Port plan now in council’s hands
City council has been presented its long-awaited draft Port Dalhousie secondary master plan Monday, but some members of the public are disappointed it took so long.
“You’ve done a great job, but it’s just too late,” said Colin Johnston, president of the St. Catharines branch of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario, during a three-hour public meeting at city hall Monday.
He added he couldn’t believe the process started in 2015 and was being discussed in 2018.
“You knew development was in the offing. You should have nailed this one down.”
Council ordered a secondary plan and heritage conservation district study for the Port Dalhousie commercial core and harbour areas in April 2015 and hired a consultant a year later in April 2016.
The secondary plan provides land use policies, such as maximum building heights, aimed at guiding development in the area.
Lorelei Jones of consultant Macaulay Shiomi Howson Ltd. said new development applications submitted to the city before the secondary plan is adopted will be governed by existing official plan policies.
Hank Beekhuis, president of the Port Dalhousie Conservancy, told council there are four condo developments underway in the area and the city needs to worry about the total impact of all the developments together.
“We need and deserve a holistic approach rather than a piecemeal one. That’s what the secondary plan should be about,” he said.
Beekhuis said it was obvious the plan presented Monday was heavily influenced by the consideration of the proposed developments and those were driving the outcome, rather than public opinion.
He said the plan appears to be accommodating those developments rather than just following good planning practices.
“The secondary plan should drive the developments. The developments should not drive the secondary plan as appears to be the case,” he said.
Beekhuis said it was highly unfortunate all the development proposals were in before the community decided what direction it wants to go in by approving the secondary plan. He said there’s still concerns with height, volume, parking and traffic in the area.
Johnston said council’s ordering of a secondary plan was proactive and progressive but the biggest gap was that it hadn’t been approved.
“This is upside down,” Johnston told council.
“This is the cart before the horse. You’re closing the barn door when the horses got out.”
Resident Ed Smith echoed Johnston’s concerns about a delay, saying he was somewhat disappointed in the process which seemed to be “topsy-turvy.”
Council requested a city staff report in December explaining why the secondary plan was taking longer than expected.
A report from director of planning and building services Jim Riddell, included in council packages Monday, said the project has been “challenging” and staff were trying to strike a balance of all interests within the study — the public, council, development and property owners, heritage committees and Port Dalhousie Business Improvement Association.
Riddell’s report said planning staff were also delayed with other workload pressures.
They included a housing action plan study approved in June 2017, the infill housing zoning bylaw study approved in May 2017, Niagara Region’s GO hub study and related secondary plan requiring city time, a rental housing licencing bylaw and work on the heritage grant program review.
Jones of the consultants went through the plan’s development timeline for council as well, which included multiple meetings with city staff for further revisions to the draft plan.
The public meeting Monday night was held to get public comment. City staff will take it into consideration and come back to council with a recommendation about the secondary plan in March.
Jones presented highlights from the plan during the meeting and answered council questions.
The plan includes limiting the size of ground-floor commercial spaces to 400 square metres and restaurants
to 550 square metres to avoid ending up with big box stores in the area.
Jones said the idea is to have an engaging street front.
“Rather than having long continuous facades of just one use, if you have smaller stores and restaurants it provides some diversity in the area,” she said. Under the plan, frontage of individual commercial units could be restricted to a width of 12 metres unless an owner prepares an urban design brief explaining how they can maintain the character of the street.
Dalhousie House, a currently empty city-owned building, should be permitted for additional commercial, recreational or institutional uses to better maintain the building, according to the plan.
In the western harbour area, the Lincoln Fabrics building should remain the most prominent building and new buildings should demonstrate how they fit within the historic surrounding context. The plan also stresses the importance of maintaining direct public waterfront access along the entire length of the harbour area.
Building heights under the plan would be a maximum eight storeys in the western harbour and legion area, while other areas are proposed to be between one and six storeys.
The consultants recognized the Union Waterfront site has previous permissions in place for a 17-storey building granted by the Ontario Municipal Board.