The City of Belleville’s Planning Advisory Committee heard a proposal for a significant housing/commercial development north of Highway 401 off Highway 62.
Plans for “Towncentre Place” call for 93 residential units in the area of Towncentre Drive and Raycroft Drive.
Residences would include townhouses, semi-detached homes, and a 12-unit apartment building, as well as 16 units with four commercial units in a separate building.
It also proposes a trail connection that would lead to Settlers Ridge East subdivision.
The application calls for the property to be rezoned as Residential Type 2 (R2) Zone, Residential Type 2 (R2-20) Zone, a new Residential Type 2 (R2-X) Zone with special provisions, Open Space (OS) Zone, and Neighbourhood Commercial (C1) Zone.
Ruth Ferguson Aulthouse, president of RFA Planning Consultant, delivered a presentation to the committee on behalf of the owners and management team in charge of the project.
She outlined the scope of the project including providing details of each of the proposed dwelling units.
Ferguson Aulthouse says work has been done to ensure that the new zoning by-law was being adhered to when putting together the proposal.
“We’ve worked very closely with staff to ensure that we’ve satisfied the new zoning by-law to the extent that we possibly can, and ensure that there’s a comfort level with respect to how the housing units are laid out, and the arrangement and density considerations within the subdivision,” Ferguson Aulthouse told the committee.
“I just wanted to conclude that it will facilitate construction of additional housing for these builders and a range of housing affordability and forms of tenure.”
Councillor Sean Kelly asked Ferguson Aulthouse how much these homes would cost once completed.
She said the builders are looking at a range of $580,000 to $615,000 for the homes.
Some residents spoke about their concerns with the application.
One resident expressed concern about increased traffic on Highway 62 with the new housing coming in.
City staff say that a report looking into the additional traffic found that the increase would be “marginal,” stating that it would be generating about 112 new trips in the morning and 137 new trips in the afternoon.
Another resident asked about the potential uses for the commercial units within the subdivision.
Staff say the uses will be smaller scale.
“That could be a convenience store, it could be a small office, could be a nail salon, it could be a local gym, farm produce outlet, a variety of very small scale uses,” senior planner with the City of Belleville, Thomas Deming, explained.
“How we implement that is through our C1 Neighbourhood Commercial Zone and that’s what the applicants have proposed here.”
The committee approved a resolution receiving the proposal as well as having city staff put together a report based on public feedback.
The report would be brought back to the committee at a future meeting.
