Regarding the controversial rezoning request by MID for the lands south of the TCH and between Elmwood and Harrisville:
To be clear,
this is the area we're talking about - indicated in bright red on this map.
According to the T&T, the rezoning is for a
Business Park (currently zoned as Highway Commercial.
The concept is for:
- 50 commercial lots
- average lot size two acres
- tenants would be mostly small wholesalers, selling to other businesses.
- no manufacturing, fabrication, warehousing, distribution or bulk storage.
- there would be a 70 metre treed buffer between this business park and the Sunny Acres residential neighbourhood where the rail spur to Caledonia lies. This buffer however would only be 20 metres wide between Filles de Jesus Avenue and Queen Mary Road.
The concerns of the Sunny Acres residents mostly has to do with traffic, noise and smell. Since the concept is mostly for small wholesaling businesses, I can't imagine noise being much of an issue. Traffic could be a concern, but if the access is mostly via Filles de Jesus, this would bypass Sunny Acres. The smell issue was brought up mostly because of a pre-existing asphalt plant on McAleese (which has nothing to do with MID in the first place). There would be no other similar businesses allowed in this rezoned area.
This asphalt plant is most unfortunate. It was one of the principal offenders forcing Ecole Champlain to relocate. Too bad it's grandfathered in it's current location.
The Sunny Acres residents would prefer this land to remain wooded, but since this is a growing area of the city, I'm not sure this is practical. Also, the location of this land, wedged in between the TCH, the CNR mainline and a rail spur to Caledonia Industrial Park makes it prime land for business development.
Hopefully some accommodations can be made for the Sunny Acres residents. The treed buffer sounds good. A strong assurance that future rezoning to heavy industry will not occur would be helpful. I also wonder if the residents couldn't be offered a carrot such as a direct walking/biking trail connection between their subdivision and the Humphrey Brook Trail on the south side of the CNR mainline. This is something the city itself could invest in (perhaps with a contribution from MID).