KENILWORTH – Developers are one step closer to building three townhouses at 321 Domville St. in Arthur.
Wellington North council approved a bylaw amendment required to accommodate the development during a regular meeting of council on April 22.
The amendment rezones the property from low-density residential to medium-density residential and permits a reduced lot area, lot frontage, and front yard landscaping.
A public meeting about the proposed development was held on Feb. 24, during which a member of the public expressed concerns about the reduced frontage, snow storage and driveways.
In response to the public feedback, the developer, Cachet Development (Arthur) Inc., revised its plan to increase the lot frontage and front yard landscaping.
“The proposed townhouse units are now moved back to 10.5 metres from the front lot line, which is consistent with the existing dwellings on the adjacent lots,” states a Wellington North planning report.
The initial proposal had a front yard setback of 5.7 metres.
According to the zoning bylaw, the minimum lot frontage required is 6.5 metres.
Wellington North council approved a bylaw amendment rezoning the lot at 321 Domville Street from low-density residential to medium-density residential and to permit reduced lot sizes, frontage and front yard landscaping. Image from meeting agenda
“The minimum front yard landscaping requirements of 50% have been met for lots one and three, lot two has a proposed front yard landscaped area of 43.6%,” the report continues.
The overall lot size is 0.08 hectares, or 0.2 acres. Townhouse lot one will be 278 square metres, lot two will be 233 square metres and lot three will be 280 square metres.
The minimum lot size outlined in the zoning bylaw is 280 square metres.
Township planning staff stated they have no concerns with the proposed rezoning,” and opined the “requested relief to facilitate three-unit townhouses is minor.”
Councillor Steve McCabe said “we need to promote more of this type of building in our township.”
He attended a land use seminar on April 12, during which people discussed the need to update bylaws in order to facilitate more medium- and higher-density construction on residential properties.
“I don’t know how we go about doing that, but I’d like to see if there’s a way that we can,” McCabe said.
“We probably have to go through the county as well,” he noted, but expressed a desire to update Wellington North bylaws “so that these kind of applications can kind of speed through quicker.”
Wellington North chief building official Darren Jones said McCabe’s suggestion came at a perfect time, as Jones had met with Wellington County manager of development planning Curtis Marshall the week prior “to put some final discussions on a housekeeping amendment to deal with some of these things.
“We work on what provincial policy is and also trends we’re seeing come forward as minor variances and zoning amendments and try and capture those on the zoning bylaw, so fewer planning applications are required,” Jones said.
Mayor Andy Lennox said, “We’ve been having some discussions around … more affordable type of housing, attainable housing, at the county, and that’s some of the work that that taskforce has been involved with.”
But the mayor cautioned about not moving too quickly, suggesting, “It’s best to have an evolution rather than a revolution.”
He said “it’s an adaptation as our community looks and feels different it sometimes raises concern.”
