Sonoma Homes revising residential plan on Mountain

Developer makes changes after residents complain about impact on single family home neighbourhood

The planning consultant for Sonoma Homes says a revised residential development plan for 1.9 hectares of land at Upper Sherman and Acadia Drive should be submitted to the city some time in the fall.

Glen Wellings told members of the city’s planning committee this month that a revised plan is in the works after listening to six area residents blast the project.

“I can assure you we carefully listened to the delegations,” said Wellings.

He said he hopes the company can come back with a “mutually acceptable design,” but noted the revised plan will include condo units.

Last fall, Sonoma Homes filed an application with city planners to build two eight-storey and two 11-storey buildings and 489 units on three parcels of land in the Butler neighbourhood that currently consists mostly of single family homes. In late February, the city clerk’s office received a letter from Sonoma’s lawyer stating the developer was appealing to the OMB because the city had failed to make a decision within 120 days after a planning consultant filed the application, including a request for a zoning bylaw amendment, on behalf of Sonoma.

Wellings said the developer made the appeal due to the uncertainty of the planning process and not to shut out the community. While the OMB has been replaced by the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal, if the case goes forward it will be heard by the tribunal under previous OMB rules since the application was filed with the planning department before Dec 12, 2017.

Realtor Paul Busnello, who lives at what he calls “ground zero” of the development, said Wellings' announcement has given the residents a little bit of hope. “We have to wait to see it what it looks like,” he said.

The other residents were unanimous in their opposition, calling the project too big and too intense for the community, adding it will add as many as 2,000 new residents and much more traffic to an already congested area. Helen McKenzie called the development plan “a monstrosity” and Bob Huget called on city council to “object to this proposal.” Hamilton planning staff are reviewing the application and have not made a formal recommendation to the planning committee. City officials say since the matter is now before the tribunal, unless Sonoma proposes changes to their development plans, the tribunal will deal with the rezoning application as previously submitted. While nothing is scheduled, a pre-hearing could take place late this year and any full hearing before the tribunal is not expected until sometime in 2019.