Police point out California Ave. safety concerns
New multi-unit dwellings are coming to the 900 and 1000 blocks of California Avenue — and Windsor police don’t like it.
On Monday, the city’s development and heritage committee discussed rezoning requests for two properties on California Avenue that would allow the owners to demolish single-unit dwellings and replace them with structures capable of housing several tenants.
A building with six units is being planned for the address of 955 California Ave., while a “double duplex” with four units is in the works for 1035 California Ave.
According to Barry Horrobin, director of planning and physical resources with the Windsor Police Service, both developments raise public safety concerns “that may further impact the surrounding neighbourhood, where a tangible quantity of incidents of crime and disorder already exist. The proposal to demolish the existing single-unit dwelling and replace it with something much larger and with considerably more occupants mirrors a pattern that has been taking place in both the 900 and 1000 blocks of California Avenue for a number of years now,” Horrobin wrote in correspondence with the committee.
There are already at least seven multi-unit buildings in the 900 and 1000 blocks of California Avenue. Located south of the University of Windsor campus and near College Avenue, the area’s rental properties were originally developed to attract student tenants.
But since 2015, the 1000 block of California Avenue has annually averaged 43 incidents requiring the intervention of Windsor police. Similarly, the 900 block has averaged 27 incidents per year.
These figures are “well above average compared to a typical city block of residences,” Horrobin wrote.
Horrobin believes the multiunit conversions in the area have had consequences “in terms of the quantity and nature of incidents police must regularly respond to and resolve.”
Horrobin suggested there is a limit that every neighbourhood reaches — a “social carrying capacity” — beyond which more residential intensification is “no longer beneficial or situationally appropriate … particularly when the long-term social health of the neighbourhood comes into question because of it.”
“The police crime and disorder data suggest that that limit has been reached,” Horrobin wrote.
Horrobin also questioned if the lots have enough parking space for the projected number of tenants.
City planner Thom Hunt said administration has received correspondence of this nature from
Horrobin before, but his comments can’t factor into the planning department’s decision-making.
Hunt said some of Horrobin’s concerns could be construed as “people-zoning,” which would infringe upon the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The idea of a neighbourhood having a “social carrying capacity” is something that “resides in the mind of police, for the most part,” Hunt said.
Hunt said similar comments by Horrobin were previously put before the Ontario Municipal Board — and the board chair ruled against them. According to Hunt, Horrobin’s correlation between residential density and number of police calls was not found to have bearing in any planning theory or law.
Both requests for rezoning on California Avenue were approved by the committee.