A 19-unit proposed residential development in Thornbury continues to be in planning limbo more than two years after town staff declared the application complete.
At its committee of the whole meeting on Nov. 19, The Blue Mountains council did not make a decision on a staff report recommending approval of a rezoning for a property located at 24 Alfred Street West. The rezoning would permit a 19-unit subdivision on the property consisting of a mixture of seven single detached units and 12 semi-detached units.
The proposed development includes the construction of a private one-way street to service the new units and a stormwater management plan. The property, currently vacant, is located between Alfred Street West and Alice Street West. The subdivision aspect of the proposal requires the approval of Grey County council.
Rather than acting on staff’s recommendation to approve the rezoning, council passed a resolution directing staff to get more information about the possibility of increased vegetation buffering between lots in the development and existing homes on Bruce Street.
Town planning staff said they would come back to council’s meeting on Dec. 2 with more information and the report recommending the approval of the rezoning would then be pulled for a council decision.
The proposed rezoning was a hot topic at the meeting. Multiple delegations appeared before council to raise various concerns about the proposed subdivision. Public concerns included: buffering/lack of privacy for existing homeowners in the area, drainage/stormwater management and tree removal.
The proposed subdivision has been in the town’s development pipeline for more than two years. The town first received the application in May 2022, the application was deemed complete in June 2022, a public meeting on the proposed development was held in Sept. 2022 and a follow-up information report about progress on the file came to council in April of 2023.
David Riley, a planning consultant hired by the town to work on the file, recommended that council approve the application and said that the town and the developer had done a lot of work on the file to address the various concerns raised by the public and neighbouring residents.
“In my professional opinion, this is a really good example of intensification in a way that is done very well and is compatible within the surrounding context,” Riley said. “I think we’ve come to many concessions in the design that have addressed the concerns that have been expressed. It’s a good development.”
The report on the matter generated a lengthy discussion around the council table. When it came time to vote, council dispensed with staff’s resolution recommending approval of the development. Instead, council voted 5-0 in favour of a resolution from Coun. June Porter that requested more information about potential buffering between units in the development and the homes on Bruce Street.
Mayor Andrea Matrosovs and Deputy Mayor Peter Bordignon were absent for the vote as they had left the proceedings for other meetings by the time council considered the report.
Porter said that council had recently required increased buffering between a Lora Bay development and the Georgian Trail and said something similar was appropriate in this case.
“The concerns (of the neighbours) haven’t gone away,” said Porter.
Adam Smith, the town’s director of planning and development services, said staff would come to the meeting on Dec. 2 with more information for council to consider.
“We can provide some further information going into that council meeting in a couple of weeks specific to options related to buffering,” said Smith.
