Councillors back stores

Former seniors centre building

A former seniors’ recreation centre next to Lansdowne Place mall could be converted into retail stores under a zoning bylaw change city council endorsed Monday night.

Council, sitting as planning committee, tentatively approved the land-use-designation change for 770 Erskine Ave. without any discussion during its meeting.

The property is owned by 1392734 Ontario Ltd. It’s at the southeast corner of Borden and Erskine avenues, west of the mall.

The building has been used for administrative and computer services offices for Kawartha Credit Union, an electrical wholesale supply business and a seniors’ recreation centre. The property is currently zoned for service industrial uses.

The new zoning would allow a long list of retail uses, such as retail stores excluding department stores and food stores, banks, conve- nience stores, dry cleaning businesses, a hotel, restaurants, a car wash and an automotive repair shop.

With 20,000 square feet of floor space, the building could potentially be used for two large-format retail spaces with 7,500 square feet each plus a third unit with 5,000 square feet of floor space.

Council endorsed making an exception to its zoning bylaw for large-format retail stores to allow the existing smaller unit, which is roughly 4.950 square feet, to be used for a retail store.

The building was built in 1971, land use planner Caroline Kimble states in a report.

“The existing site is not proposed to be redeveloped and there, site plan approval is not being imposed at this time,” she states. “Staff will be requesting a high standard of redevelopment at the site plan approval stage because the site is located at a high profile corner.”

The item returns to the regular council meeting Aug. 6.