Greater Sudbury's planning committee gave the go-ahead on a zoning bylaw amendment for a 58-acre plot of land in the Silver Hills area in New Sudbury Monday.
Once approved by council, the land south of the Lowe's and Best Buy stores will be changed from medium density residential to general commercial, with a few caveats that restrict a small list of business types from being built on the land.
In the resolution, the land will be designated as C2 (general commercial) and will include all C2 land uses except an animal shelter, automotive leasing establishment, automotive lube shop, car wash, dry cleaning establishment, funeral home, mobile home dealership, modular home dealership, service trade and taxi stand.
Initially long-term care facilities were included on the list of restricted uses, but Ward 5 Coun. Robert Kirwan raised an amendment to have them removed. The resolution does say a retirement home containing a maximum of 160 rooms would be allowed.
"Could you explain why you have excluded the long-term care facility from land use in C2? My understanding is that a long-term care facility would be eligible under a C2 and we now have a retirement home of 160 guest rooms, but why would we remove the option of a long-term care facility?" said Kirwan.
City senior planner Glen Ferguson explained that the list of permitted uses for the land were discussed in consultation with the land owner/applicant, numbered company 1232252 Ontario Inc.
"It wasn't something that staff directly requested but there were conversations during the pre-consultation process between staff and the owner's agent in terms of coming to a general understanding of what that mixed bag of permitted uses going forward would look like," said Ferguson.
Ward 8 Coun. Al Sizer raised some questions of his own, this time pointing to the draft plan for the area, in particular the plan for cul-de-sacs, which can be costly when it comes to snow removal.
"I know developers like cul-de-sacs, how much of an impact (would there be) if we got rid of the cul-de-sacs and made a T-intersection or requested a T-intersection? How many lots would be impacted by doing that instead of having those bulb outs and cul-de-sacs?" said Sizer.
Ferguson explained the draft plan was not the matter being looked at on Monday, but that it had been discussed when the lands were initially draft approved and the plan actually minimizes the number of cul-de-sacs.
"It was a comment that came from our roads, traffic and transportation staff at the time and what ended up being draft approved, I would say it minimized the number of cul-de-sacs," said Ferguson.
"If that layout were to change in the future, how many lots, blocks could be picked up? I wouldn't be able to answer that question at this time."
Sizer said that he was trying to save any future councillors of Ward 11 — where the subject lands are located — any future headaches that can come with cul-de-sacs.
The draft approval itself will be coming up for extension in the near future, and council will have the opportunity to raise further concerns.
The planning committee voted in favour of Kirwan's amendment to remove long-term care home from the list of exclusions and voted unanimously in favour of the zoning bylaw amendment.
Council will vote on finalizing the amendment at a future meeting.
