New Starbucks up for approval
One of the largest Starbucks locations in Ontario could be built on Chemong Rd. soon, as long as council gives final approval on Tuesday at City Hall.
The developer applied for a rezoning, and council gave its preliminary approval at a general meeting earlier this month.
As long as council approves it a final time at a council meeting on Tuesday, the developer can start construction.
The proposed location is a piece of vacant land next to Shoppers Drug Mart on Chemong Rd.
Charles Dyer, the applicant who proposes to buy the property and develop it, is from Burlington. He spoke to councillors about his plans at a meeting on Feb. 5, saying he’d like to start construction in spring.
Dyer said the Starbucks would be one of the largest ones in the province, and would have a drivethrough window.
Although Coun. Henry Clarke asked whether council could regulate the drive-thru it wanted to, city director of planning Jeffrey Humble said that ”wouldn’t fly” at this time.
At least two citizens objected to the new Starbucks at the meeting on Feb. 5.
Graeme Marrs said it was shortsighted of council to allow long line-ups of idling cars at a drivethru, and John Hunter, who lives across the street from the proposed Starbucks property, said the added traffic will likely make it hard to come and go from his driveway.
Also on city council’s agenda on Tuesday (not Monday, due to the Family Day holiday):
Airport Development:
Council will vote a final time to adopt a strategic plan calling for $48 million in expansions and upgrades at Peterborough Airport over the next 20 years.
Projects such as extending the taxiway, upgrading the servicing and creating new industrial lots at the airport are all included in the plan.
On Feb. 5, councillors gave preliminary approval to adopt the plan as a guide, although spending needs to be debated and discussed at budget time over the coming years. On Tuesday council will vote a final time on whether to stick with it.
Meanwhile there are still several tall trees on privately owned land in the flight path of planes as they come in for a landing to the east.
The city has offered to buy tree easements from six property owners on Greenwood Rd. and have also offered to buy those properties outright, but the owners have turned the city down.
One of those homeowners, Bill Fields, says the offers he’s received from the city are unreasonably low. He told The Examiner he plans to speak to council on Tuesday to ask that they buy him out.
He said he and his neighbours are looking for a fair price (although he wouldn’t say how much he’s asking).
“We’re not asking for the moon,” he said.
City solicitor Patricia Lester told The Examiner earlier this week that city staff is still working toward a “reasonable” resolution, and a new report to councillors on the matter is coming soon;
New Website:
Council will vote a final time on Tuesday to spend $477,915 on a new city website, plus similar-looking ones for the library, the Memorial Centre and Peterborough Housing Corporation.
The sites won’t be up and running for at least a year, states a city staff report.
At a general committee meeting on Feb. 5, councillors voted without debate to hire a Waterloo firm, eSolutions Group, to redesign the sites at a cost of $289,375.
Yet the full cost of the new websites is expected to be $477,915, states a city staff report. That’s because of other costs such as software purchases, taxes, contingencies and paying city staff to work on content for the new site.
If council gives final approval on Tuesday, the project will be expected to go forward.
The city’s current website is more than 10 years old and contains about 1,000 pages that must be redesigned and reorganized.
The new site is expected to allow citizens to complete online surveys, make payments or fill out application forms (for marriage licences, for example).
But it’s expected to take awhile to complete the project: the staff report states it will be at least a year before the websites go live;
Carnegie Wing Renovations:
Councillors’ plan to soon move the overcrowded building division from the lower level of City Hall into the Carnegie Wing will receive a final vote on Tuesday.
Although the city was thinking of renovating the Carnegie Wing over two years, staff later decided it would be less expensive and less disruptive to do it all this year.
The plan is to hire Snyder Construction of Ashburn, Ont. to do the work for about $125,000 (the least expensive of four bids received by the city).
Add consulting and management fees, taxes, contingency and abatement work, and the full cost of the project is expected to be $160,000.
The plan got preliminary approval at a general committee meeting on Feb. 5 and now needs a final vote before council on Tuesday.
Don’t forget to check The Examiner’s website on Monday for livestreaming, blogging and tweets from the meeting. It all begins at 5:15 p.m.