Mayor Taso Christopher, far right, accepts the cheque from Veridian, presented to the City of Belleville at council meeting, October 9, 2018 (Photo: Mary Thomas/Quinte News)
Belleville’s campaign to convert its street lights to LED lighting has just brought in a new reward.
The city recently converted more than 3,600 street lights to LEDs that consume less energy, have a longer lifetime, offer increased visibility and have reduced light pollution.
Tuesday night, Veridian Connections President and CEO Michael Angemeer attended the city council meeting to present a cheque for $436,497.53 to the city, part of Veridian’s Save on Energy rebate program.
Mayor Taso Christopher said the city not only received a rebate, but also saved about $250,000 a year in electricity costs.
Christopher says the LED lights also enhance safety for both vehicular and pedestrian traffic.
New washrooms at Zwick’s Park
Belleville will have a new washroom building at Zwick’s park.
City Council had planned to replace the old washrooms at West Zwick’s and had set aside a budget of $500,000 for the work.
However, earlier this year, all of the tenders came in at around $1 million.
The project was scaled down and re-tendered recently.
Tuesday night council, approved the low tender of $421,000 from local company Standard Paving.
The new washrooms are expected to be ready by the end of this year.
Expanding Central Business District
Belleville will expand its “Central Business District” to allow for a reduction in city development charges for a 103-unit affordable housing apartment building.
Developers propose the building be built at 135 Station Street, just outside the existing “district.”
If located inside the central area, new residential projects are eligible for a 50% reduction in development charges.
The proponents suggest lower charges will make it easier for them to successfully run an affordable housing building.
Storage unit agreement approved
A long discussion over storage units on a rural property in Thurlow ward is on its way to being resolved, following Belleville’s city council meeting Tuesday night.
In September of 2016, the owner of 970 Highway 37, Glen Jarrell, applied for rezoning to allow up to 300 storage units in the form of shipping containers on the unused property.
In the spring of 2017, city planning staff gave the Planning Advisory Committee the option of either allowing 76 well kept “traditionally built” storage units or 76 well kept shipping containers.
In a report, staff preferred traditionally built units for aesthetic reasons and there were concerns about the shipping containers providing unfair competition to existing storage businesses.
The Planning Advisory Committee voted to only allow rezoning for 76 traditionally built units.
Council supported the committee’s decision.
Jarrell appealed that decision to the Ontario Municipal Board, stating that the shipping containers had already been legally defined as “buildings” and were commonly used as storage units and in some cases were being used as residences.
An OMB hearing was scheduled for late last month was put on hold as council directed staff to negotiate a resolution.
Tuesday night, Council approved an agreement allowing 76 shipping containers to be used for storage units as long as several landscaping orders are met by the owner.
The deal will go to the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal for approval, which is the new form of the Ontario Municipal Board.
