Builder scales down Stoney Creek lakeshore skyscrapers

A second redesign of three proposed skyscrapers near the lakeshore in Stoney Creek will cut their height, although the builder still wants relief from seven city zoning standards.

New Horizon Development Group unveiled the latest proposed site plan for the condominium towers at 310 Frances Ave. at an online open house that drew more than 200 registrants.

The revised plan calls for buildings of 38, 44 and 33 storeys, down from an original 48, 54 and 59 in December 2018.

The development still features a 5-storey parking garage that will also include some housing, but reduces the total number of condo units to 1,346 from an original 1,830.

Nearly 90 per cent would be one-bedroom units, with the rest being two bedrooms.

We've been evolving our plans over the last three years and we are now in a position where we feel we have a very good site plan in play," New Horizon managing director Jason Garland told the Nov. 18 session.

We definitely have incorporated a significant amount of feedback from some of our surrounding neighbours."

Planning consultant Sarah Knoll said the new plan boosts the commercial floor space to 1,220 square metres, up from an original 400 and enough for six retail stores and a restaurant. They will have 47 dedicated parking spaces.

But she said the plan requires seven minor variances from city zoning regulations, including on a proposed 1.25 parking spaces per dwelling unit, which will provide 336 fewer spots than required by the standard of 1.5 spaces.

The plan's other proposed variances, set to go to the city's committee of adjustment on Dec. 9, include:

reducing the minimum landscaped open space to 36 per cent of the lot area from the required 50 per cent, which Knoll said reflects the intent of the property's 2010 site-specific zoning that placed no limit on building heights;

reducing a required 9-metre landscape strip by a storm channel on the southern lot line to 6 metres;

relief from a regulation that doesn't allow pedestrian walkways and driveways to cross a required landscape strip.

reducing the amenity space per dwelling to 8.8 square metres, below the required 18 square metres for one-bedroom units and 53 for two-bedroom ones, a standard Knoll said hasn't been implemented anywhere else in Stoney Creek;

substituting fitness rooms and other internal amenity uses for what would normally be commercial space on the ground floor, which requires relief from a regulation only allowing residential units to be built above commercial space.

Garland said New Horizon is still willing to change the plan, including by adding parking spaces if buyers want more.

But he said his company fundamentally disagrees with the city's amenity-space regulation, and the proposed 8.8 square metres per unit is equal to 40 commercial-grade gyms and four times the amount at the nearby 18-storey Shoreliner apartment tower.

What we're providing here is actually quite exceptional for a site this size," Garland said.

Frances Avenue resident Vivian Saunders, who watched the presentation, said the new plan is an improvement, including because traffic accesses are no longer all on Frances.

Residents were told a main entrance on Green Road will handle 70 per cent of residential traffic, with a second one on Frances taking the rest. Vehicles for the commercial component will enter off Green and exit onto Frances.

Saunders said she doesn't buy the proponent's claim Frances won't see a substantial increase in traffic and the presentation failed to address neighbours' concerns the road lacks sidewalks and other infrastructure for such a massive development.

It just seemed like a huge sales pitch without addressing any of the concerns, and that's how most people felt," she said.

STORY BEHIND THE STORY: We attended the Nov. 18 open house because we wanted to learn more about revised plans for 310 Frances Ave.