ELORA – Another Centre Wellington public meeting on a taller than usual residential building brought another set of residents concerned about the height, lack of parking and impact it would have on Elora’s small town character.
The proposal heard at a public meeting Wednesday was for a three building development at 19 East Mill St. along the Grand River in Elora. Included in this development is a five-storey condo.
The condo building is proposed to have two ground floor commercial units and 18 residential units in the storeys above.
An existing two-storey stone building, formerly a casket and monument manufacturer, is proposed to become a restaurant or retail space.
These would have a combined 21 parking spaces located in a lower-level parking garage of the mixed use building accessed from Geddes Street.
A new house is planned for the space as well at the same footprint, scale and orientation as the current house which would be demolished.
Pierre Chauvin, planner with MHBC, said the preliminary design is inspired by other buildings downtown, in particular the Elora Mill.
He said this proposal is already well served by existing infrastructure, conforms with applicable planning policy and optimizes a currently underutilized property.
Familiar arguments from recent similar public meetings were heard from residents who felt the development was too high, lacked enough parking and didn’t fit in with Elora’s small town character. Council recently approved taller apartments in Downtown Elora and Downtown Fergus.
Resa Lent, a Geddes Street resident, was definitely concerned about height, parking and small town character but also put off by the preliminary design.
“It is an ugly wall with a lot of windows,” Lent said. “I cannot believe that it could not be made more beautiful.”
Lent said more condos aren’t needed in town and stressed affordable housing is.
“This being a condo obviously means it’s going to be people of means which yes, they do support the stores and they do support the restaurants,” Lent said. “There’s a lot more than that and a lot more validity in small communities than just pulling in all of this. We need better than what is acceptable.”
Grant Lucibello pointed out that because of the grade of the property, sloping down towards the river, the condo was closer in height to an eight-storey building and simply called the proposal a “bad idea.”
East Mill Street business owner Sabine Maarse was similarly concerned about height and questioned what would happen to the much used municipal parking lot adjacent to this proposal and worried this would exacerbate the existing problems around parking.
Residents weren’t all negative. Dushan Divjak said building up is the better alternative to building on farmland and thought the condo did fit in with the local character.
“It looks like the mill, it looks like the theatre, it’s stone, it’s kind of blocky and yes maybe even ugly,” Divjak said, getting a laugh out of attendees and council. “Seriously, if you look at other buildings that are of a period on Mill Street that’s what they look like.”
In response, Chauvin clarified the municipal parking lot would remain intact and suggested condo units might be a less costly option than a single-detached home.
When it came to the height, Chauvin clarified the height is measured from the street-level and Lucibello is correct when he said it appears to be taller than five-storeys.
He said he understands the concerns and fears around height as it initially appears to be a new thing for the community.
“It really isn’t when you look around our community, we do have four-storey buildings throughout and there will probably be even higher developments,” Chauvin said.
Councillors had similar concerns as residents. Coun. Jennifer Adams found the development to be a little high and did not like the design. Coun. Barb Evoy also indicated she looked forward to an “updated version” of the design down the line.
Coun. Kim Jefferson, chair for the meeting, also wanted some options presented for design and pushed on the parking issue, asking the proponents to really consider figuring out more parking for the restaurant to not add to existing issues with parking in Downtown Elora.
As Chauvin’s spouse, Coun. Bronwynne Wilton declared a conflict of interest and was not present for this meeting.
Council will make a decision on this request at a later meeting.