March 15, 2018: Why Westboro?;
Rezoning Rochester Park.
By Gary Ludington, Westboro Community Association.
We know most of Kitchissippi has been invaded. Yes, by the Emerald Ash Borer, but also by developers. In February City Council ruined Rochester Park by rezoning it to allow two mixed-use buildings to be built along Richmond Road from the Keg Manor, west to the lot line of the homes on Fraser Avenue.
A representative for the NCC said this was necessary because the Federal Government wasn’t providing them with enough funding to carry out their mandate.
Also in February, four meetings were scheduled to inform residents of rezoning applications in our community. On February 20th at the Churchill Seniors Centre, we were presented with a Domicile proposal for a six storey mixed-use building which would replace the first three houses on the west side of Roosevelt behind Starbucks. This is an R3 zone where single homes are zoned for a height of 8M not six storeys as proposed by Domicile.
On February 22 we met at the Superstore to hear about a six storey proposal for 403 Tweedsmuir known as the Richmond Plaza Motel. One of the things the zoning is seeking is approval for a boutique hotel.
A third meeting was scheduled for February 26th for the corner of Churchill Ave and Byron Place but was cancelled at the last moment. The fourth meeting was held at the Churchill Seniors Centre on February 28th.
This meeting is for a four storey building with 25 rental units and no parking to be located at 342 Roosevelt next to the transitway. The rational for the 25 unit building is a need for rentals. However just in Westboro on McRae there are three buildings (one already built) that provide rental units; at Tweedsmuir and Richmond is a nine storey building of rental units; there are also a large number of triplexes that have been, or are being, built on Tweedsmuir, Clare, Athlone, Tillbury and Ravenhill – all rentals. So why do we need another on a short dead end street that already has vehicle issues.
Controversy about the two developments on Roosevelt centers around the fact that this section of Roosevelt is a dead end at the transitway and has just about zero on-street parking. Also, the street up to this point consists of single family homes.
The Domicile rezoning, if successful, would be to change that part of Roosevelt to Traditional Mainstreet similar to Richmond Road. We have heard support from the private sector that our Secondary Plan needs changing but they still come forward with these proposals and the City keeps supporting them.
Why? Let us know what you think.
[Ed: For more details on the developments on Roosevelt meeting visit kitchissippi.com and look for the March 1st 2018 issue of Kitchissippi Times, pg. 3, Streets “Crumbling” Under Development, by Bradley Turcotte.]
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