The Strathcona Secondary Plan and St. Leonard’s Renovation are the two main topics for the October 1, 2013 Planning Committee meeting.
Livestream at 9:30am
The full agenda (City Website) appears short, but don’t let the items deceive you. Secondary Plans are lengthy debates with mandatory public input and opportunities for delegations to speak.
Strathcona Secondary Plan
The Strathcona Secondary Plan will be debated by committee today and facings resident opposition to its density targets along York Blvd. (Read RTH on this opposition)
Provincial density targets mean staff will respond to amendments to decrease density targets by noting that density will need to increase in other neighbourhood secondary plans if multi-storey residential is removed from York Blvd.
St. Leonard’s Society – The Charlton Hall redux
St. Leonard’s Society is back in front of Planning Committee yet again to seek the necessary zoning to renovate this successful half-way house.
The house, located on Emerald between Main and King, is seeking zoning changes required by staff to allow its existing use to continue with renovation work done on the house it is located in. The facility’s live conditions are poor, unaccessible, and in desparate need of renovation.
Much the same as radial separation with Charlton Hall, the Ward Councillor is opposing any permit on the grounds that any halfway house in the Ward is unacceptable due to the number in the lower-city and, specifically, Ward 3.
Much like Charlton Hall, St. Leonard’s is a model facility and there is a groundwell of public support.
If Council chooses to fight St. Leonard’s, the matter will go to the Ontario Municipal Board. It is expected, much like Charlton Hall, that Council will lose at the OMB, after paying for outside lawyers.