Sweetpea Christmas trees

Toronto neighbourhood upset after city shuts down Christmas tree lot

A popular Christmas tree lot on Roncesvalles has until 8 p.m. to sell all 150 of its remaining trees after a bylaw complaint prompted city officials shut it down.

Sweetpea's Christmas Tree Lot, an offshoot of Sweetpea's flower shop, had been operating out of the same location without a problem since 2010. 

This year, however, the market's owners decided to use a different lot space for the trees – one that the city says isn't zoned for commercial use.

A post shared by Amy McIntyre (@belgogirl) on

Sweetpea's owner, Sara Jameson, started a petition last week in an attempt to challenge the city's decision. Around 180 people signed to say they support using the lot at 294 Roncesvalles Ave. for Christmas tree sales, but the city's municipal licensing and standards division has not agreed to rezone the lot (at least not right now.)

"Well, we fought the good fight," wrote Jameson on Instagram Tuesday. "Without going into details, the Christmas Tree Lot is being shut down Wednesday, December 20th at 8pm."

Jameson says that they'll be unable to sell trees after that day, or even give them away to people in need as they've done in the past. So get yourself to Sweetpea's ASAP if you want to score a dope, locally-grown tree for 50 per cent off.  

Lead photo by

sweetpeasTO


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