On February 21st , Regional Councillor for Grimsby, Tony Quirk engaged the community and public on his Facebook page about the proposed 8-storey Century Condos development in our Downtown. This was prior to the developer’s Open House on March 1st and the Town’s Open House which will be held on March 27th .
In his post, he shared a “5-storey design” that is actually 6 storeys (see the pic below and count the balcony levels) that he states the Region had shared with the developer and would have met the Official Plan.
Just to clarify, the maximum height for this site in the Downtown – Main Street cultural heritage landscape is 4-storeys.
Using the Official Plan Section 37 “bonusing” to get the “5th” storey, because the developer is providing underground parking, cannot be rationalized as an acceptable “community benefit” in exchange for additional height because underground parking would be a standard requirement of “good planning”.
This is also noted in the July 2017 Section 37 consultant’s recommendations presented to P&D Committee on March 20th. It’s interesting that the urban design team at the Region would be suggesting height “bonusing” at all, considering the heritage fabric of our Downtown.
And, unless we can’t count, it sure looks like the Slessor’s building is eight storeys, not ten.
We are hopeful that our Regional Councillor (who also sits as Chair on the Region’s Audit Committee) can better familiarize himself with the neighbourhoods in the hometown that he represents.
Please make the effort to attend the March 27th Open House for the proposed Century Condos development, 7:00 pm at Town Hall to speak your mind. You can also share your concern by participating in our e-mail/letter campaign or signing the petition here.