Compromise reached over tower height

A proposed 19-storey residential development in Stoney Creek has been reduced in height in a compromise settlement between the developer and the city.

New Horizon Development Group agreed to reduce the height on the controversial development at 860 Queenston Rd., just east of Centennial Parkway South, from 19 storeys to 14, while still retaining its original number of 219 units.

In addition, 20 per cent of the units will be designated as affordable for the next 10 years.

“It’s a compromise,” said Stoney Creek Coun. Doug Conley. “(The developer) would have gotten 19 storeys (at the Ontario Municipal Board hearing). I didn’t want to take that chance.”

About 75 per cent of the residential units will be one-bedroom, an increase from the previous proposal. There will be about 265 parking spaces above ground and underground.

The office building on the property houses ReMax Escarpment Realty.

Conley said there will be no balconies on one side of the development to prevent people from looking into nearby houses.

Opponents to the development had urged the Ontario Municipal Board chair, Sharyn Vincent, to — if not dismiss the proposal — then limit the building to nine storeys.

But Conley said the board would not have agreed to that.

Paul Glenney has lived on Blanmora Drive, which backs onto the proposed development, since 1978. He said a 14-storey building “dramatically alters the landscape” of the entire neighbourhood.