Hilda St. developer filing with OMB
Trees felled on Niagara Pines property during the weekend
The City of Welland could find itself before the Ontario Municipal Board as the developer of a proposed subdivision that was recently turned down by city council begins the appeal process.
“We’re in the OMB application process right now,” said Paul Savoia, owner/ vice- president of Niagara Pines Developments Ltd.
The company proposed a subdivision in the city’s north end that would see 10 single- detached homes built, six new ones fronting the south side of Hilda Street and four new ones fronting the east side of Aqueduct Street, with an existing home on the large property left in place.
Savoia said the proposal for the property makes sense and that it will be hard for a planner to argue against it at a hearing.
“It’s going to cost the city a lot of money. It’s a lose- lose situation,” he said of the appeal, adding the company is confident it will prevail.
City planning staff recommend the subdivision move forward, finding it consistent with provincial, Niagara Region and city policies which promote infilling and the efficient use of land within the city’s urban area; making efficient use of public services and facilities; consistent with city’s policies guiding intensification and infilling projects; and meeting current zoning of the subject lands. Council turned down the recommendation at a special meeting on Jan. 9, after Niagara Pines, city staff and area residents had met to try and workout a mutually-satisfactory agreement.
Residents had proposed an option for the property which consisted of a new street built off of Aqueduct Street, with the loss of a few lots and a treed buffer area left intact.
In a meeting between all of the parties on Jan. 2, Niagara Pines proposed two of its own options: for Lot 11, the most easterly lot along Hilda Street, to be sold to the neighbours or city at market value, approximately $ 200,000; or the removal of the majority of the median along Hilda.
Savoia said the plan put forward by neighbours was just a drawing, not anything prepared by professionals, reviewed by the city or a planner, and would have seen the elimination of a few lots on the property.
“It didn’t make any sense for me economically and didn’t make sense for the city. The city would have to take care of a new road and water and sewer lines. The internal road wasn’t big enough and it would have eliminated a number of trees the neighbours were looking to save,” he said.
If Niagara Pines had entertained any of the changes proposed by area residents, Savoia said it would have started the whole subdivision process over again and “things could end up in the same spot.”
Gadsby Avenue resident Anne Vernon said people in the area feel the proposed subdivision doesn’t fit in with the character of the neighbourhood and that Hilda Street is too narrow to deal with the extra traffic that would be caused by six new homes.
“The space is too small to fit in six driveways. There would be traffic congestion on Hilda,” Vernon, one of the neighbourhood’s representatives, said Monday.
She said with the way the development is being proposed, the number of construction vehicles on the street and in the area could also cause a problem, especially with no timeline on when home construction would start and end. Neighbours also want to see a treed buffer zone between the proposed new homes and existing homes that back on from Gadsby Avenue. But over the weekend, some of those trees and a bush on the property were taken down by Niagara Pines.
“We were hoping they would leave some or all the bush, and we would have settled for a small tree buffer,” Vernon said.
She said area residents understand the land is private property and that Niagara Pines has every right to do what it wants on it, but questioned the reasoning as the land currently sits in limbo.
“We just wondered what the motivation was behind his ( Savoia’s) choosing to cut the trees down now. The neighbours are extremely upset over it,” Vernon said.
Savoia said trees taken down on the property were dead or dying, and that plans had been in place last year to remove them.
“It wasn’t easy to get crews … we had extremely cold weather for trying to cut trees down.”
He said some of the trees taken down were ash trees, which are subject to attack by the emerald ash borer.
With the home on the development property currently unoccupied, it’s hard to maintain the property. Savoia was concerned the dead trees would fall on neighbouring fences or the home itself.
Erik Nickel, Welland’s acting general manager of infrastructure services, said the city doesn’t have any current bylaw for tree conservation or protection. At last week’s city council meeting, Ward 6 Coun. Bonnie Fokkens put forward a notice of motion asking staff to investigate creating a tree bylaw for the city, saying there is a need to protect the urban forest. She said a number of upper- and lower- tier municipalities in Ontario have bylaws in place to deal with trees and tree cutting.
The councillor said she doesn’t want to have a tree- cutting bylaw, instead, she wants something that looks at how trees are dealt with, clarifying issues the city faces around infill and development.
She raised the issue of the proposed subdivision as an example that is affected by infill and development.
Nickel said the Region has a bylaw that applies to designated woodlots and properties that have more than 1,000 trees.
“This is neither of those. It’s a large residential property in the city’s urban area and we don’t have any restrictions on cutting trees,” said Nickel, adding the city can do something about trees that have the potential to cause property or personal injury.