Residents fight Dundas condo plan
March 02, 2010
Emma Reilly
Hamilton Spectator
http://www.thespec.com/News/BreakingNews/article/731346
Dundas residents are lining up this afternoon to oppose a plan to build two condos on the site of St. Joseph’s Villa in Dundas.
About 125 people are attending today’s economic development and planning meeting and dozens more have written letters opposing the proposed condos at Governor’s Road and Ogilvie Street.
The application calls for 120 apartments in one tower and 100 in the other, along with one storey of commercial space.
Concerns include density, traffic, loss of green space, escarpment views and risk to a designated environmentally sensitive area on the property.
This isn’t the first time the controversial plan has been presented. In September, council members moved to defer a decision to see if Dundas councillor Russ Powers could broker a compromise between the villa, owned by St. Joseph’s Heathcare, and its critics, after a similar crowd attended that meeting.
The proponents of the plan say they’ve modified their design to try to accommodate the residents of the neighbourhood. Instead of making both buildings 10 storeys, they now propose a six-storey portion for one of the buildings, to tone down visual impact. They also chopped the number of commercial floors from two to one after concerns were raised about traffic growth.
Council members will vote on the proposal later this afternoon.