Townhouse plan backed by planning committee

A plan for a large new townhouse development off Chemong Rd., just south of Milroy Dr., got the initial stamp of approval from city councillors on Monday.

Mason Homes is proposing 87 townhouse units as part of a 770home subdivision it is building.

These townhouses – each two storeys – would be built together on an 8-acre piece of land at the eastern part of the subdivision.

But to make it happen, Mason Homes needs a rezoning: The current zoning is for a condo development, which isn’t quite the plan.

Instead, Mason Homes wants freehold townhouses – each with its own yard, owned by the resident - along a network of private streets and laneways.

Those streets and laneways as well as two parkettes, and all the outdoor lighting - are to be privately maintained by a condo corporation.

It’s called a common elements condominium and it would be the first of its kind on Peterborough.

Brad Appleby, the city’s subdivisions planner, told councillors it would allow Mason Homes more flexibility as it builds townhouses.

They could build the private road network upfront, for instance, and erect the buildings here and there along them as the market dictates – they wouldn’t have to build the townhouses all at once.

“It’s really about providing flexibility in the way they build their site,” Appleby said at City Hall on Monday.

City councillors voted unanimously to give preliminary approval to the rezoning. They must vote a final time at a forthcoming planning meeting, likely next Tuesday night. (Monday is the Easter holiday.)

Peter Lawless, the lawyer for the developer, was the only person from the gallery to speak on the plan.

He said it’s the first common elements condominium in Peterborough, but that the developer has done this before in Barrie.

No one in the gallery spoke in opposition to the plan and there was no debate about it – councillors voted unanimously to give preliminary approval to the rezoning.