The developer hoping to build a hotel on Millennium Parkway in Belleville is now proposing the building be four storeys high instead of five and has added more landscaping to buffer the hotel from the nearby neighbourhood but residents of Cloverleaf Drive remain dead set against the plan.
Homeowner John Duncan spoke at a virtual public meeting of the city’s Planning Advisory Board last night (Monday) and said if a small motel were being proposed there wouldn’t be much of a problem.
“This is a four-storey monstrosity in our backyard on a piece of land that isn’t large enough to sustain it in a community that doesn’t want it and to be repeatedly told that it’s on Bell Boulevard when again Bell Boulevard is on the other side of the 401.”
Several residents said they felt the developer’s consultant was treating them with disrespect and Mayor Mitch Panciuk said he found the consultant’s remarks offensive during a presentation and “dripping with sarcasm”.
The mayor asked staff to see if the hotel could be accommodated on the property without making a lot of variances to existing zoning regulations regarding parking spaces and setbacks.Chair of the planning committee councillor Paul Carr said the neighbourhood had seen a lot of development over the years but most of it had featured one-storey buildings complimentary to the area.
Public member David Joyce asked staff if more landscaping and higher fencing might be effective to ease residents’ concerns.
City staff will bring a recommendation on the hotel’s rezoning proposal back to the planning committee for decision at a future meeting.
