[thistleclub]

Second time the charm for Fruitland-Winona plan?
(Stoney Creek News, Kevin Werner, Nov 13 2013)

The Stoney Creek community will get a do-over to dissect the controversial Winona-Fruitland Secondary Plan next week after city councillors approved the document last June.

But the outcome should be the same, with the document, which is a blueprint for the future growth of the Winona and Fruitland area, heading to the Ontario Municipal Board to decide its future.

Stoney Creek councillor Brenda Johnson said she has been consulting with planning staff about the problem areas of the plan, such as building height. But she is still prepared to oppose the document just as she originally did five months ago.

The secondary plan was thrown back to the municipality again in September because of a bureaucratic mix-up. When the Ontario Municipal Board approved most of Hamilton’s urban Official Plan in September it meant the official plans of the former suburban areas, including for Stoney Creek, were rendered null and void.

So the Winona-Fruitland Road Secondary Plan has to go through the city planning process again, including holding a public meeting and having councillors vote on it, to add it to the city’s new Official Plan.

The secondary plan is scheduled for discussion at the Nov. 19 planning committee meeting, starting at 9:30 a.m.

At the insistence of Johnson, the meeting is being held at the former Stoney Creek city hall on Jones Road to accommodate what is expected to be a large number of interested local residents who will turn out for the debate.

City planning officials said the substance of the secondary plan will not change. After a contentious and long public meeting in June, councillors approved the plan. An OMB date had already been scheduled in the fall after 16 appellants appealed council’s decision.

Johnson expressed some concerns that opponents of the secondary plan will use the bureaucratic confusion to their advantage in an attempt to overturn council’s decision.

But city planning staff said they followed proper planning procedures.

The controversial secondary plan, which was first proposed in 2007, has created a lot of hard feelings within the Winona and Fruitland Road areas.

Residents have opposed such planning ideas as increasing the density within the area, especially along Barton Street, the possible harm to the area’s tender fruit farmers, and realigning Fruitland Road to the east.

The plan also includes a gateway feature, a Winona Road commercial area, and boosts the density for the area by 73 people and jobs per hectare in an attempt to accommodate about 21,000 more people. The plan will immediately impact the lands bordered by Fruitland and Fifty roads, and Barton Street to Highway 8.

Opponents have stated the plan will destroy the small-town lifestyle of the area, increase traffic, and contribute to more health and safety issues.

During the June public meeting over 100 people packed city hall’s council chambers in protest of the plan. They were particularly incensed at having a document that would allow six-storey apartments along Barton Street and four-storey buildings along other streets in the Fruitland-Winona area. A petition, which had about 400 signatures, was also presented to councillors in opposition to the document.

Politicians did narrowly prohibit six-storey buildings after residents complained about a “wall of apartment buildings.”

A Stoney Creek Urban Boundary Expansion community advisory committee, chaired by resident Cal DiFalco and created in 2007, had recommended a revised secondary plan in 2009. But city officials rejected the committee’s recommendations and suggested their own plan for the area. City officials rejected the committee’s ideas.

DiFalco said at the public meeting members felt they were ignored by the city after they spent two years of their time trying to create a proper planning document for their community.

“The plan has lost its way,” said DiFalco.

Developers, though, have applauded the plan. They described it as “balancing” the needs of the community, and they have assured the community there is no market demand for apartments along Barton Street.

The entire plan is available to people to view at the city’s website www.hamilton.ca/fruitland-winona. People can also see the document at the Stoney Creek Municipal Service Centre.