$100M condo plan denied
Meadowvale Green residents opposed to two towers
A St. Catharines developer is appealing the city’s decision to shoot down plans for a $100-million condominium project.
Developer Nick Atalick — he was at Monday’s St. Catharines city council meeting to discuss his proposal to build two condominium towers at 85 Scott St. — has already filed an appeal with the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal, formerly the Ontario Municipal Board, after city staff recommended against the development.
“We’re already before the OMB. July 13 is our date,” said Atalick, who applied for zoning amendments to allow the construction of two condominium buildings at 85 Scott St.
Much of the opposition to the development is from residents of the neighbouring Meadowvale Green Condominium at 81 Scott St., who are primarily concerned about the height of the buildings.
When roof-top penthouses are included, the new buildings would stand 12 storeys and 15 storeys tall — exceeding the existing zoning limit of eight storeys.
Meadowvale Green resident Eric Allan said during the meeting the proposed buildings “will dwarf” 81 Scott St., and that his 11-storey building is already “out of place” in the neighbourhood.
Fellow resident Suzie Neff told council that 100 per cent of the people she has spoken to are opposed to the height of the buildings.
Traffic created by the addition of about 250 new homes within the towers is another concern for neighbours.
Atalick responded to the opposition in a note dropped off at The Standard’s office Tuesday.
“The residents have made a mistake if they think that they will dictate the course of this development,” he wrote. “It’s about to get very ugly and very expensive.”
St. Catharines planning staff recommended against the development, saying it was not compatible with surrounding properties.
But Ken Gonyou from Upper Canada Consultants, representing the developer, said the taller of the two buildings does not have residential neighbours close enough to be impacted by it, and landscaping and setbacks surrounding the 12-storey building will mitigate the building’s impact on the area.
Planner John Ariens from IBI Group, hired to peer review the developer’s zoning amendment application, said the project is “an appropriate infilling project in an appro-
priate location.”
He said the site is located “where you want to have your higher density” — on the periphery of the neighbourhood, close to transit, employment and shopping areas.
Ariens said the current eightstorey limit on the property was the result of a 1985 OMB decision that “effectively shrinkwrapped” a development proposal being considered at the time, making it the zoning bylaw.
The developer’s proposal, he added, would add only three additional floors of residential condominiums to the smaller of the two buildings, plus a penthouse amenity space.
The taller building has “no compatibility concerns, no compatibility issues that the staff report identifies, yet it is captured by the same recommendation to deny the application.”
Ariens also said the said the city’s official plan lacks a clear definition of how the compatibility of a development is determined.
“Most official plans have ways to measure it (compatibility),” he said.
In Niagara, he said, only Grimsby’s official plan includes criteria for measuring compatibility. St. Catharines planning director James Riddell, however, later said the city’s official plan as well as other provincial and regional planning documents “give us planning staff lots of policies to evaluate the application against.”
Atalick said the recommendation from city staff “is totally inconsistent with everything that we’ve been advised.”
“Why the discrepancy?” he asked.
Mayor Walter Sendzik said as an urban centre, St. Catharines is going to grow despite being landlocked.
“We’re not going to grow into suburbia, we’re going to grow vertically,” he said.
“But we have to do it in a respectful way.
“We have to do it so it respects the neighbourhoods, respects the people living there.”
In this case, he said there’s an opportunity for mediation with the developer to “reach a compromise.”
Atalick said if his appeal is denied, he plans to build 250 rental units in two buildings on the site.
One of the buildings will be a seniors retirement building.