Parking and potential traffic impacts were among concerns raised by residents about a unique townhouse development proposed for 50 Westmount Dr. N.
A 114-unit stacked townhouse development is proposed for the 1.08 hectare property that formerly housed Mount Slaven Public School, between John Street and Mary Street. Developers brought forward requests for several zoning bylaw amendments to pave the way for the project at a public meeting on Monday.
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, with 114 residential parking spaces and 29 visitor parking spaces proposed for the interior portion of the property.
The requested zoning bylaw amendments are as follows:
- Allowing stacked townhouses as an additional permitted use for the property;
- Permitting six residential buildings on a single lot;
- Allowing a maximum building height of 12.2 metres, where 11 metres is permitted;
- Reducing parking requirements from 1.5 spaces per unit (173 spaces) to 1.25 spaces per unit (143 spaces); and
- Reducing visitor parking requirements from 25 per cent of total spaces to 20 per cent of spaces
With low- and medium-density homes in the neighbourhood, several residents raised concerns with the development’s potential impact along Mary Street, John Street, and the broader neighbourhood, but also with potential impacts along Westmount Drive, which has a steep incline on the way to its intersection with Coldwater Road.
“Due to the increases in Orillia, we have seen lots of traffic increasing in that area, and we have seen multiple accidents on this road due to the hill,” said one resident. “What happens in the winter time is all of this traffic that's trying to go up the hill, with the severe increases, is people are getting stuck on the hill ... it is a huge safety issue.”
Others had concerns with the number of proposed parking spaces, suggesting the number of units could be scaled back to avoid the “chaos” of other parts of the city, like the townhouse development at 800 West Ridge Blvd.
“I don't think anyone here drives 1.25 vehicles,” said a resident. “We drive two cars or one car. So anything more than one is a second vehicle. It's reasonable to assume … that two incomes are required to pay mortgages, to pay car payments, pay insurance, to pay all of the utilities.
“That means, unless mom and dad or husband and wife are carpooling to the same job, they're carpooling outside the city in two vehicles.”
During discussion, Coun. Ralph Cipolla agreed the city should look into traffic issues along Westmount.
“I think we really need to do something with it as a city, because the lights going into Tim Hortons and into the plaza are delaying the traffic consistently back there … and I think we really need to look at that,” he said.
Regarding broader traffic concerns in the neighbourhood, developers said their traffic impact study shows impacts of the development will not be significant in the neighbourhood, and will be a “significant reduction” over traffic at the former school.
“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, speaking on behalf of developer Yaseem Nimjee.
“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.”
Following discussion, council deferred making a decision on the proposed zoning amendments until its Dec. 9 meeting.
