Housing pitch for former Glen Echo school site rejected
Development would be ‘disaster’ for the neighbourhood, councillor says
Councillors have sided with concerned residents in rejecting a plan for 264 residential units at a school site the city argues is too dense for their east Hamilton neighbourhood.
Those units would be split between an eight-storey apartment building and three blocks of fourstorey stacked townhouses at the former Glen Echo Elementary School grounds just west of Nash Road South.
Losani Homes bought the 1.3hectare site last year for $6.75 million after the public school board declared it surplus and put it on the open market.
Area residents who object to the development plan understand change is in the cards and housing is needed, Coun. Matt Francis said.
They’d support two-storey townhouses on the site, but have “valid concerns” with Losani’s denser proposal, he said.
It “would actually be a good development” along a major road like King Street, Queenston Road or Centennial Parkway. “You don’t build this in the middle of a neighbourhood,” Francis added, predicting “disaster” if it goes ahead.
During this week’s planning committee, residents raised a range of concerns with the plan, including traffic, given the congestion with two schools in the area.
“I could not get out of my driveway this morning,” said Michelle Hamilton, emphasizing local opposition to the proposal isn’t “a not-in-mybackyard kind of thing.”
“Let’s just make it reasonable. Make it fit with the neighbourhood.”
Planning consultant Stephanie Mirtitsch said her client’s proposal dovetails with municipal and provincial policy that calls for increased density and a variety of housing types near major transit.
Buses are about two minutes away on Nash Road and King Street East, and an LRT stop planned for Nash and Queenston is within 10 minutes on foot, Mirtitsch noted.
The project would offer mid-rise apartments and townhouses in an area that’s “generally lacking in housing choice and is primarily low-density residential,” she said.
Planning staff, however, recommended city politicians reject Losani’s plan, citing issues with local infrastructure capacity, its limited range of unit sizes, shadowing and incompatibility with the neighbourhood.
“It is not considered to be good planning as the height, massing and scale results in an overdevelopment of the site,” a report stated.
Planner Spencer Skidmore said a “fundamental policy hurdle” is that the city’s official plan stipulates medium-density projects should be along major roads and on the periphery of neighbourhoods.
Coun. Jeff Beattie agreed the development wasn’t the right fit for local roads but also noted his concern for “what’s under the ground as well,” pointing to the limits of the area’s 1950s-era sanitary capacity.
Mirtitsch said Losani had hoped for approval with “holding provisions” to study further sanitary capacity, traffic calming and natural heritage.
Asked about a “Plan B,” she said that could involve talks with staff but also pointed out the “opportunity” for an appeal to the Ontario Land Tribunal.
The planning committee’s decision awaits a final vote at council next week.