The former Canadian National Institute for The Blind building at 303 York Street is slated to be given a new life as a residential building of up to 32 bachelor and one-bedroom units.
Monday’s planning committee meeting found members unanimously support the project, despite several area residents issuing letters of opposition citing traffic concerns.
“Our neighborhood already sees an increase in vehicle traffic and street parking since NEOMO (medical centre) moved to Prete Street,” area resident Lexine Smith wrote in emailed correspondence to the city.
“This multi-unit complex would only exacerbate an already unsafe situation for those who live on the street. Visibility for drivers and pedestrians are already compromised, made worse by the lack of any sidewalks to use while walking and narrowed streets due to snow and street parking.”
This sentiment was shared by several others, with area resident Jessica Grillanda also expressing concern about parking, questioning whether there are enough parking spaces for 32 residents and if they might end up parking on the street.
During Monday’s meeting, Tulloch Engineering senior planner Kevin Jarus represented the owner, Sudbury Apartment Rentals Ltd., by addressing these and various other concerns.
They’ve been working with the city on finalizing their plan with the community’s concerns in mind for months, he told the committee.
“We’ve had many discussions on this and I think what we’re presenting to the community today really speaks to the effort all parties of the project have put into it,” he said, adding that the project adheres to the city parking requirement of one parking spot per residential unit.
Their ratio is 1.06 spaces per unit, though with six spaces set aside for visitors it drops slightly below one per unit.
With a nearby active transportation network and direct access to public transit, he said there would be enough parking for the bachelor and one-bedroom units they plan on creating.
They’ve also eliminated some parking spots on the north side of Prete Street, which they’ll turn into a landscaped area. This, he said, will introduce a snow-storage area to meet existing conditions.
City senior planner Glen Ferguson said that while the project carried a number of issues when initially presented to the city, various departments have since weighed in and helped draft a plan that meets city requirements.
“Over the last several months it’s progressed to a point where you have this planning report in front of you,” he said.
As for public concern about an increased flow of traffic to the area, he said they don’t anticipate any additional vehicular trips as a result of this project.
“When we looked at it, the number of trips generated by the proposed apartment units we found to be comparable to the previous use by CNIB,” he said.
During Monday’s meeting, the committee voted to amend the zoning bylaw to place the property under an Institutional Special zone from its previous Institutional zone in order to accommodate not only housing but also the possibility of institutional uses.
The city’s zoning bylaw describes this as: “A children’s home, a day care centre, a place of worship, a hospital, a private club, a non-profit or charitable institution, a group home type 1, a group home type 2, a special needs facility, a recreation and community centre, an arena, a public museum, a public library, a public business, a public fire hall, a public or private school other than a trade school, or any public use other than a public utility.”
Although Monday’s approval still needs to be ratified by city council as a whole, the committee’s unanimous approval points to the likelihood of that happening.
Following the meeting, chair and Ward 5 Coun. Robert Kirwan said that he was impressed by the degree to which city staff worked with the applicant to make their plan work.
“We’re getting very few applications coming to us now that are being denied, or the recommendation is to deny the application, because the staff is really working with the applicants to find solutions,” he said, adding that they always strive to come up with solutions.
“We didn’t see any reason to impose any further restrictions on the development because they’d done everything they were asked to do,” he said. “You can’t deny somebody when they’ve done everything right with their application; it’s just not right.”
The committee also approved an application for a basement apartment during Monday’s meeting, which Kirwan said is one of many projects that will make a difference in a housing-starved community wherein various areas of the housing continuum are in high demand.
“We’re always really pleased to see this kind of thing,” he said. “If you have enough people adding one more unit, then you’re starting to address some of the housing issues.”
Between these smaller developments and larger-scale housing efforts, Kirwan said that every bit helps.
“That’s what I’m hoping to push for in the coming years,” he said. “We’ve got to find ways of encouraging that kind of development.”
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
