Consecon infill

Draft approval granted for Lakeside Estates

Council approved a draft plan of subdivision and zoning bylaw amendment for a Consceon property named Lakeside Estates at its Planning meeting held last Wednesday. The proposed subdivision would see 29 single family homes, and four semidetached units spring up on 9.2 hectares along the east side of Loyalist Parkway and accessed from Lakeside Drive.

The Zoning By-law Amendment application was approved, which changes the property from Future Development Zone to the Special Hamlet Residential zone and the Open Space Zone for purpose of the stormwater pond and emergency access. The purpose of the Special Hamlet zone would be to implement semi-detached dwellings as a permitted use and include associated yard provisions.

Ray Essiambre, Planner for the developer, led council through a short presentation.

The subdivision will be serviced with municipal water and private sanitary services.

Essiambre noted that the access to the subdivision would be off of Lakeside Drive. “Loyalist [Parkway] is a major arterial road and we need to have the access located as far away as possible from the arterial for safety and a traffic movement perspective,” he said.

No parkland dedication is being proposed for the site, and parkland dedication would be provided in cash in lieu of parkland.

There is one internal road with access onto Lakeside Drive, and proposed is an emergency access between Loyalist Parkway and the internal road network with bollards that can be knocked down by emergency vehicles to gain access.

One other community concern was the landscaping plan, and the trees that were to be removed. Essiambre said there were three trees north of Lakeside Drive identified to remain, but they may be able to find more working with the arborist. “We propose there will be landscaping plan, and we plan to have the arborist go back and look at the vegetation for the site and see if we can’t find more trees that we can protect, and incorporate into the development,” he said.

Zach Pendley, a resident of Lakeside Drive and direct neighbour of the subdivision was concerned about the configuration of the roadway. “If you were to canvas any of the Lakeside Drive owners, no one is in favour of having that traffic flow onto Lakeside Drive, primarily because Lakeside Drive is a rural County road that is used heavily by all residents as an amenity,” he said, adding that pedestrians, cyclists and runners use it daily.

Pendley also took issue with the argument it is not safe to have entry onto Loyalist Parkway.

“It doesn’t really make sense with some of the recent planning decisions that have been done, where there are five homes at the intersection of Lakeside Drive and Loyalist Parkway which have direct roadway and driveway access onto Loyalist Parkway,” he said.

Councillor Roy Pennell is quite familiar with the area, and noted the neighbouring property used to be a wrecking yard and dumping site. “What effect would that have on possible water contamination, or on contamination going into the subdivision itself?” he asked.

Essiambre confirmed that there was an environmental assessment completed that looked at that particular property and there was no impact between the two. “There is a former access road for the property, and it runs along the north boundary of the subdivision. The laneway is raised and wide so it’s a manmade barrier that creates a berm between the two properties,” he said.

Manager of Planning, Michael Michaud added that the particular property, where the subdivision is located is environmentally clean. “There is nothing the developer can do to go on someone’s land to see if the other property may have some contamination,” said Michaud. “The laneway acts as a barrier, it protects this particular property, so we are not going to be drawing water out of the aquifer because it is already has serviced water, so we are not going to be pulling water into somebody’s well. We are satisfied the property is clean from an environmental standpoint and we can move forward.”

Councillor Kate MacNaughton wondered if any lighting could be low to the ground and focussed.

“One of the consultation comments was in concern to lighting, for dark skies supporting wildlife in the area. Because it is between two very biologically active wetlands, it would be good to show as much rigour to take as much care to keep those lighting systems very focused.”

“Typically when we get an engineering submission it includes a lighting plan, and will make a note that dark sky requirements are applicable in this case,” said County Planner Matt Coffey.

Councillor Nieman asked if there was any affordable housing offered in the subdivision.

“This is market housing. There is no affordability target here,” said Essiambre. “To address the issue of affordability, I suppose there will be an offering of two housing types, semidetached, and single family homes, but there is no specific program for affordable housing.”

Manager of Planning, Michael Michaud added there is nothing staff can do to force the developer to provide affordable housing under the definition of the province. “All we can do is ask them to speak to our housing staff to see if there is an ability and willingness to offer one or two of the units at market rent in some way, shape or form,” he said.