Transcript: Downtown Rental Development Approved - Planning and Development Committee - April 22, 2026 | Summary 355

Downtown Rental Development Approved - Planning and Development Committee - April 22, 2026

Uh, good afternoon. I'd like to call to order the planning and development committee meeting of April 22nd, 2026. Grimby is situated on treaty land. This land is steeped in the rich history of the first nations such as the Hadawinder, the Hodnoni and the Inishab including the Missagas of the Credit First Nation. There are many First Nations, Matei and Inuit people from across Turtle Island that live and work in Niagara today. The regional municipality of Niagara and the town of Ginsby stand with all indigenous people past and present in promoting the wise stewardship of the lands on which we live. Are there any disclosures of peanutary or non-puinary interest? Seeing none, um before we approve the agenda, would like to amend the order of uh to have staff present the recommendation report followed by the delegations. The report will be discussed and voted on following all delegations. Can I have a mover and seconder to get the report? Member Drew, second by member Potter, moved by member Drew, seconded by member Potter. Um, resolve the agenda for the April 20 sec 20 22nd, 2026 Planning and Development Committee meeting be approved as amended. All in favor? That's carried. Can I have a mover and second to uh approve the previous minutes? Moved by U. Councelor Frank, second by member Drew. Moved by Councelor Frank, second by member Drew. Resolve that the following minutes be received. Planning and Development Committee, April 8th, 2026. And Ginsby Heritage Advisory Committee, April 14th, 2026. Any questions? All in favor? That's carried. Staff will now give a presentation on the recommendation report. We will hold all questions until the discussion report is on the floor. So we're uh please come to the podium and go ahead. Welcome. Thank you, mayor. Um okay, thank you Katie. Good evening everyone. My name is Sup. Um I am one of the planners with the town and today I will be providing you with a recommendation regarding the official plan in Zoling bylaw amendment uh application at 13 mountain and 19 to 23 Elm Street. Um here in this slide you see that I will quickly recap how the application has moved through the process. So this is a standard planning application process for a uh comm for an application for an OPA or ZBA. Um essentially this application for an OPA and ZBA was received in the town in in May of 2025. Um following formal submission a statutory public meeting was held in September of last year. Uh following feedback from the public a public and agencies the application was revised March of 2026 and as a result now staff are bringing forth a staff recommendation report. Next slide. Um here are the subject lands. I just want to provide a little bit of context. Uh the subject lands are located on the northeast corner of Mountain and Elm Street here in Grimby, downtown Grimby. Um the subject lands are currently occupied uh by a collection of low-rise buildings. And there are two currently designated heritage properties, one the Wolverton House at um 13 Mountain and the Wolverton Hall at uh 19 Elm Street. Uh also to the north and the west, the subject lands uh also above um low-rise commercial uses. Um as well as some town owned parking uh surface parking at Balsam Lane. Um and then to the very north are the QEW lands and also the lake that you can kind of see. And then um to more towards the south you have the Niagara escortment. So that's kind of where the subject lands are situated. Um I do want to provide some background context to this application before we get started. Uh some of you already may know this this uh these lands have gone through some several phases of applications. Um so back in uh 2021 there was an application made for 13 mountain 19 and 21 elm. Um so that original application was also in OPA and ZBA uh that proposed a sevenstory mixeduse development on these noted lands. uh that was approved by the OOLT uh in February of 2024 resulting in an OPA amendment number 18 and also sight specific zoning bylaw amendment 377. So those are already in place. So once again this um this application really does bring forth uh attention to the newly acquired lands by the applicant which are 23 uh Elm Street. So just some context to how this these lands have moved through out the years. Next slide. Okay. So, here I wanted to quickly summarize um the initial proposal versus the revised proposal. The initial proposal is the most um the proposal that was made in May. So, I'm not talking about the one in 2021. Um but the original proposal consisted of a mid-rise eightstory mixeduse purpose-built rental uh which included adaptive reuse of the heritage assets on site. Um the applicant proposed at that time uh 177 rental residential units alongside uh 449 square meters of community hub space also 229 m of retail space. This initial proposal was subject to the public uh statutory meeting that was held in September and the application was also circulated to uh respective agencies. This includes the region uh town staff such as heritage and uh public works as well as the Niagara Scarment Commission. Um following these sets of comments both from the public and agencies, the applicant revised the application which is you see now um the revised uh most notably the second submission or the revised submission includes a reduction in building height from eight stories to seven stories. So um once again mentioning seven stories is already approved through the OOLT decision, but this would apply to the 23 Alton Street. So, keeping that in mind. Um, as well as now we're down to 150 residential units with 10% of those being affordable. Um, 220 uh 279 m of ground for retail space along uh Front Street. And also um another thing I want to mention is that uh the this although the height has decreased that is exclusive the mechanical penthouse. So some of you might have looked at the architecturals and noticed that there's a mechanical penthouse that is exclusive excluded by our zoning. Um so for mechanical purposes uh another thing I want to mention is that now we have an addition of four parking spaces uh coupled with the reduction in um units. So now we have a total of 154 vehicle spaces um and 48 uh bicycle uh parking spaces. Um so yeah, next slide. Okay. Um, I wanted to continue to speak about the revised proposal, but I wanted to kind of give you the schedule, the architecturals of um, how things are a little bit more laid out now. Um, so some of the more some of the changes that might not be instantly noticeable unless you really dig deep into the zoning bylaw is that there is an increased stepback um, on the mountain street. So this comes directly from um feedback that was given by the NEC regarding the receptor point what they call receptor point 13 which is really the view of the escarment from mountain. Um so there's an there's an increased step back um from for the stories 2 to 7 from 7.5 to 9.2 m resulting in uh an important improvement to the angular plane. Um, also aligning with the NEC comments, the applicant has decided to remove uh the pl the the placemaking signs on top of the uh development. So there is no longer any signage um that was adding to kind of the height of the building. Um, as well as I want to note that um, majority of the massing that you kind of see proposed now, especially where you would if you were stand on the corner of Christy um, looking out towards the escarment, you uh, the massing is existing prior to um, the application we saw in 2021. So the seven stories is aligned with um, the massing we were seeing previously. Um, and then some other uh, interesting things that may not be instantly noticeable. Um there's now a private amenity space. So the community hub space has been turned into a private amenity space um that is more so for the residents of this proposed development. Um there is however the overall increased amenity space for residents um as well as the public space remains. Um and lastly the proposal continues to incorporate and retain the heritage assets on site in case anyone was was curious about that. So heritage assets are retained. Next slide. Okay. this I just wanted to once again mention that the statutory public meeting was held on September 17, 2025. Um I provided a very brief summary of the comments that were brought up by residents. So that primarily including the height and the massing, the reduced parking rate as well as the surrounding impact to low residential park uh low residential neighborhoods. Um staff provided the applicant with a formal matrix of um all comments collected at the public meeting and the applicant's response to each and every single comment can be found in appendix C. Next slide. Okay. Now I'm going to just get a little bit into the actual OPA and the the ZBA. So as noticed previously, the uh the OPA has been revised from seven stories to eight stories, notwithstanding the existing approval uh noted in the OPA amendment number 18 that permits seven stories for the following lands. So this is already approved 13 Mountain Street, 19 Elm, and 21 Elm. As a result, the proposed OPA subjects the newly acquired lands at 203 Elm to the sevenstory maximum. Um so that is now what the revised OPA looks like. Next slide. I wanted to provide you with just some context to the actual land use designations on this site. So staff note that the current official plan land use designation in the downtown is downtown intensification area as per the town's official plan schedule B. Um this map here just basically shows where the subject lands are. And you can see that there's um kind of right behind it there's downtown Main Street, there's downtown transition. So this is just how we've kind of laid out our current zoning or current land use designation in the OP. Next slide. Okay, bear with me. Bear with me. This is not it's not going to be as long as the report, but I did want to mention that planning staff conducted an analysis of um all relevant policies um from provincial, local, and our our official plan. Um I just wanted to quickly go over some of the key highlights from this. Um in in our in our review of the planning act and the uh uh provincial planning uh statement we were looking at provincial interest um as we move forward as the province moves forward and primarily one of the remain the main interests of the province is housing intensification specifically the goal of providing a wide range of housing in already urbanized areas. Um so with this review we found that proposals such as this that focus on housing do align themselves with provincial direction. Um moving forward with more localized plans such as the green belt plan and the Niagara escarment plan. These lands are designated as urban areas within these respective lands. So uh specifically what really applies here is the Niagara escarment plan. Uh we worked closely with the Niagara Escarment to um basically review this application and within the NEP this these lands are not designated as development control but they are within the urban areas. So uh their urban area land use designation. So as a result um this kind of triggers a VIA or a visual impact assessment. um and staff, the applicant and the NC work together um to try to uh minimize the impacts to the escarment as a concern the concern for encroachment to the inscarment remains. The NEC policies were um with with a greater review of the NEC policies. The proposal was then uh revised to reflect the main comments regarding the height and massing which a includes the rooftop signage which the NC had uh concerns with the eighth story uh which was bumped down to seven and like I mentioned that uh angular plane off of mountain um as a result uh a greater step back was provided from the second story. So those are our collaborative our collaborative works with the um the NC and if you'd like you can also read the um the revised VIA report um that was provided by the NC and all comments by the NC and other agencies are also in the appendix appendix D. Next following that we did a oh sorry sorry sorry I'm sorry I did say bear with me I'm sorry. Next following that the following sections of the OP were analyzed. I'm not going to list them all. Um but primarily the focus of staff here was to see if the um the application was in conformity with um the the direction uh the guidance provided in the OP. So we started off with talking about the municipal structure and principles primarily principles that focus on this major intensification area. So, like I noted, this is a major intensification area in the downtown um and major intensification area designated primarily around um improvement and enhancement and protection of the downtown. Um so as a result we reviewed the application um it once again in collaboration with the NEC to uh with the heightened massing and all the proposed amenities such as um the uh the public private spaces um as well as the retail and the protection of the heritage assets and we're able to kind of provide a recommendation saying that this is aligned with the general direction um of our current OP. In terms of heritage, the applicant has made an effort to integrate the protected heritage properties um on site, but um as you'll notice in the report, heritage staff u note that there will be a heritage permit process that they will have to go through um aside respective of this application. Um that is also uh paired with the site plan stage. Lastly, parking. Um I wanted to talk a little bit about the parking. So um when the original proposal came in um there was a lot of concern about um parking. As a result the applicant has revised the parking to do um a minimum require uh requirement of one parking space per dwelling unit. Um resulting in um one space per market uh value unit. Um given this all market rentals will have their own uh designated space. This is actually aligned with the pre previous existing alt approval uh sight specific 33 that uh 377 uh that allows for this um uh 1 one ratio. Uh when it comes to affordable units, this is new to this application. Um not new to this revision but not previously seen. Um but the affordable housing uh ratio for this is 0.7 per unit. I do want to note that when the application came in in May, there was no units proposed for the affordable housing. Uh the applicant has revised and provided a lower rate. Um and they will work with um Wood Green Community Housing Inc. and the Grimy Benevolent Fund to find appropriate um renters um given the definition of affordable housing. Um uh town also want to uh highlight that through the site plan process a signed agreement for affordable housing uh will be completed to ensure the long-term viability of such a program and also the commitment to providing parking for some level of parking for the affordable uh units. Uh staff also acknowledged that um the proposed increase in cash uh in loop provision uh will be all the funds collected from that will be used for improvements to the public lands and the parking that is already present uh in our downtown. That's it. You can you know apologies everyone. All right. Um zoning bylaw amendment. So now I just want to talk a little bit. We talked about the OP amendment. Zoning bylaw amendment. The purpose and effect of the proposed zoning bylaw amendment is essentially to carry over permissions that are already present in sight specific 377 uh approved by the OOLT to the entirety of the subject land. So this now includes these would be now carried over to 23 elm. Um sight specific permissions include lock coverage, setbacks, height, uh retail unit widths, building sizes, parking ratios and also parking space dimensions. Next slide. Um here I just wanted to once again provide you uh with the uh the schedule that's present in the draft zoning bylaw amendment. Um the subject lands are also zone downtown tensification um as per our schedule 12A. Uh 12B identifies two different sight specific exceptions on the site. So the first exception that I've been talking about is to 377. Um that applies to 13 Mountain, 21 Elm, and the uh exception at uh exception 15115 and 377 apply to 19 Elm uh Street. So uh no site site specifics apply currently to 23 Elm Street. Um I also want to note that the proposed use of the site is in conformity with the downtown uh intensification zone. So residential uh specifically apartment buildings and commercial are currently aligned with what's permitted in this zone. Next slide. Okay. So similar to the OP, we also conducted a review um of our zoning bylaw uh and planning staff reviewed the applicants uh proposed changes to the zoning requirements uh that were uh within our existing zoning and also what was previously approved by the OLT. Staff note that the approved amendments uh noted on noted in the lot, building and structure exceptions for exception 377 are in general conformity with the current proposal and with the exception this is of course not including the shared parking spaces and the affordable housing uh aspect. So the these are new to this application. Um the applicant is proposing a 70% lock coverage. Once again this is already uh existing in the sight specific that was approved by the OLT. Um, however, this would be carried over to 23 Elm. Um, like I previously mentioned, it's it's a lot of carryover. Uh, we also have the applicant is proposing minimum front yard setbacks um that are also either aligned already aligned with our zoning bylaw. So this includes for example um the setback on one second our one sorry the interior sideyard setback of two 2 mters which is already permitted in the table in table 14 of bylaw 1445 or on the other hand you have um a a maximum exterior sideyard setback of 6.7 m but that is consistent with the site exception 377. So uh within analysis of all the setbacks that were provided in schedule 79 uh we were able to confirm that either they're in conformity with existing approvals um existing amendment approvals or are consistent with our actual zoning bylaw. though. Um, one second. Is that it? Sorry. No, still this slide. Uh, with consideration of section five, which is our, uh, parking ratios, staff reviewed the revised proposal and note that one parking space per market rental is in conformity with the existing approvals of sight specific 377. As previously noted, the residential visitor rate was revised deterine uh revised but upon this determination that of the um comments that were provided by staff. So the applicant actually went out and did a analysis of proxy sites um which was able with the analysis of existing sites um in apartment buildings in Grimby and their visitor rates they were able to justify a 0.5 uh rate for per unit for visitors. Staff note that the proposed commercial ratio for parking is already aligned with the sound zoning and the shared parking provision used for retail uh up to 70% of the evening rate uh is justified through those um analysis um on the uh visitor parking rate. Uh based on the architectural plans, staff also note that the applicant proposes a variety of parking formations including tandem parking and small vehicle parking. So when you there are some uh in the zoning ballot you do see some sight specific um zoning regarding the actual width and and length of the parking. Uh staff note that a lot of this can any concerns for um navigation around the parking structures. Um the below grade and above grade parking structure can be mitigated through signage um as well as uh the design incorporating a an appropriate aisle width. um try and once again I just wanted to note that uh we continue to work with the NEC um regarding the uh the height maximum height that is also a part of the zoning bylaw uh draft zoning bylaw that you see so the maximum height of 7 mters um we worked with the NEC through both the first and the second submission and not just the NC but the NC including heritage staff and transportation staff will continue to be circulated um and collaborated with throughout the site plan stage. So, detailed design will be determined through the site plan stage, but the zoning bylaw allows us to have a general understanding of how the site is going to look um considering all the stepbacks and stepbacks and whatnot. Next slide. Okay, I'm not going to read this. Uh staff note that the following agencies have provided comments. So just from the top down planning heritage uh development services here at town of Grimby as well as public works uh Niagara region and also the Niagara escortment commission. Once again these agencies will be circulated and continue to be collaborated with across the site plan stage of this application. Um other agencies such as the NPCA as well as the school district did not have any comments or objections. Next slide. So with the analysis provided that I subjected you through uh planning and development staff recommend the approval of the official plan amendment and zoning bylaw amendment as the as we believe that the application meets planning act requirements and is consistent with provincial planning statement and also conforms with the intent of the uh Niagara official plan and the town official plan. Thank you so much. Uh thank you very much SUP. Um Allison Chud um from Bowsfields Incorporated will now give a presentation. Allison please come to the podium. Thank you. There. Hello. Uh good evening and I just wanted to say thank you to Sup for her presentation. I'm going to try to not say the same things so it should be short. Um my name is Allison Shudter. I'm an associate and a planner with Bowfields Inc. and we are the planning consultants and the applicant on behalf of the owner of the site at 13 Mountain and 19 to23 Elm Street. So, I'm here tonight uh just to acknowledge the collaboration and hard work that town staff have done in their review of the OPA and resoning application for this site and to state our support for the staff recommendations to approve this application. Next slide. So, as you know, this application is for a collection of properties um located at the intersection of Mountain and Elm Street, which includes two of heritage designated buildings along Mountain Street, as well as two additional house form buildings along Elm Street. house form because they look like houses but they've been converted to non-residential uses. Uh so while the majority of this site was previously approved for a 12-story development as Sut mentioned that approval did not include the property at 23 Elm Street which is called out on this plan. So after Castle Point Numa the owners of the site acquired 23 Elm Street they began to explore a new development concept for this enlarged site. Next slide. So, as you can see here, the new concept for this site has gone through a series of changes as we've engaged with town staff and received feedback from the community, adjacent land owners, and external commenting agencies, including the Niagara Scarment Commission. So way over on the far side, you can see back in September 2024 when we came in for a pre-application meeting with the town, we were looking at a 10-story proposal for the site. Um, looking to optimize the the property as it was as well as the enlarged site, but we heard the concerns. We heard from people that this 10-story option wasn't uh so well received. And so we look we took took it back and reduced the height of the proposal to eight stories when we made that formal submission in May of 2025. Over the past 11 months and we since we made that submission, we have worked with the town with town staff to continue to refine refine the proposal which has resulted in the sevenstory concept that's before you for consideration today. I think what's not shown here is the the number of iterations we went through between May and March. Um, while we didn't make formal submissions of those iterations, we did go back and forth with town staff, with the NEC. We had lots and lots of meetings to make sure that what we were putting forward was as responsive as possible to the comments that we had received. Next slide. So, identified here, the current proposal incorporates two pretty major built form changes from the May 2025 proposal. So there was a reduced building height um of seven stories uh and an increased setback along mountain street front along the mountain street frontage just for the portion of the building that's south of the Wolverton house. So that piece because it's not between the two buildings it did project a little bit more um and in collaboration with the NEC and town staff we have pulled that back so there is a greater setback than there was in the original proposal. Um, in addition, the rooftop signage has been removed and the community hub space has also been removed uh primarily to in order to accommodate those four additional parking spaces um with the remaining spacing being converted to uh residential amenity space. These built form changes have reduced the unit count for the project from 177 units down to 150. Um and partnered with the prop increased number of parking spaces, those four spaces we were able to get by removing the community hub. um and the reduction in units, the parking ratio has come up. Uh notwithstanding these changes, the proposal continues to incorporate really significant community benefits. So that there's 10% affordable rental units being incorporated in this project. There are two publicly accessible plaza spaces. So there's one on each street frontage uh that will be highly landscaped and open for anybody to use. Um and as well the sensitive adaptive reuse of those two heritage designated buildings on the site. Next slide. So, Soup did a pretty good overview of the planning instruments. Um, so just to kind of reiterate that there's two parts being considered today. There's the OPA, the official plan amendment and the zoning bylaw amendment. The OPA really just carries over that sevenstory height permission to 23 Elm Street, while the ZBA sets out sight specific regulations regarding the form and function of the development. Well, many of the regulations in the zoning bylaw amendment are actually consistent with the previous approval for the majority of the site. Uh, Bosefields and town staff have collaborated on the heightened setback diagram that is shown here. Um, if anyone is very familiar with the zoning bylaw amendment from the previous approval, what we did was more consistent with the form of the town's zoning bylaw where we had a table that said front yard setback this meters, sideyard setback this many meters. And in discussions through the review of the application, it became apparent that there was some interpretation challenges with that because it reads as one measurement even though you know there's lots of different property lines here. There's lots of different setbacks, there's lots of different stepbacks. So we decided that a heightened setback diagram which is built into the zoning bylaw would be the clearest way to go and so that there is none of that um confusion in the f future interpretation of what's permitted on the site through this application. So together, these instruments will implement the proposed development, which itself, in my opinion, will make a positive contribution to the character and vitality of downtown Grimby in accordance with both the town's current official plan and the new official plan that they're working through right now. Next slide. So I think that's that's it from me. Just thank you for the opportunity to speak and if there's any questions, I'm happy to address them. Thank you very much for your presentation, Allison. Um, up next we have Harley Valentine. Uh, Harley, please come to the podium. Thank you, Mayor. Um, and thank you, Allison, for that. Um, even though it's a plane to me, I thought we'd do a little bit of storytelling. Um, uh, but before that, uh, I'd like to thank SRUP, uh, and staff for their collaboration, um, and their work to date on getting us to, uh, this report. Uh we I stand here um feeling uh very positive about what's to come and where we're headed. Uh we were here two years ago with a staff report um as well. And at the time uh we felt that there was um opportunity left uh for us to make a positive impact on downtown Grimy with the addition of 23 Elm Street. and really completed our vision because when we acquired this site, when we first acquired 13 Mountain Street and I was talking to Wayne Ferick earlier who was the steward of that property from 2019 20 sorry 1992 to 2010 uh 18 years um uh he he informed me that there was from 2010 to 2018 when we acquired it there was three separate owners. And what's interesting is when we first acquired the site in 2018 to today is another 8 years gap. And uh in the previous 8 years, there were three owners who looked to make a go of this heritage property through adaptive reuse um specifically restaurant use. And obviously um uh that ended with us acquiring the property in 2018. And in the past eight years, we've been able to reinvest into the buildings themselves as far as supporting small businesses, but also achieve what I feel is a truly special uh planning permission uh and an opportunity to transform what is um a landmark heritage site into um a transformative rental opportunity for downtown Grimby. So, um I feel that the last 8 years, even though that sounds like a lot of time on one file and one project, that it was very well spent. Uh it was money well spent, time well spent. And uh we are really looking forward to advancing from the staff report uh into a zoning bylaw and then letting the rubber hit the road. And what I mean by that is getting into the look and the feel of the final building that will come at site plan. Um, that is something we have not been able to get to yet. We've been here with a zoning. We've been given permissions through zoning for a sevenstory building at 120 units. What we haven't gotten to is a site plan and then obviously a shovel in the ground. But I think it's in our very uh it's in the short term. Uh we're charting to secure financing um later this fall for $80 million to build this project and we're hoping to get shovels in the ground ahead of September next year. So, this is a momentous occasion. Um, every time I I come to town hall, I stand behind this pod podium. I feel it's momentous and that we're pushing uh history in the right direction and um very excited about the path to come. But not to discredit the hard work that's come to date. And again, to reiterate um Sir's uh overview, we have staff support. We have the town of Grimby's expert witnesses who support this application. Thank you. We have regional support for this application. Thank you. We have the NEC support following iterations and a reduction and and rethinking the massing. Thank you. And I feel uh again confidence from that uh those votes of confidence that we are uh we have brought the right building to Grimby um and that it has been time well spent. The one thing that I wanted to correct SUP in her presentation on she says we look to incorporate the heritage buildings and I disagree with that. I think we look to leverage the heritage buildings. We've done nothing but um put these heritage buildings um in the center um as far as what our project consists but also what they mean to this community. through COVID, we were able to host the GBF at 19 Elm Street um as a use for their uh hamper programs, uh basically pop-up food bank. And most recently, we've been able to rehouse Simply Moto, which is a very dynamic small business, uh serving the motorcycle community, creating a a very interesting adaptive reuse of that space. My hope is that eventually 19 Street will be an indoor gymnasium, an indoor gymnasium that will serve this rental community that we're delivering, but also the community. And I think there there's ways to do that through a shared facilities agreement with the town. So we are going to continue to invest and to think about creative ways that we can leverage these heritage buildings to be a landmark and to be a touchstone for this downtown community because the Wolverton name, they were pioneers. They were pioneers who acknowledged there is something special about this location between the creek um between the escarment and its connection to downtown Grimby. and we continue to build on that vision. So, thank you Plane Development Committee uh for acknowledging uh the report and as it's brought forward by town staff and uh yeah, we're going to keep doing our thing until shovels on the ground. Thank you. Thank you, Harley. Um any questions or comments from the committee? Can I have a mover and second to receive the delegations? Moved by member Drew, second by member Frank. Resolve the delegations from Bowsfields Incorporated and Harley Valentine be received. All in favor? That's carried. Uh, can I have a mover and seconder to get the recommendation report on the floor for discussion? Moved by councelor Frank. Seconder. member Drew. Uh, questions or comments from the committee. Member Potter. Too many buttons here. Thank you, chair. Um probably Siru as I'm guessing is probably the best person. Um the second slide you put up was the planning cycle basically the five circles of action and all that sort of thing. A lot of this this proposal was based a lot on the decision that the OOLT has already taken and that's sort of done deal type thing and this is the extra piece obviously where in sort of planning framework governance does if a change happens do you then have to go back to say public consultation because it's changed materially what's that level of materiality Is this still within it or is there mechanisms to actually say it's outside of the public consultation that was done and then we in good planning principles we should go back to redo that. Is there a maybe not a clear question but does that make sense? Thank you member Potter. Um so just referencing that slide um what is common in the OPA OPA and ZBA process is that there is a section of that process that allows for um applicant analys um staff analysis and applicant revision. Normally um a an application is expected to be revised. Oftent times there's not it's never perfect the first time around. um you know um so essentially a public meeting is only really called when there's only a requirement for a statuto public meeting to collect those comments for those revisions. Right? The goal then of staff and commenting agencies is to work through those revisions and essentially come to a conclusion that is best aligned with the the public comments and also with the comments provided by agencies. So that's what we see here. There are mechanisms in the planning act where um council uh can call for further public engagement. Um but as far as the the standard process for an OP and a ZBA goes is the expectation is that when that those comments are collected at that public meeting the what will follow will be a revision that aligns itself uh best with those comments. Thank you. And just one other. And I'm going to turn my head to this direction. And she's not looking at me. But this is a this is a heritage question cuz it was just more of interest cuz I don't remember the previous um process here. I don't even know if I was involved um for the RT 21 Elm Street. The basically extension to the church. That's toast. That's gone. That's that's being basically replaced by the new structure. Is that my understanding? uh through you, the chair. Um so the property at 21 Elm Street is not on the town's municipal heritage register. Um so the register's intent um is to like proactively identify sites of uh cultural heritage value. Um and it's also not a protected heritage property. So it's not designated. So there was no requirement through the provincial policy uh provincial uh planning statement or um the uh town official plan to review these properties. So there it wasn't a requirement of the applicant to do that assessment. Um but heritage staff proactively looked into the buildings. Um and so we do know a little bit of history of both of them and our recommendation will come through the heritage permit process, but um we would like to see that be commemorated. both of those buildings through the site's overall commemoration strategy and these comments have been shared with the uh applicant during the OPA ZBA process. Um but the intent is that the greater context of the site and all of the cultural heritage will either be protected through the buildings or through the commemoration strategy. So there's definitely uh stories that we'll be commemorating through the through plaques or appropriate commemoration measures and then that will be integrated into the heritage permit conditions as well as the final site plan. And the idea is that those publicly open spaces if there's a story to be told it will be commemorated through that way and the public can still learn about the history of those sites. Yeah. Sorry, just one followup then please Bianca. Um so the existing church and the removal of that extension for one of a better wording. I assume that heritage will be monitoring uh the structural integrity of the church or what was the church uh to ensure damage is not happening during the whole build process if this gets approved. Uh through the chair. Yeah. So through the yes through the uh heritage permit process. Um this is something that we'll be looking at. So, the official plan amendment process and the zing zoning bylaw amendment process are like much larger zoomed out kind of uh process, but as we continue to move in um through the uh heritage permit and the site plan, we'll be dealing with all of that. Um and so we have other sites in the town that have kind of had a similar process where they've been a part of a larger development. Um and so each of these sites are paired with what's called a conservation master plan. And so these conservation master plans look at all of these details. Um so we're going to be looking at how these buildings will connect into the new building, what those connections will look like, the compatibility of those materials, and then as structures are coming down and vibrations are underway on the site. All of that stuff has to be addressed through the com the uh tempor the temporary protection plan which is a part of the um conservation master plan. So conservation master plan will look at every piece of the heritage buildings that will be restored and they'll be showing us how it will be restored and this is a full study that's paired with the permit um and site plan. And then the other one is the temporary protection plan and that will look at things like vibration, their strategy for demolition, what does that look like, what is the safety mechanisms being put on site for the heritage buildings. Um and so they present a strategy to us and then we provide comment back for revisions. Um but all of those requirements will um kind of be implemented as a condition through the heritage permit process. So we'll be looking at all those things. Um but yeah, vibration the uh deconstruction of the additions, but then also like that piece that you asked about for the 21 Elm Street and 23, we will also have the commemoration plan. So all these documents will basically be a result of getting um their heritage permit and then they have to clear those conditions and so each of those will be their own study. Thank you. Member J through the chair. Thanks to each of you that made presentations and um thank you for the significant amount of work that's gone in before you were able to be in a position to do that. Thank you. Um, a question for the applicant. Uh, it relates to u aspects that clearly get covered through the site plan, but I'm in looking for some early indications related to any environmental aspects of this uh plan that could go beyond building code um requirements, windows, insulation, rooftops, uh green roof, or any other aspects that uh will be considered as you submit uh the site plan. Go ahead, Harley. Oh, sorry. I said go ahead. Yeah, thank you. Uh um um Drew, thank you for that and it's a great point. So, um this is a uh a rental building. Um, and right now we're in a time and moment where uh the federal government is incentivizing purpose-built rental uh because of the under supply and the town of Grimby historically tells a very compelling story of how under supplied we are as far as rental housing. The last building I think was 50 years uh it was built. Uh Dantis has one going up at Burgess. That trend is going to continue. It's continuing because it's being supported by the federal government and construction financing requirements to meet uh uh the thresholds for federal government financing include energy standards. Uh there's a point system through the MLI select program. That is the um funding stream that we would be applying for for this $80 million construction loan. And it is rated uh to be considered. It's rated on a point system. energy is um top of mind and we're currently exploring options for geothermal um uh the R rating of the building um and also green roof measures so that we can meet that point system. So um the added benefit to this time and moment and the federal government's um programs is that to be subject to be applicable for this financing we have to meet those those energy requirements. So it's something we are taking very seriously coupled with the commitment for affordable housing. So, um these are um imposed measures uh for the financing, but they're also meet our vision and I think uh we've been very consistent over the past 8 years at the site that we want to deliver rental housing um and that we want to deliver affordable housing and we feel uh again it's a time and moment opportunity where the federal government has kind of caught up to us on that as is the larger trend for building housing right now. Any further questions? Uh, no. Thank you very much for explaining that. Councelor Frank, go ahead. More of a comment or comments more than anything else. Um, I have to commend and congratulate uh the staff heritage planning uh and for being like walking. This has been a long journey. Uh, and it's and I I don't think it's any secret how I feel about this building and having affordable housing downtown and what it will do to the commerce of downtown. I think it will it will institute another set of uh parameters and and intensity downtown that will help keep our downtown alive because in the next number of months and years, we're going to be going through a lot of changes downtown. But I got to say that I commend you for taking every single piece of the public concerns and going through each one of them for practically forensically and finding, you know, were and and working with with the applicant to make sure they take all the boxes. And I went through the report and I got to say it's one of the cleanest reports and most well-laid out that I've seen in a long long time. So, I'm looking forward to this this building being built. I'm looking forward to seeing people downtown. Uh, I'm not concerned about parking and I keep saying that. I think we we put way too much emphasis on parking at this town. U, I've currently moved from house to the lake and I live in a building, a condo building down there. Now, at the moment, enjoying it very, very much. And I spoke with the owner and they said there's never a parking issue down there. And I know because I see it every day. They still have 20 parking spots on underground and and about 20 on top. Nobody wants them. The Sandus is building downtown on the corn the the new one uh that is that is on the corner of Elm and U and Maine. Nobody wants there's 40 spots a 40 empty parking spots available down there. So I think we make a far big issue over parking than we should probably do. And I think the people who live in those buildings and being close to the amenities. That's one of the reasons why they move to these these buildings is that they don't have to use their car. They can just walk to retail stores. They can walk to a grocery store. They can walk to to a restaurant. And I I think we're seeing more and more of that. And the next generation is even going to be more so. So anyway, I just want to thank you for a great report and and forensically going through this. This has been around for a long long time. And um and and and again of course it it also ticks the box for Grim's intensification quotas which is really great as well. It it takes into consideration our heritage which is fantastic. So let's let's move ahead. I mean it's it's time. I mean we we we've dwelled over this particular project now for such a long time and I and I'm really thrilled to see that we're moving forward. Hopefully co council will agree on Monday and we'll move this thing forward and get it get it going. So, thank you all all of you for being so so thoughtful and so you know forensic about all the right things that we need to do to make this work. So, thank you Mr. Mayor. That's all I want to say. Thank you, Councelor Frank. Uh seeing no further questions, thank you everyone for uh being here today. Um moved by councelor Frank, second by member Drew. Resolved that report PA26-12, official plan amendment and zoning bylaw amendment at 13 Mountain Street and 1923 Elm Street dated April 22nd, 2026 be received and that one the draft plan official or official draft plan amendment OPA attached to this report as appendix A be recommended for approval and two that draft zoning bylaw amendment ZBA attached to this report as appendix B be recommended for approval. All in favor? That's carried. Uh, is there any other business pertaining to the committee? All right, Katie, go ahead with your end term end of term report. Sorry, I'm just going to share my screen through you, chair. Um, I'll zoom in a little bit so you can see. Is that going? There we go. So, um, the planning and development committee, I kind of, uh, touched on this last meeting, but we'll be providing a brief end ofterm report for council, um, which will note the committee's accomplishments and future opportunities from this term. Um so this is a general sort of um overview of sort of what the the chair will be will be reading but the the report will be compiled by staff. So clerk staff will be using points provided by the committee members. The work will be done during committee meetings and no working groups or subcommittees will be permitted. Um, we'll dedicate time uh at this meeting uh the May 6th meeting and the May 20th meeting agendas to brainstorm accomplishments and future opportunities. And the report will be finalized ahead of the last meeting on June 10th to allow time for committee review. Um, so Mayor Jordan, the committee chair, will present the report during the chair's report at the council meeting on July 13th, while other members may attend in person or virtually if they wish. Um, the rules that govern chair's reports fully apply, such as not exceeding 5 minutes in length. Um if you have any questions, I am happy to answer them. But um overall, just looking for the committee's um thoughts on some major accomplishments that were that were uh occurred this term as well as some future opportunities and details, too. I know I'm putting everyone sort of on the spot here. So, you're welcome to take that away, send them to me via email. um that would be great and I can compile them um so that at the next meetings I can sort of share them on the screen so everyone can collaborate and we can make some changes uh from there just to to make sure. So the last committee meeting the the goal is to finalize the um chair's report for for the chair to read at the July meeting. So if there's any questions I'm happy to to answer them. Great. Thank you Katie. Questions? Member Potter, just to put you on the spot. So just um it may be covered under the second trunch of questions that you asked the the uh more process I think I can't remember exactly the wording. Do you would you uh entertain sort of not that I'm saying I'm going to do this but if I look at the terms of reference to the committee um what I may or may not feel we have accomplished within those terms of reference for refining of the terms of references for the next cycle. So it's more on the governance framework as opposed to how good we did or what we did or what we didn't do and other things. it's maybe covered under the second section but so through your chair um yeah like the the future opportunities and details that sort of that that's definitely a part of it for sure. So if you look at the terms of reference I think that's a great place to start sort of what is mandated or the committee's mandated to do by council and um focus on and if maybe there a focus is sort of uh the scales are tipped one way or another you can sort of recommend um some adjustments there for sure. sort of think of it kind of like a um a mini wish list sort of thing of what you you if you took this committee and what it could look like in the next term of council. What what are some of the things that that term could that uh committee could focus on? Member J uh through the chair just uh commentary one of the um significant aspects of involvement related to the generation of new official plan and and the role that that the committee either as a whole or as members played should be a significant part of that that report because I think that was a the public meetings and uh all of the depth in which we went uh chares and various other aspects of it should be a key uh aspect in my view. Thank you. Yeah, just to further to uh member Drew's uh comments, just the effect of uh the amount of public engagement we did with um at the market and uh and um we even used uh earlier in the term we even used uh where um pie in the sky is now and um we had it all set up in there during a market and it was it was really impressive because it was something we've never seen in Grimby and uh the interaction um downtown with uh plans for downtown with the downtown reimagined as well. It's just something that that was really refreshing and really got the public in engaging with uh town staff and council and and got them downtown. Um, we're that's something we're going to push for uh in the future to have a more vibrant downtown and and have um a people-friendly downtown and uh to just just the vibrancy is so important and I think with the sharets and the public engagement that's how we can help it. Yeah. Member Potter, just like to finish on a positive note, so I'll do a shout out as well. Um, I'm trying not to look at our manager of planning cuz I want to see if she smiles, but I'm not going to look at her. I would say the level of uh staff documentation similar to what councelor Frank said earlier about the the contents of this file uh but there's been a few that could have been very contentious and I'd say the level of detail that the planning team put together uh in some respects to brief everybody here to make the decisions that were made but also with the always the potential for it to go badly and the defensive very proactive defensive posturing and refinement of the documents to make sure we were always on firm ground in wherever we were going for the future. Uh so I will commend the planning staff for in my time the level of integrity and effectiveness and comprehensiveness of the documentation that is provided to this committee has gone up an order of magnitude. Obviously, since she's come in, she's been a big, but also Walter, he's been here entirely. But it it if I take that first report and this one, it's that they're not comparable really. I think the level of is really gone up, Jack. So, councelor Frank, anything to add? I couldn't say it better than member Potter. I mean it's it's I I do see the quality of these uh reports. I mean they've come such a long long ways in the last this term particularly and and I think we need to add that to our accomplishments that I think that we've we've upped our game and in in many cases we've been forced to up our game and we and we we embraced it and we did it because it's like Queens Park. We never knew when Queens Park was going to show throw something else at us or or the or or the region was going to throw something else at us and and you you you know you you you hockey sticked around it very nicely and you and you put everything in place. I got I got to commend the staff and and I I I totally agree with with member Potter. So that must be highlighted in bold on the report. Yeah. and and um I I third it if for a lack of a better thing and and maybe we can hope that the province doesn't u switch things up again or throw us a a curveball in the for the at least the next 6 months or 8 months because we've had to deal with too many about faces too many changes that that um just just weren't functional other than than in my opinion wasting a lot of staff time uh and not making the planning process really better. So, uh um maybe the provincial government has other things to worry about now and they'll leave planning alone for a little bit. So, we can hope. All right. Um then can I say one more? Go ahead, Katie. Thank you. Um through your chair. So, just a reminder that um if committee members could please email um any further comments to clerks@grimsby.ca. um welcome to CC the chair as well. Um what I'm going to do is um combine them all and bring them to the May meeting so that we can discuss it in further detail. Thank you. Perfect. Sounds good. Um the next planning and development committee is scheduled for May 6, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. Thank you everyone. Have a good evening. Meeting is adjourned.

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