Vrancor’s four-tower development on Strathcona’s Queen Street North met with resistance

Morning sunshine splashes across the brick homes and narrow streets of John Griffith's neighbourhood west of downtown Hamilton.

But the five-year Strathcona resident expects his home will be cloaked in shadows if four towers rise on the parking lot behind him.

The buildings - two at 27 storeys and two at 15 storeys - will also draw more traffic and parking challenges, he predicts.

It's going to change the dynamic of the neighbourhood entirely."

Vrancor's 762-unit plan for the two-acre (0.82-hectare) property at Queen Street North between Market and Napier is the second phase of a massive development.

Just north, the developer's 12-storey hotel is under construction at the corner of Queen and King Street West.

Meanwhile, a plan for a 25-storey mixed-use building next door is the subject of Vrancor's appeal to the Ontario Land Tribunal.

Vrancor has faced heat from city councillors and residents alike for seeking more density and height for its plans after being granted more modest approvals.

But overall, the dispute boils down to what height and massing are appropriate for a neighbourhood of low-slung homes that already border taller buildings with more in the works.

We don't think that we are being in any fashion out of sync with the kinds of things that are being applied for," Mario Frankovich, Vrancor's vice-president of investment and strategic planning, told The Spectator.

But at 27 storeys and 930 units per hectare, the developer's high-density blueprint overtakes the Strathcona Secondary Plan's 10-storey cap and 300-unit limit by wide margins.

Essentially, it wants the downtown to annex a chunk of Strathcona," said longtime neighbourhood resident Wayne MacPhail.

Hamilton, especially in light of council's decision to handle future growth within its existing urban boundary, needs to add density, MacPhail said.

Do we have to increase it in Strathcona? Probably yes. Is this the best way to achieve that density? Absolutely not."

The Ontario government has forecast Hamilton will grow by 236,000 people in the next 30 years, bringing its population to 820,000 by 2051.

The Shadow Dwellers, a group MacPhail founded to resist Vrancor's plans, is holding a meeting March 16 to inform neighbours of the developer's latest plans.

Beyond shadows, he argues the development is unattractive, will generate winds and offers no public benefit in return for breaking with local land-use policies.

The four-tower complex, which is to have 369 parking spaces, also includes a seven-storey seniors' building, a three-storey podium and two- to three-storey townhouses.

In a report, Vrancor says the plan makes effective use of an underutilized site" near local transit, including the future LRT line, and brings more residents and vitality into the wider downtown area."

The report also points to notable improvements to the public realm, including a landscaped midblock walkway."

The development is expected to generate between 286 and 319 new vehicle trips during peak hours.

Last year, Vrancor appealed council's lack of decision on its proposed 25-storey King Street West building, which was previously approved at six storeys, to the provincial tribunal.

In October, reacting to the appeal and Vrancor's pitch to bump the hotel next door up two storeys to 12, Coun. Maureen Wilson called the project planning by a thousand cuts of variances."

This week, Frankovich said if Vrancor's plans shifted, it was because the market, government policy and LRT also did so as the project unfolded.

That's been a moving target," he said of light-rail plans, but at the end of the day, we felt this was driven primarily by the market need for more density."

But MacPhail is also critical of Vrancor for keeping two pitches - a 2018 site plan involving 15 storeys and the most recent application for 27 storeys - on the desks of a short-staffed planning department."

In an email, a city spokesperson confirmed staff are required to proceed with both sets of applications unless one is withdrawn."

Frankovich said Vrancor is keeping both active pending a decision by officials on its preferred more ambitious one, which requires official plan and zoning changes.

To characterize Vrancor's approach ... as more than a matter of process would be scurrilous," he said.

No date has been set for staff to present the four-tower pitch to city councillors.

In the meantime, the city plans to assign legal counsel and experts to contest Vrancor's King West appeal in June.

The Shadow Dwellers will also get their position on the record through a written submission, MacPhail said.

Even though I think that we will probably lose, that we won't get what we want, it's important for us to make a stand and say this is not right."

Teviah Moro is a reporter at The Spectator. tmoro@thespec.com