Despite parking and traffic concerns raised by local residents, city council has given the green light to a stacked townhouse development at the former Mount Slaven Public School site on Westmount Drive.
Last month, developers requested several zoning bylaw amendments for the project — including reduced visitor and overall parking requirements, permission to build stacked townhomes, and more — which council approved at its Monday meeting.
Planned for the 1.08 hectare property at 50 Westmount Dr. N., the development will bring 114 residential units to the property, with 114 residential and 29 visitor parking spaces slated for the interior of the property.
As only the second stacked townhouse development proposed in Orillia, the units will be spread across six, three-storey buildings, accommodating units on each storey.
During November’s public meeting, residents raised traffic concerns, expressing worry about traffic backing up along the steep section of Westmount Drive, or about the number of units creating the “chaos” seen in other parts of the city, like the townhouse development at 800 West Ridge Blvd.
Others raised concerns about potential parking issues in the area, given each unit will have a single parking space.
However, project consultants assured traffic impacts will be a “significant reduction” over traffic levels seen when the property’s former school was open.
“The site is going to generate in the order of 50 to 60 vehicle trips during those a.m. and p.m. peak hours,” said Tatham Engineering’s Michael Cohen. “I think it's a common misnomer that everybody associates traffic with the number of units – (that) 114 units, therefore, is going to generate 114 or 228 (trips) … that's not the reality of it.”
Council approved the zoning bylaw amendments without any further discussion on Monday.
