McMaster hopes to demolish derelict Westdale homes ASAP for new off-campus residence
McMaster University aims to transform a row of boarded-up homes in Westdale into an off-campus undergraduate residence by 2024.
With a legal settlement reached over the disputed plan, McMaster hopes to bulldoze the shabby, fenced-off bunch as soon as possible," spokesperson Wade Hemsworth says.
Knocking down the 14 homes will clear the way for the 1,379-bed project at 1190 Main St. W., a site wedged between Traymore, Forsyth and Dalewood avenues.
The university's roughly $150-million project will help fill a big gap. McMaster has more than 7,500 first-year students but only 3,900 residence spaces.
McMaster is one of the few universities in Ontario that cannot offer guaranteed residence for its first-year students," Hemsworth said. The Main Street residence project will get the university much closer to meeting the needs of its new students."
A 15-storey tower at the southwest end of the property is to be the highest point of the future residence. The rest of the development will be 10 storeys or lower.
Height and parking were points of contention before the Ontario Land Tribunal, formerly called the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT).
Last week, McMaster and its development partner, Knightstone Capital Management II Inc., and the city and Concerned Residents of Westdale (CROW) presented their settlement before the OLT.
It was probably the most that we could expect, and there were some compromises," CROW member Alan Livingston, who lives just north of the development site, told The Spectator.
Overall, the project calls for 270 parking spaces, with 43 on the site. Of those, 35 student spots are to be on the property or within 300 metres. The bulk, however, can be situated more than 300 metres away.
That's not adequate, said Livingston, predicting the parking plan will affect the neighbourhood negatively.
The city basically caved on that one," he said. We would have been a lot happier with more spots at the building or certainly within 300 metres."
But CROW is glad to at least be at the table" for the project's upcoming site-plan process with the city, which will hash out further details.
The blueprint, which also calls for 492 bike parking spots, has been revised many times" since architecture firm Diamond Schmitt took on the file in 2017, noted senior associate Gary Watson.
Low-rise townhouses on the property's north side at Traymore Avenue will help maintain the area's residential character before transitioning to the taller structure, Watson said.
We've done our best to try and negotiate that and try to break up the building massing as much as possible."
The residence - which is located on the city's future LRT line - will have a brick facade that's meant to reflect McMaster's limestone buildings.
Hamilton has some gorgeous architecture," Watson added. We're trying to have some sort of nod to that."
The plan envisions plenty of non-residential elements, including a centre for intergenerational studies, study areas, a basketball court, cafeteria and retail space.
I'm hoping that's really going to contribute to the vitality of Main Street," Watson said.
McMaster is also building a 644-bed graduate residence downtown at 10 Bay St. S. - a roughly $100-million project that's also a partnership with Knightstone.
The university expects to open the 30-storey building, also a partnership with Knightstone, for the 2023-24 academic year.
Teviah Moro is a reporter at The Spectator. tmoro@thespec.com