Charges, coffee, beer on agenda
City council will hold a public meeting on Monday at City Hall about prospective changes to development charges.
The idea is to have council hear from the public about a proposed plan to nix development charges for small apartment buildings in the downtown and start imposing development charges on industrial lands city-wide instead.
Right now developers have to pay development charges to put up an apartment building downtown. But a new idea from Hemson Consulting would remove that charge for buildings with a minimum of 15 apartments as a way to encourage construction of downtown apartments.
Meanwhile Hemson also recommends that the city start imposing development charges on all industrial lands (right now there’s no charge).
If council adopts both ideas, says a city staff report, it wouldn’t likely cost anything: lost fees for apartment buildings downtown would be offset by new fees to build on industrial lands.
Citizens will be invited to speak to council about it at 5 p.m. in council chambers.
A more detailed report will then be presented to councillors at a meeting March 26 and it would go to a vote after that.
Also on councillors’ agenda
Monday:
New Starbucks on Chemong Rd.: Councillors will consider a rezoning application to allow construction of a new drive-through coffee shop next door to the Shoppers Drug Mart on Chemong Rd.
Although the city staff report doesn’t identify the coffee shop, the design shows a building that looks like a Starbucks.
City staff recommends allowing the rezoning;
New Microbrewery: A new microbrewery called Beard Free Brewing is coming to The Parkway soon.
The company’s website says the beer is made by three men – two of whom are beardless. Beers are named for local landmarks, such as Lock 21 and Simcoe St.
Head brewer Nyckolas Dubé is applying for a special by-the-glass liquor license from the province, and he’s asking city council to support his application.
The idea is to allow him to serve limited quantities of beer – no more than a 12-oz glass – for sampling his product.
Bear Free Brewing is going to be located at 4-649 The Parkway. City staff recommends that councillors support his application;
Peterborough and the Kawarthas Economic Development: PKED will offer its fourth quarter report to council for 2017.
Many of its goals were met or exceeded last year, and PKED won a provincial award for tourism for the Under Water Dining at Lock 21 tour. But PKED didn’t meet its goal of serving 10,000 people for the year at the Visitor Centre (they served 5,407);
Recreational Trail Crossings: Councillors will consider hiring a firm to design special crossings for two locations where recreational trails cross the active CP Rail line - and one additional location where a proposed trail crosses.
Those locations are: the Otonabee River trail by the CP Rail Bridge; the TransCanada Trail at Maria Street (between Burnham St. and Mark St.); the Crawford Trail extension ( between Townsend St. and Perry St. – which is not yet complete).
The idea is to create safe crossings for anyone, whether they’re using bikes, mobility scooters or walking.
A city staff report proposes hiring AECOM of Whitby to do the work, at a cost of $224,560. The firm scored highest of two bids received.
Don’t forget to check The Examiner’s website on Monday evening for livestreaming, tweets and blogging from the meeting.
The public meeting on development charges starts at 5 p.m. at City Hall, and the general committee meeting is at 5:30 p.m.