After reducing the total number of homes last year in a planned subdivision on Windsor Drive, the developers are now hoping for an increase.
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
The developers of the Stirling Meadows Subdivision, slated for the northeastern end of Windsor Drive, north of Duke Street and south of Centennial Road, are seeking a zoning amendment allowing them to increase the project’s total number of units by 21, mainly by converting some units to townhouses.
“Due to market changes, they’re looking to rezone some of the interior lots,” Brockville chief planning officer Andrew McGinnis told council’s planning and development committee Tuesday.
A handful of neighbourhood residents voiced their concerns about the plan, touching on issues such as traffic flow and drainage.
In keeping with procedure for public meetings, council’s planning and development committee took no action on the matter, until staff returns with a recommendation.
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Last October, Brockville council gave conditional approval to zoning amendments needed for the sprawling residential development, proposed by Juliada Holdings.
Council’s “concept-only approval” of the project included an OK to a draft plan of subdivision, subject to a number of conditions.
The developers had earlier amended the subdivision proposal to lower the number of dwelling units by 95.
“The developer has now been in discussions with another party, a builder out of Ottawa,” McGinnis said in this week’s update, adding the new party wants to increase the density of the subdivision’s interior.
The rezoning aims to convert some single and semi-detached dwellings to townhouse units, as well as seeking the conversion of three single-detached dwellings to semi-detached.
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
The amendment, if approved, would increase the overall dwelling count from the 383 units agreed to in October, to to 403 units, McGinnis told the committee.
The ambitious subdivision plan comes as the city struggles to add to its housing supply amid a continuing housing affordability crisis.
At a public meeting last September, concerns from neighbours remained over the proposed population density and increases in traffic.
At Tuesday’s public meeting, concerns focused mainly on drainage and sewage, as well as traffic.
Windsor Drive resident Grant Parkes said traffic is already a problem on that street.
“Backing out of the driveway, we have issues as it is,” he said.
“It’s the traffic that I’m very concerned about,” agreed fellow resident Debbie Brand.
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
“We get semis going down our street, and it’s supposed to be a residential area. We get speeders. It’s a problem already and I’m very concerned about what is going to happen with all this development going on.”
McGinnis said a traffic study has already been done for the area, which calls for eventual traffic lights at the corner of Windsor and Laurier Boulevard. That study found the development did not warrant any traffic calming measures on the rest of Windsor Drive on the part of the developers, although the city might put its own measures in place after the area is built out.
On the matter of drainage, he said the design would see excess stormwater flow to parkland at the southern end of the subdivision.
“It is going to be a park that will only hold water in extreme storms, but then it will dissipate very quickly into the storm sewer,” added McGinnis.
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
In response to a resident’s question, the planner said such storms would be so extreme as to dissuade anyone from being outdoors in the first place.
“If it fills up and you’re outside, you’re soaking wet and going with the water,” he said. “The streets would be full of water if this park’s full.”
“It’s not very deep, though,” he added.
Alison Clarke from The Stirling Group, representing Juliada Holdings, noted the developers plan to raise the site.
“We have to import 80,000 cubic metres of soil,” she said.
Clarke noted that, even with the increase, the proposed subdivision will still be smaller than the 478 units originally proposed.
She noted the new traffic lights at Windsor and Laurier are to be installed once the subdivision is fully built out.