City council greenlit a 52-unit, five-storey apartment building at 944 Falconbridge Rd. during Tuesday’s meeting, much to the dismay of area residents.
Several of the 126 Don Lita community residents who signed a petition opposing the development were vocal in their opposition during Monday’s planning committee meeting.
“You’re all selling out our city,” one resident hollered at the committee following their 3-2 vote to approve the development.
“Shameful, shameful behaviour,” another resident said.
“Corporate dollars buy votes, apparent.”
“Who greased your pockets?”
During the meeting’s sometimes contentious public hearing leading up to a decision, community members expressed opposition to the development, beginning with Johanne Lerno, who organized the anti-development petition tabled with the committee during the meeting.
“We have a lot of concerns, a lot of concerns,” she said, citing such things as traffic, the privacy of area residents affected by a five-storey building, stormwater issues and light pollution.
Resident Brenda McVittie-Packham has lived in the subdivision since 1960, and said that her mother, who also lives in the neighbourhood, will be driven out of her backyard by the building due to lights from the parking lot and people looking down into her backyard.
“There goes the quality of life,” she said.
“Disappointed and appalled at the conduct of the city,” Erin Sherman said, criticizing the city for a “veil of secrecy” around the project, with various area residents not alerted to Monday’s public hearing.
(Per city policy, a notice was mailed out to all properties within 122 metres on Feb. 27 and a notice was posted in a newspaper on March 1. An earlier mail-out and newspaper notice were issued a few months prior regarding the application.)
Area resident Kevin DesRoches expressed concern that low-income apartment building residents might steal from yards.
“If something like this goes up, I’m out of there,” he said.
“In a building like this, what’s the percentage that has to be subsidized? Because there's nowhere for these people to go except for in this immediate area. … That’s a lot of people walking to see what we have in our yards.
“We pay lots of taxes to have good areas to live in, not to have, no offense, lower-income people travelling our neighbourhoods that shouldn’t be in there to begin with.”
Applicant representative Vanessa Smith, from Tulloch Engineering, said that municipalities in Ontario “do not people-zone,” meaning municipalities can’t zone properties to prevent low-income people from moving in.
“These units would be normal as-rent units,” she said. “I’m certainly not going to address any comments regarding crime in the area or the implication that these units would have residents who do crime.”
Staff had recommended the development for approval, with city senior planner Stephanie Poirier’s report concluding that it represents “good planning.”
The only hold-up is in area wastewater capacity, but as soon as a Don Lita lift station upgrade is completed as part of a broader municipal infrastructure project, capacity is expected to increase enough for the project to be allowed to proceed.
City Planning Services director Kris Longston said that work should start “imminently” and that he anticipates the lift station work to be completed by the end of the year.
Once wastewater capacity is cleared up, city departments do not have any concerns with the project, Poirier told the committee.
It’s on a primary arterial road, which “are suitable for a diverse range of uses,” she said, traffic “would not be significantly impacted,” shadow impacts would be minimal and stormwater management will be addressed in the site plan control process.
The committee agreed to lessen the development’s parking requirements to 1.2 spaces per dwelling unit where 1.5 parking spaces are required, meaning a net reduction of seven spaces, bringing it down to 63.
The property, which is currently vacant, will be encircled by a 1.5-metre high opaque fence with a 1.8-metre wide planting strip and a drainage swale along its border with neighbouring properties.
The apartment building will consist of one- and two-bedroom units.
“The site has been designed with sound urban design principles including landscaping along the arterial road, fencing and landscaping buffer abutting lower residential housing, parking towards the rear, and pedestrian connectivity,” according to Poirier’s report, which also notes that it’s close to GOVA Transit access employment opportunities, retail outlets and institutional properties.
“The development will add to diversifying the housing supply, consistent with the province’s goal of reaching 1.5 million homes built by 2031.”
The 3-2 committee vote during Monday’s planning committee meeting included nays from Ward 11 Coun. Bill Leduc and Ward 12 Coun. Joscelyne Landry-Altmann. Chair (and Ward 10 Coun.) Fern Cormier joined Ward 4 Coun. Pauline Fortin and Ward 6 Coun. René Lapierre in voting to approve it. City council as a whole ratified the decision the following day.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.