Douglas St. residents will continue to have lane acccess

BY JASON THOMPSON

Because the city's planning committee wouldn't grant Julie Barr exclusive use to lands she wanted to lease behind her Douglas St. clinic in Sudbury, she has decided to back out of the lease.

The members of the planning committee seemed ready to green light a rezoning application, thus finalizing a lease agreement between the city and 3336263 Canada Limited. The rezoning application would have allowed for the numbered company to add parking spaces behind the Barr Plastic Surgery Centre.

While he has no problem with additional parking spaces for the clinic, Stephane Grenon, one of Barr's neighbours, says he still wants to make use of a lane that allows his access to his property.

Should the rezoning application and the lease have proceeded, Barr would have the right to deny Grenon and his neighbours access because the lane would pass on their property.

Mac Sinclair, the agent representing Barr told the committee his client needs the space for patient parking and doesn't want the lane or traffic to intrude on the business.  Sinclair refused to answer questions from the media after the meeting.

Grenon argued that with the amount of traffic on Douglas, the lane adjacent to Junction Creek is sometimes the easiest way to access his property. He said it can sometimes take up to 20 minutes to back out of his small driveway safely, especially during the morning and afternoon rush.

Saleem Khan, who owns the residence in question, told the committee people have been using that lane since the 1960s.

At the committee's request, Keith Forrester, the city's real-estate co-ordinator, met with Grenon, Khan and Sinclair after the initial planning meeting to attempt to reach a compromise.

Grenon indicated he would pay for the use of the property behind the Barr clinic in order to continue accessing his property.

Sinclair insisted Barr wanted exclusive use of the property because they were paying for the lease, as well as landscape improvements.

Forrester said if the planning committee wouldn't grant Julie Barr exclusive use to the property, she was no longer interested in leasing.

"It's the nature of the Barr's business and I understand their position. They don't want any traffic back there," Forrester said. "There is an element of discretion in plastic surgery."

The city owned property behind the clinic and adjacent to Junction Creek can now be used by Grenon as long as he enters into a licensing agreement with the city in order to legalize the use of the lane way.