ELORA – Consultants for the company planning to build a big housing development across from the Elora Cemetery got a mixed bag of comments from the public at a public meeting Thursday.
Those concerns included traffic, affordability and the height of a potential apartment building that is part of the project. One thing both consultants and residents agreed on was it’s going to be a big change for the town.
The open house at the Elora Community Centre was an opportunity for the community to learn about, give feedback on and to ask questions about a proposed development of 273 townhouse units with the possibility of an eight-storey apartment building at 350 Wellington Rd. 7 — currently farmland.
It would consist of 34 blocks of three-storey townhomes, a park block, parkette, 56 visitor parking spaces and 12 visitor bicycle parking spaces.
Consultants were on hand to hear from a few dozen community members as they passed by 10 information boards with maps, renderings and small details about the project.
Eldon Theodore, a planning consultant with MHBC, said in an interview the point of the event is to get feedback — this was not a statutory public meeting — and to understand what the community cares about.
Lifelong Elora resident Lorraine Bride echoed many of the concerns overheard at the open house, much of which stemmed with how many more people this would bring to the village.
“I am nervous about it, too many people like traffic and parking is a big issue,” Bride said. “So many Elora residents can’t even get a doctor now and bringing all these people and no doctors. I don’t know that I would want to see an eight-storey apartment building if that’s what they’re thinking down the road that’s pretty big.”
It wasn’t all negative though, Theodore stressed, but he did acknowledge this is a “pretty big development” that the nearby community has a right to care about.
“It does represent a substantial change from what’s currently on the site right now, which is effectively farmland,” Theodore said. “It’s introducing new character to the community … there’s heightened importance to get this right.”
Theodore and the available material at the open house noted the development is looking to fit into the character of Elora by taking cues from architecture on historic buildings in town such as the Dalby House.
He also said the development is looking to provide 'attainable' housing but couldn’t say how many units would meet that and what the price point would be as it is based on market conditions and local income.
John Northcote, consultant from JD Engineering who did the traffic study, was busy fielding inquiries about how this development would impact traffic on what is already a busy county road. He noted the biggest concern he was hearing that night was related to the speed of traffic on Wellington Road 7 despite it being posted 50 km/hr on that stretch.
The consultant said they are proposing some traffic calming measures by changing that section from the look of a rural cross section to an urban cross section by adding a curb, gutter and a boulevard with tree plantings along the edge.
“Part of that is to get that sense of an urban feel so it slows traffic down because it gives the driver a cue that you’re in kind of an urban area rather than in the country by farm fields,” he said.
Northcote said the nearby intersection of David Street, Middlebrook Road and Wellington Road 7 do not meet the threshold for traffic signals but the developers are advocating for a pedestrian crossing at it to provide connectivity into town or the community centre for those walking from the development. They’re also recommending left turning lanes in both directions on Wellington Road 7.
Theodore said the consultants will be taking concerns away from this meeting but will be waiting on technical reports and agency comments before determining what changes need to be made.
The official statutory public meeting date before council has yet to be set.
