Work drew Simone Gabbay to the Don Mills area in 1995. When she moved, she quickly found lots to like about the community and its mall.

“The thing we liked about Don Mills Centre was the way that you could live within walking distance of that mall, and still be in a quiet neighbourhood,” she said.

The ability to find some solitude on its walkable side streets, while never being too far removed from the hubbub of the city, for Gabbay, explains some of the neighbourhood’s charm.

Except that these days, she doesn’t find Don Mills so quiet.

The air is filled with dissenting voices in an ongoing conflict over the area’s central retail space.

In 2006, Cadillac Fairview, a land development corporation in Toronto, began the process of converting the former Don Mills Centre into the Shops at Don Mills. The redevelopment replaced small, familiar businesses with high-end, big box boutique stores.

The change has not gone over well with some local residents, including Gabbay. She founded Don Mills Friends, a grassroots organization formed in 2006 after Cadillac Fairview publicly announced its plans for the site.

“It’s never been a fight or an argument,” Gabbay said. “It’s really been a campaign for truth and justice for this community. I was upset when I heard what was happening, and how upset the merchants were. And I thought, ‘What can I do?’”

She began talking to people who owned stores in the mall, which led to her writing letters to Cadillac Fairview on their behalf.

“The merchants were quite upset about having been given such short notice,” Gabbay said.

Merchants at the old Don Mills Centre had six-to-eight months to vacate their stores, according to Gabbay.

“They asked for something to sign. So I put together a petition form and that’s how it got started,” she said.

Once word started to get out, other concerned citizens joined Don Mills Friends. The fledgling group gathered 5,406 signatures from neighbourhood residents who opposed Cadillac Fairview’s designs for the site. Yet development plans continued, culminating in the grand opening of the new Shops earlier this year.

Cadillac Fairview, for their part, says that the redevelopment has more to do with giving retailers the opportunity to be successful, than taking away from the community. Anne Morash is vice-president of development for the corporation.

“We couldn’t provide emerging retail stores. We couldn’t give them a platform,” she said.

Don Mills Friends’ aggressive brand of community activism has hindered relations between the group and Cadillac Fairview, Morash suggests.

“Anybody who crosses the line and doesn’t treat my staff like human beings doesn’t get our attention,” Morash said. “We’re happy to spend time to anyone who will show us respect.”

While Don Mills Friends weren’t successful in saving the old Don Mills Centre, the redevelopment of the mall space is not the end of the group’s contentions with Cadillac Fairview.

CF’s phase two plans for the site include the construction of over 1,000 condominium units. In exchange for the right to build condo towers, CF offered to build a community centre. However, Toronto City Council voted the plan down by a narrow 17-16 margin on Oct. 15.

The struggle now moves to the Ontario Municipal Board, a process that could take years to settle, once appeals are factored in. The greater residential density of the proposed units worries Don Mills Friends, but Cadillac Fairview insists that their plans fit the neighbourhood.

“We’ve looked at how to design the density with the community’s input. We feel we’ve prepared an appropriate development,” Morash said.

Julian Compton, a long-time resident of the area and founder of the Facebook group “RIP Don Mills Centre,” noted that not everyone sees an influx of fresh faces in the neighbourhood as a bad thing.

“Obviously that (sense of) community has been lost somewhat, but at the same time, they’re starting a new era,” he said. “I think that it will make Don Mills better in the fact that it will bring in more people.”

As for Gabbay, she’s not sure how this latest phase of her group’s campaign will play out, or if there is even an end in sight.

Still, she remains positive.

“We don’t like to think negatively, but we really don’t know,” she said. “We hope that justice will prevail, we hope that city planning will prevail.”