Seasons retirement home seeks to build twin towers near Stoney Creek lakeshore
Councillor questions area’s ability to handle extra people, traffic
https://www.thespec.com/local-stoney...mended_for_you
Coun. Jeff Beattie says he’s concerned a proposal to build two more residential towers near Stoney Creek’s lakeshore will overwhelm an area already poised to get three skyscrapers.
A site-plan application submitted to the city by the owner of the nine-storey Seasons retirement home in December seeks approval for a 949-unit development on an adjacent 1.07-hectare vacant lot that will include 43- and 36-storey towers.
The plan provides 1,161 parking spaces, most of them underground, with 48 set aside for the retirement home, which shares the 8 Shoreview Place property by Millen and North Service roads.
The development includes 933 residential units, 16 live-work units, 496 bicycle parking spots and 4,133 square metres of indoor and outdoor amenity space.
The application comes as the Ontario Land Tribunal is set to hold a May 25 hearing on a settlement with the city that will allow New Horizon Development Group to build three skyscrapers at 310 Frances Ave., about a half kilometre to the west.
Preliminary plans presented at a Feb. 3 OLT hearing show those towers will be 34, 44 and 37 storeys.
Beattie said the Seasons development raises similar concerns about the ability of the area’s existing roads, parks and sidewalks to handle the extra population, traffic and parking.
The plan proposes 1.17 parking spots per unit, below the 1.5 stipulated by city bylaws, which he said seems inadequate because there are no nearby shops or other basic commercial services.
“If you don’t have a car, you can’t live in this community, and so you have to have some place for those cars to park when they’re not being used,” Beattie said.
“You also create this shortfall where people constantly have to leave their community to undertake basic commercial functions, basic shopping, banking, services,” he said, adding the area is further isolated by lack of sidewalks on QEW overpasses.
“That I think doesn’t help to build the fabric of the community and I think that’s what community residents have been asking for. They want to build those foundational pieces to be able to have a complete community there and we’re still not getting there, unfortunately.”
But Seasons planning consultant Matt Johnson said the Shoreview Place site is one of two blocks of land in the area — along with 310 Frances Ave. — “purposefully selected to have no maximum density or height regulations” by zoning changes in 2010.
He said the goal was to offset overall reductions in the area’s density targets from 1973 plans that set aside 11 blocks for development but only saw the Bayliner and Shoreliner highrises built.
Johnson said the 2010 plan added amenity space, including a kilometre of shoreline protection work, nearly five hectares of public land dedications for a wetland and a 30-metre-wide park along the waterfront.
“I understand the councillor may have concerns with the proposed density, but it is important to be mindful the subject lands were identified in 2010 to accommodate the height and density within the broader plan of subdivision,” he said.
Viv Saunders, whose Lakewood Beach Community Council fought the Frances Avenue skyscrapers, said her group won’t be opposing the Seasons towers but worries the area lacks the amenities and street parking to support its “densification.”
“The roadways at least have segregated bike lanes on both sides. The roads are wider,” she said of the area by Seasons.
“It’s not going to overshadow any other places. It might block the for people in the Seasons (retirement home) of the sunset.”
Beattie said he plans to hold a public meeting as soon as possible to get neighbourhood feedback, identifying the nearby Bal Harbour and Frances Shores condo homeowners among those affected.
“I want to make sure we retain control of this as best we can,” Beattie said.
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