Developers eye Pleasantview area for major project

[LikeHamilton]

Developers eye Pleasantview area for major project

760-unit plan with apartments, townhouses proposed for York Rd.

Craig Campbell Mar 28, 2008 Dundas Star News

Requests for official plan and zoning amendments will be made to permit a 760-unit residential development in the middle of Pleasantview, part of Ontario's Greenbelt.

Planner Ed Fothergill presented detailed early plans to Dundas' Community Council last week for an extensive project that would see several types of development on more than 200 acres of property north and south of York Road, near Valley Road. There are a few landowners involved in the project.

The proposal, which has not yet been submitted to the City of Hamilton planning department, includes 100 single-detached bungalows, 150 townhouse units, 360 apartment units and a 150-bed nursing home, plus a wellness centre.

"We have done some work and tried to focus on something unique," Mr. Fothergill said. "We don't see this as an urban form of development."

He said the residential development would focus on seniors, providing a community for them to age within. The plan also takes advantage of surrounding open space and Royal Botanical Gardens property, he said.

"This is not an environmentally significant property," Mr. Fothergill told community council members last week. "It is an area where there are environmentally significant properties around it, and we have taken that into account."

Though the city's official planning process has not yet started, with official plan and zoning amendments, and public meetings, required before a site plan is prepared, it's not clear how the Pleasantview area's history, and legislation, will affect the proposal.

Pleasantview is included in the province's Parkway Belt West Plan and Greenbelt plan.

Both allow limited development in the area, and require buffering around natural features as well as natural corridors.

Last week's early plans mentioned buffering between roads and development, open space between "pods" of development, and trails linking the development and connecting to existing trails.

The single detached homes are proposed for 0.2- acre lots, while higher density sections would feature six storey apartment buildings and the seven or eight storey nursing home.

Joanne Hickey-Evans, manager of official plan in the City of Hamilton's long-range planning department, said she's aware of the early proposal but it curently has no status.

"Pleasantview is governed by the Town of Dundas official plan, which essentially doesn't allow development at all," Ms. Hickey-Evans said.

She pointed out Pleasantview is also a special policy area in the city's new rural official plan. It states the area in question is still subject to the Dundas official plan and a 1995 Ontario Municipal Board decision that permits one unit per 25 acres or about eight units on the property in question. Another obstacle will be a long history of local opposition to development in Pleasantview open space.

Former Dundas town councillor Keith Sharp said area residents didn't even support less intense development on larger two acre lots in the past.

"How will you convince the people out there 760 (units) is a good idea, when they didn't want 100 before," Mr. Sharp asked.

"The answer is," Mr. Fothergill said. "We won't convince everyone it's a good idea."

He said this development would be less intense than previous plans, because "intensity of activity" is lower in a seniors community.

DundasStarNews.com |

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[flar]

I've been wondering when someone would try to develop that land. Prime property, especially now that an interchange is under construction at York Rd and Hwy 6.

This will be fiercely opposed.

[the dude]

yes, they've taken the environmentally sensitive areas that surround it into account...and have summarily discounted them. you're correct, this will re-open a massive can of worms.

the pig that is greenfield development will never be satisfied. it's hunger is insatiable and appalling.

[realcity]

Hello it's part of the Greenbelt.

Note to developers: reformat your business model. If the city doesn't fight it, one call to the OMB and they'll have to rule in favour of keeping it Greenbelt. The province isn't in the habit of drafting policy/legislature and reneging on it.

[HAMRetrofit]

Interesting that a person that continues to do the same thing over and over again to receive the same results is referred to as a psychopath.

[raisethehammer]

this should be an open-shut case. but it's Hamilton. Greenbelt shmeenbelt is our motto.

[hamiltonguy]

Originally Posted by raisethehammer

this should be an open-shut case. but it's Hamilton. Greenbelt shmeenbelt is our motto.

Pleasantview is included in the province's Parkway Belt West Plan and Greenbelt plan.

Both allow limited development in the area, and require buffering around natural features as well as natural corridors.

Not quite open and shut.

While I don't think i'd support something in an area not served by transit, at least the developers are mentioning density. If I were the city I'd look at finding them a more suitable place where they could do this.

Quite frankly they're better than developers who refuse to consider density.

[raisethehammer]

I haven't seen their plans but have a couple of thoughts:

1. When these guys say 'density' they mean townhomes. That's NOT density IMO.
2. This isn't even a smart place for density! It's in the country near Cootes Paradise! What's next? A high density neighbourhood filled with condo towers at 4th Concession and Hwy 8??

It'll be singles and towns with big driveways here....Cootes is in the process of being named a provincial park...we need to protect it.

[hamiltonguy]

Originally Posted by raisethehammer

I haven't seen their plans but have a couple of thoughts:

1. When these guys say 'density' they mean townhomes. That's NOT density IMO.
2. This isn't even a smart place for density! It's in the country near Cootes Paradise! What's next? A high density neighbourhood filled with condo towers at 4th Concession and Hwy 8??

It'll be singles and towns with big driveways here....Cootes is in the process of being named a provincial park...we need to protect it.

1. The story mentions 6 story apartments, otherwise i'd agree.
2. Of course it isn't. But I the city should encourage them to build this development elsewhere.

[fastcarsfreedom]

Whether Pleasantview is "country" is really what's open for debate. Indeed it is close to Cootes--and even closer to the 403 and rebuilt Highway 6. There has been development pressure in this area in the past--much of it opposed by a vocal group of residents who currently live there.

As for how the project is scaled--that remains to be seen. The Bertram Foundry redevelopment in town has had a fairly urban density to it--Dundas as a whole has had a fairly healthy mix of densities in it's development over the past 20 or so years.

[raisethehammer]

if they were to do 6-storey apartments, they'd need to get transit service and bike lane connections out there....otherwise, it's all cars.

[realcity]

they need to also mix the land-use. Can corner stores comes back? plus other small scale retail and apartment living. Otherwise RTH is correct it will be all about cars, and driving to Power Centers to get milk.

But oh that's right, that's what they call 'planning' in Hamilton, Power Centers being fed by the sprawling single-family-one-type-of-living-suits-all developments. Then the city scratches theirs heads after one generation, they have to close the school because everyone's family grew up and moved out at the same time.

[raisethehammer]

this area is called 'pleasantview' for a reason. let's keep it that way.

[waterloowarrior]

Ancaster News/Dundas

We'll soon be surrounded by nothing but asphalt

Published on Apr 04, 2008

Re: Developers Eye Pleasantview Area for Major Project, March 28 , The News.

I could not believe it when I read that developers are once again eyeing the fields in the Pleasantview neighbourhood. It seems to me that the status of this land has been going on for years. It also seems to me that many regulations, including the 1995 OMB decision and the designation of "protected countryside" under the province's Greenbelt Plan, stipulate against the kind of development proposed.

In addition, just last summer, the minister of natural resources proposed an amendment to Regulation 827 under the Niagara Escarpment Planning and Development Act to add four areas to the Niagara Escarpment Planning Area: one of these areas is Pleasantview. A number of stakeholders requested these additions, including the City of Hamilton, the Ratepayers Association of Pleasantview Survey, the Hamilton Naturalists' Club and the Royal Botanical Gardens.

Planner Ed Fothergill is quoted as saying, "This is not an environmentally significant property." How can Mr. Fothergill say the land is not environmentally significant given the stakeholders listed above?

Mr. Fothergill also states, "We don't see this as an urban form of development." This does not make sense at all, how else would one classify 760 residential units on 200 acres of land, if not urban?

The land that Mr. Fothergill and his developer friends want represents a natural corridor between (the ecologically sensitive) Cootes Paradise and the rest of the Niagara Escarpment. Developing this land will have devastating effects on the wildlife in this area.

We have had quite enough suburban sprawl in Dundas as well as the entire City of Hamilton. We need to take better care of our remaining green spaces before we are surrounded by nothing but asphalt. It is time to designate the land located within Pleasantview as national or provincial parkland -- a suggestion made by Councillor Russ Powers when he was the MP.


Kris Robinson
Dundas