Legion urges council to allow taller Port Dalhousie building
Members of Port Dalhousie’s Royal Canadian Legion Branch 350 urged city council Monday to allow their building to be demolished and replaced with an eightstorey condo.
The proposed development by Rankin Construction Inc. at 57 Lakeport Rd. requires a zoning amendment and was the subject of a 2½-hour packed public meeting at city hall.
The plan would see the twostorey legion building replaced by a mixed-use building that would include 51 condo units and 560 square metres of ground floor space for the legion.
“If this building doesn’t go through, the legion will disappear,” legionnaire Jeff Powell told council.
“It’s only because of the generosity of Mr. Rankin that we’re there now.”
Powell said the current building is a “maintenance disaster” and said the legion has been struggling with it for years. He said there are problems with the foundation, the heating, the airconditioning system and the roof.
Powell said whenever there is a new development in any small area, there’s obvious objections because the new building is always larger than the one it’s replacing. But he said this project will not intrude on residents because there are no houses on the side of the road it’s being built
on.
Current city zoning restricts the building height to 11 metres and does not regulate underground parking.
The application is for a 30metre-tall building, along with a special provision to encroach onto publicly-owned lands at 3, 45 and 57A Lakeport Rd. in order to be able to provide 94 underground parking spaces.
City staff will come back with a final report for council to discuss at the end of May or beginning of June.
Branch 350 president John Orchard said the development will not only benefit Port Dalhousie, it will benefit the City of St. Catharines.
The legion building is currently except from municipal taxes.
“Even if this exemption continues for the legion portion of the building, the tax benefits from the condominium portion of the building should be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars,” he said.
Orchard said the project will also boost the population in Port’s core, include landscaping improvements that will enhance the area and create a large legion hall that would be available for weddings and other events.
“I think this will be a model for legions in Canada,” said Rankin Construction CEO Tom Rankin, who was contacted by Orchard more than two years ago to build a condo building that would include space for the legion.
“Legions are closing down like crazy and you know that’s part of our heritage. I feel bad about that.”
But resident Eleanor Lancaster told council that proposed eight-storey buildings in Port don’t fit with the intent of the city’s heritage plan.
“They just wall off that area as an entrance to Port Dalhousie, where you look for the water, the parks, the waterfront and so on,” she said.
Lancaster said the legion project and two other condo projects pending in the area should be considered together to assess all of the impacts.
Other citizens have raised concerns at previous open houses about the height, unit count, traffic and parking.
The vast majority of 11 people who addressed councillors Monday night urged them to adopt the plan.
Scorecard Harry’s co-owner John Scott said some people are sending the message that the city is not open for business, which is hurting the city’s reputation outside of Niagara.
“This is not a Port Dalhousie project. This is a St. Catharines project and we have to start thinking like that,” he said.
Jordan Campbell of the new Carousel Tattoo and Barbershop at 50 Lakeport Rd. said there is a lot of untapped potential in Port Dalhousie.
“We can do something to support our legion and make some big changes,” Campbell said. “If shovels don’t get in the ground, it’s going to go from a missed opportunity to a lost opportunity.
“I don’t want to see another hole in the ground across from my business.”