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January 6, 2022

 

Dear Lord Mayor and Members of Council

 

We are writing you on behalf of Preserve Our Special Town - POST - a group of Niagara on the Lake residents and neighbours, enraged and inspired to action by the inappropriate development proposal for the historic Parliament Oak school site. We are not opposed to growth and development, but it must be responsible and respectful of the unique history, culture and character of the Old Town of Niagara on the Lake.  Low density housing in a form consistent with the surrounding neighbourhood properties and greenspace to reflect the heritage of this important property is appropriate and supported in both Official Plans. 

 

When the developer purchased the property, he knew that the provisions of the Official Plan allowed for a rezoning application  to low density residential rezoning if an institutional use ended:

 

OP 6A.15.3.1 (2) – Open Space And Community Facilities – All lands designated open space and community facilities……… may be redeveloped for Low Density Residential Use.

 

We are appalled that there has been apparently no effort to enforce this section of the Official Plan!  Instead, the planning department is entertaining an application for a development, the density of which is over 500% greater than the surrounding neighbourhood!

 

The Official Plan and Official Plan Review clearly state that intensification should not occur in this part of Town.  To the extent that any infilling might be allowed, the OP 6A.4.6 and OPR 4.5.3.10 state that it should be consistent, in density, height, massing and scale, with the surrounding neighbourhood.

 

The surrounding Established Residential neighbourhood has an average density of 3.5 units per acre.  The density of the proposal is completely out of proportion with this with a net density of 22 units per acre and the apartment building alone is 27 units per acre.

 

The surrounding Established Residential neighbourhood is comprised of one, one and one half and two storey homes of varying architectural styles.  The apartment building is over 43 ft high (54 ft including the mechanical penthouse) and over 370 ft long with 71 apartments. There is a total of 175 car parking spaces.

 

This is a view of the proposal from Regent Street.

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This proposed development should not be permitted in this location of the Old Town.  Growth is inevitable and desirable, but destruction of our community is not.

 

More detailed information about our objections may be found at postofnotl.com.  We urge you to review the information that may be found there including community points of view.

 

Yours truly,

 

Marilyn Bartlett, Alan Gordon, Connie Tintinalli

 

Representatives of POST, email address: update@postofnotl.com