Posted Mar 13, 2018, 12:44 AM
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Ontario Municipal Board supports agreement that reduces Queenston Road's building height
3/12/2018 | by Kevin Werner
A proposed 19-storey residential development on Queenston Road in Stoney Creek has been cut down in a compromise settlement between the developer and the City of Hamilton.
New Horizon Development Group agreed to reduce the height on the controversial development from 19-storeys to 14-storeys, while still retaining 219 units, the same number of units as before. In addition, 20 per cent of the units will be designated as affordable for the next 10 years.
“It’s a compromise,” said Stoney Creek Coun. Doug Conley. “(The developer) would have gotten 19-storeys (at the Ontario Municipal hearing). I didn’t want to take that chance.”
About 75 per cent of the residential units will be one bedroom, an increase from the previous proposal. There will be about 265 parking spaces above ground and underground. The office building located on the property, which houses ReMax Escarpment Realty Inc., has just over 30 parking spaces.
Conley said there will be no balconies on half the side of the development to prevent people from looking into nearby houses.
“There are more positives (to the compromise) than negatives,” he said.
Opponents to the development had urged the Ontario Municipal Board chair, Sharyn Vincent, to if not dismiss the proposal, and then limit the building to nine storeys.
But Conley said the board would not have agreed to that request.
“These will be apartment units, not condos,” said the councillor. “We need apartment buildings.”
The Ontario Municipal Board had set aside 10 days for a hearing but a mediation meeting was held at the end of January, and a settlement was made by the city and developer at the end of February.
Vincent said the revised proposal “is consistent with provincial policy.
“The neighbourhood is undergoing significant infrastructure improvements. It encourages transit support.”
Sarah Knoll, a senior planner for GSP Group, told the hearing held at the Stoney Creek Municipal Centre March 12, the neighbourhood is undergoing change in anticipation of the construction of the light-rail transit service from McMaster University to Eastgate Square and the new Confederation GO station at Centennial Parkway and the QEW.
But Paul Glenney, who has lived since 1978 on Blanmora Drive which backs onto the proposed development, said a 14-storey building “dramatically alters the landscape” of the entire neighbourbood.
He also was concerned the only access to the development by residents will be into Battlefield Plaza, causing traffic problems.
Conley didn’t believe the building will disrupt the neighbourhood despite what some residents think will happen.
“In a few years residents won’t know it is even there,” he said.
Hamilton politicians in February 2017 turned down the development proposal, even though planning staff had supported it.
The building will be located on 0.38 hectares of the total 1.2 hectare property, currently occupied by a two-storey office building that hosts ReMax Escarpment Reality. The proposed development abuts Stoney Creek Little League Ball Park.
Knoll said the developer will be preserving the natural heritage designation of most of the land. She said the idea is to change the land designation from general commercial and open space to residential zoning.
There will be a 30-metre buffer to Battlefield Creek, while also protecting the designated open spaces.
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