Key vote in St. Joseph’s Villa condo fight tomorrow
September 21, 2009
Eric McGuinness
The Hamilton Spectator
http://www.thespec.com/News/BreakingNews/article/638906
DUNDAS — City council’s economic planning and development committee is set to vote Tuesday morning on controversial plans for two 10-storey condominium apartment towers on the St. Joseph’s Villa property, which already houses a 378-bed long-term care home and two seniors’ apartment buildings.
The meeting begins at 9:30 a.m. in the Webster Room at the Hamilton Convention Centre.
The 700-member Hamilton Naturalists’ Club, tenants in the 220-unit Governor’s Green community and seniors in the 106-unit St. Joseph’s Estates apartments are among the many registered objectors to the proposed project at Governor’s Road and Ogilvie Street.
Concerns include density, traffic, loss of green space, escarpment views and risk to a designated environmentally sensitive area on the property.
The application calls for 120 apartments in one tower and 88 in the other, along with two storeys of retail and office space, replacing lawns and gardens overlooking Spring Creek, a tributary to Spencer Creek. There are single-family homes on two sides of the site.
City planners recommend approval of Official Plan and zoning bylaw amendments with exemptions for height, business uses and a shortage of parking space.
They call it “an appropriate development that will protect existing environmental features, will promote inclusive design and housing options for Hamilton residents and reinforce Dundas’s economic vitality …”
The 200-page staff report can be found at
www.hamilton.ca under committee meetings and agendas.
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