen Davis Crescent.

As it stands, the Friends and the City have demanded that the developer meet 43 conditions in order for the development to proceed. But the final decision ultimately rests in the hands of the OMB’s appointed representatives. The Friends, for their part, remain hopeful that their efforts won’t be for naught, and that the developer will meet the conditions laid out for them. Councillor McMahon is similarly expectant. "I’m an eternal optimist," she says. "I’m hopeful. My office will do all we can to help the developer meet the conditions."

* CORRECTION July 11: An earlier version of the story described the application as having gone directly to the OMB. OpenFile regrets the error.