Solid Gold owners pitch retail, apartments

Strip club would be gone, but Coun. Craven concerned about height of 10 and 12 storeys

BURLINGTON — The owners of a Plains Road East strip club are looking to redevelop the site and build two new rental apartment buildings.

The developer, 71 Burlington Plains Inc., wants to demolish the Solid Gold building, which spans 53 and 71 Plains Rd. E. and 1025 Cooke Blvd., and replace it with two mixed-use buildings at 10 and 12 storeys with a combined 1,208 square metres of retail and commercial space at the ground level and 450 residential units.

The proposal features 581 parking spaces, 461 of which are underground, and accesses from Cooke Boulevard and Clearview Avenue.

While some may be pleased with the redevelopment plan, the heights of the buildings are causing some concern with Ward 1 Coun. Rick Craven.

“Obviously, it is good news to hear that the strip club will eventually leave Aldershot, but this proposal does raise other questions,” Craven said.

“Currently, building heights on Plains Road are generally restricted to six storeys, but city planners have also said that it is desirable to intensify the area around the GO station, so that more people will live within walking distance of public transit,” he added.

“Additional height is logical ... We have a long way to go on this file.

“There is plenty of time for public debate.”

A neighbourhood public meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, March 20 at the East Plains United Church, 375 Plains Rd. E.

City staff is also looking for public feedback on the application before a recommendation is made to the planning and development committee of council.

Any written comments can be mailed or emailed to senior planner of development review Lola Emberson at lola.emberson@burlington.ca.

Comments will be included in the staff report on the application, which will also be posted online at the City of Burlington’s website, www.burlington.ca.

The submission deadline is April 6.

For more information on the application, visit www.burlington.ca/solidgold.

71 BURLINGTON PLAINS INC. PHOTO An artist's rendering, above, of a redevelopment proposal for the current site of Solid Gold strip club, left, in Burlington's Aldershot neighbourhood, by developer 71 Burlington Plains Inc.

GRAHAM PAINE METROLAND