West Harbour Residents Association

 

 

To:       Allan Ramsay, Senior Planner

Date:    December 9, 2005

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

 

This memorandum is an adjunct to the report recently submitted on behalf of the WHRA by Greg Daly of Walker, Nott and Dragesovic. The residents in the area between Forsyth and Brock St. south of Lakeshore, are duly concerned with the properties in that area zoned C3. This concern was heightened lately with the OMB hearing concerning 86 Kerr St. (a property currently zoned C3, just south of the Beer Store which is on the southwest corner of Lakeshore and Kerr. As the OMB ruled against an application for variances for 86 Kerr St., which had been approved by Town Planning staff, residents are eager to see changes to the zoning that will make it more likely that Town staff will approve only those applications that are in character with the predominantly residential nature of the neighbourhood.

 

OBJECTIVE

 

The objective of this memorandum is to outline residents’ concerns about existing and possible future commercial activity in the area in question. These concerns were identified as a result of interviews with numerous residents, many of whom live in or adjacent to the C3 area in question. 

 

CONCERNS: 

 

The vast majority of the properties in question are currently residential, either in the form of townhouses or  single-family dwellings. There is a generic concern that some of these properties may be converted in future to commercial businesses, which would not be in character with the neighbourhood and which would significantly decrease the quality of life for residential neighbours in the vicinity. These conversions could take the form of:

 

1)                  new development whereby an existing building is replaced or significantly modified, OR

2)                  the opening of a business in a structure that is currently only residential.

 

For those few properties that are currently commercial (one property on either side of Wilson St. between Burnet and Lakeshore), there have been few complaints from neighbouring residents as the nature of the businesses currently resident there is one of low traffic and low noise, and because the structures on these properties have the appearance of residential buildings, i.e. regular houses. Following are the concerns of the residents regarding the two types of new commercial activity listed above.

 

1)                  New development: there are several properties on which there are very old and or modest structures, which are very likely to be developed in the near future for either residential or commercial or mixed uses (86 Kerr St., 80 Brant St. and possibly 79 Brock St.). The key concern of the residents with respect to these properties and their potential commercial use is:

 

• signage: any lit signs will detract from the appearance of this well-maintained neighbourhood, and will potentially affect neighbouring residences with ‘light pollution’.

 

• traffic: commercial businesses with customers visiting will generate additional street traffic. As the residential streets are narrow, this increased traffic level will be noticeable and will impact on the ability of residents to enjoy a reasonably quiet residential ambience. Especially for Wilson St., which is the access route for the increased delivery traffic as a result of the upgrade of the Water Filtration Plan, any increase in traffic will be markedly negative.

 

• street parking: with commercial businesses that have any noticeable level of customer traffic, there is bound to be an increase in parking in the nearby residential areas (both legal and illegal), which means an increase in noise and air pollution which is not in keeping with this type of residential area.

 

• back-yard parking: any commercial use will almost certainly require backyard parking. Any such parking lots will be immediately adjacent to residential backyards; the resulting traffic noise and air pollution will substantially deteriorate the privacy and enjoyment of residents adjacent to such parking lots. Especially in the case where these residents themselves live in the C3 zone, where no landscape buffer between the parking lot and residential backyards is required to mitigate the noise and intrusion on privacy.

 

• structural appearance: as this area (with the exception of the two properties mentioned, on Wilson Street) is currently residential, consisting of attractive townhomes and single-family homes, the residents feel that it would be highly inappropriate for distinctly commercial-looking buildings to appear in this zone. Such a structure would be out of character with the existing neighbourhood (as found by the recent OMB hearing) and therefore the zoning rules should be modified to explicitly recognize this fact.

 

• ancillary noise: commercial businesses typically have waste removal contractors and snow removal contractors that can provide their services at any time of the day or night. Often, these services are provided in the very early hours of the morning (between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m.). The noise of garbage trucks and snowplows at these times detracts noticeably from the peace and quiet that should characterize a residential area.

 

2)                  New Businesses in an existing residential building: for all those residences that are in the C3 transitional zone, it is possible that a property owner could decide to convert from residential only and open a business that had clients visiting the business. This would raise all the concerns as for #1 above, with the additional concern that if this happened in a townhouse, the intrusion on the privacy of immediate neighbours would be acute, given the close proximity of neighbours in a townhouse configuration. Informal discussion with  planning staff indicated that it would be difficult from the perspective of zoning restrictions, which require additional parking when a building is used partially or exclusively for commercial use, for a property owner to legally proceed with such a conversion. This provides the residents little comfort given that if a property owner seeking to convert from residential commercial  use applied for a variance regarding parking regulations, it would be up to the neighbouring residents to prove that granting of such a variance would not adversely impact them. To avoid this highly undesirable situation that would escalate tensions between the residents and the Town to an extreme, the residents feel strongly that a change in zoning disallowing or severely restricting possible commercial activity is the only feasible solution.

 

 

 

This memorandum prepared by the residents of the West Harbour Resident Association.