MOUNT FOREST - Despite letters and emails from concerned township residents about the Bentley Street subdivision, township and county staff do not have concerns with Avila Investment Inc. zoning bylaw amendment application.
Tuesday is deliberation day for the township council regarding the Avila Investment Inc application.
In 2018, a draft plan was approved for a 411-unit residential subdivision on 32 acres of vacant land. The amendment facilitates the development of 231 single detached lots, 30 semi-detached lots, 120 street townhouses, two commercial blocks, a park block and a storm water management block located along Highway 6 and bordered by Bentley and South Water Streets.
“So, the report council will be discussing on Tuesday is the rezoning of the lands, which if approved, will allow the developers to continue on with the development. It’s basically addressing the lands as residential-use lands instead of industrial-use lands,” explained township CAO Mike Givens in a phone interview.
“County planning staff had no concerns with the proposed residential zoning being put in place as it is consistent with the previously approved draft plan. The only thing they have asked the applicant so far is to include additional details regarding the proposed residential component.”
County planning staff have asked the applicant for additional information because the applicant has requested an increased height of 18.5 metres on the commercial blocks to accommodate up to four residential floors above a commercial use.
Other than that, however, Givens noted that the zoning application does not seem to pose any problem or areas for concern.
“We have to remember that draft plan approval has many layers that the council needs to address before shovels hit the ground. Zoning bylaw amendment is just one of the layers,” said Givens.
“The next steps involved in satisfying all of the other conditions of draft plan approval is entering into a development agreement with the township. Development agreement ultimately contains all of the detailed engineering designs, road layouts, sidewalks, tree-planting, fence requirements. Once all of those designs have been addressed to the satisfaction of the township council, they will approve that agreement.”
Givens also noted that the developer is completing a traffic impact study that will be reviewed and submitted to the Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO) as the subdivision is located on the Bentley Street intersection which merges onto highway 6.
“That's a major item that many of the area residents have raised concerns about. The traffic impact study will be reviewed and will answer how the increased traffic will be addressed,” he said.
In the regular council meeting agenda for Tuesday, five letters were submitted for information from township residents concerned about the subdivision and increased traffic.
“We strongly feel that the Wellington North council has a great opportunity to showcase Wellington North and Mount Forest and not sell out like other jurisdictions, where homes are haphazardly plunked into a subdivision without regard for the integrity of the existing natural lands and community,” wrote RoseAnne Desmarais, a Mount Forest resident, in her email.
“We're in for a long stretch of construction impacting our lives followed by a flood of daily traffic. 400 plus homes is a lot of people and a lot of cars. The idea of increased traffic flow onto Bentley Street is just mind-blogging and will create a bottleneck situation. The residents on Bentley Street are already experiencing issues when trying to turn north in good weather when weekend traffic flows to and from cottage country.”
Meanwhile, other residents such as Brad and Cathy Schwindt feel that the proposed development design of the buildings are too high, noting that “at 18.5 metres high, these buildings will be way out of proportion with what else is being built in this area.”
Givens explained that council is well aware of the concerns area residents have of the subdivision, and are working with the developers to make sure all concerns are addressed.
