Transcript: Hillcrest Mall Redevelopment Approved - Committee of Adjustment Thursday, April 23, 2026 Meeting | Summary 496

Hillcrest Mall Redevelopment Approved - Committee of Adjustment Thursday, April 23, 2026 Meeting

Good evening everyone and welcome to Richmond Hills Committee of Adjustment. This evening we'll start by the land acknowledgement. We are gathering on lands that have been home to First Nations people from time in memorial. We acknowledge that what we now call Richmond Hill is on the treaty lands and territory of the Missagas of the Credit First Nation and Missaga and Chipova nations of the Williams treaty. We also recognize that we are on part of the traditional territories of the Hudeno Shai and Huron Wenda. We also acknowledge all first nation innovate and matey people from across North America also known as turtle island who now reside in the city of Richmond Hill. We are committed to rebuilding constructive and cooperative relationships with all uh we can continue with the preamble. Thank you. Good evening. In the event of an emergency, please exit this room. Outside of the double doors are two stairwell exits. The one on the right exits to the south side of the building, and the one on the far side of the elevators exits to the main lobby. Do not use the elevators or return to the building until directed. We ask all committee members, city staff, and members of the audience to please silence your cell phones. The committee of adjustment for the city of Richmond Hill has been appointed by council to consider applications for minor variance and consent within the jurisdiction of the planning act. The chair will call the applicant to the podium to present their application and will allow members of the public to comment. When members of the public approach the podium, please do so one person at a time. Please note the public deputation form beside the podium. Please clearly write your name and email address and indicate on the form if you wish to be added to the notification list for the application you are speaking for. State your full name and address to the committee before speaking. When speaking, please address all comments through the chair. Once the committee makes a decision on an application, no further discussion is allowed inside council chambers. No one other than the applicant, the municipality, certain public bodies, and the minister will be allowed to appeal municipal decisions to the tribunal within 20 days of the making of the decision. All appeals and associated fees must be filed directly with the secretary treasurer in accordance with the planning act. Thank you. Thank you. Uh we have uh Miss Courtney Kullum as our secretary treasurer. Assisting her is Miss Lisa Patera and we have Melissa Jerardina Papa from the planning department this evening to help us out. Do we have any additions or any deferrals? Through you, Mr. Chair, there are none. Okay. And I there's only one correspondence I notice. Is that correct? That's all we have. Through you, Mr. Chair. That is correct. We have one letter of opposition for the applications for 9350 Young Street from a resident at 9201 Young Street. Thank you so much. So with that, I would call upon our first item which is Oh yes, sorry. Any conflicts of interest? I forgot there's so few today. No problem. Thank you for reminding me. Anyways, let's begin with her first item on the agenda, which is agenda items A and B, both located at 9350 Young Street. That would be application number CN26-2000, sorry, 00002 and MV-260003. Go ahead. Good evening, chair, members of committee. My name is Katherine Rasher. I'm a planner with MHPC. Uh I'm here tonight on behalf of Oxford Properties, the owners of 9350 Young Street. Uh I'm joined tonight by Katarina and Michael, business representatives from Oxford. Before you tonight are two applications for a consent and a minor variance application uh for the lands at 9350. The site is currently occupied by Hillcrest Mall, which is a partial two-story indoor shopping mall and a three singlestory retail and restaurant buildings along the Young Street frontage. The purpose of the consent application is to sever the existing property into two separate parcels. The retained parcel will continue to function as the Hillrest Mall, while the severed parcel is intended to be developed as purpose-built rental through an ongoing site plan application. To support the creation of the severed parcel, access and servicing easements will be required over the retained lands in favor of the severed lands. And due to the newly created lot lines and existing buildings on the severed lands, a minor variance is also required to facilitate this application. The required variances are technical in nature and anticipated to be temporary. The variances are related to a front yard setback reduction of 70 ft to 54 ft and a reduction in parking to a street line from 5 ft to 4.8 ft. I do note that these are imperial measurements because the bylaw we are looking to amend is from 1971. Um so some background and history. Um the property is within the key development area which is an area intended for growth and development. Um, and applications for an official plan amendment and zoning bylaw amendment were previously submitted in August of 2022. Uh, in March or sorry, August of 2020. In March of 2022, these applications were appealed to the OOLT um, but have since been settled. The final zoning bylaw instrument will be completed concurrently with the site plan application and our team anticipates providing a submission on that um in the coming weeks to address the remaining comments and finalize the outstanding zoning instrument. And once in place, the zoning instrument will override the minor variances being requested today. I do note that um there were as um Courtney had noted there were resident concerns submitted um and just to address those they were related to reduced setbacks, increased density, traffic noise, and a reduction in green space. These items have all been addressed previously through our approved official plan amendment and zoning bylaw amendment or we are working through them concurrently with staff as part of our site plan application. Uh we have had a chance to review the staff report and the associated conditions and we're satisfied with staff's recommendation for approval and the proposed conditions. If there are any other questions, I'd be happy to answer them. Thank you so much. Does anyone in the audience wish to address this application which is located at Hillrest Mall? Seeing none. Do we have any comments from the planning department? Through you, Mr. Chair. No comments. Okay. Um, I do have one question and then I'll pass it on to our members. So, the intent is to demolish the existing building and build something else on that parcel. That is correct. Yes. Can we know what that is? Uh, I don't see any plans or there is a little written stuff. Yes. So, we Yes. Through the chair. We're not privy to the drawings or anything. Yeah. Right. So it is proposed to be um about 600 purpose-built rental units across two towers of 25 and 30 stories. And uh what you mentioned was that this is a temporary request because obviously when you do the zoning bylaw amendment and official plan amendments, we don't need you would take care of all these items. Is that correct? Correct. So why do we need to do this again? Because until such time as the zoning bylaw is finalized through the OOLT, this building needs to be uh the lot needs to be legally um established and there is an existing building so it needs to have appropriate setbacks. I see. Even though it's going to be demolished, correct? No problem. So I understand that part and my last question is kind of really simple. If uh you are going to change uh the bylaws, we also notice one other thing that the the current new bylaw which is has been approved but is not in effect at present does not require any of these variances. Is that true? So the in effect bylaw for the severed portion of the property is actually bylaw 3971. Okay. So it was a donut hole in bylaw 9325. is explicitly excluded because we didn't want to have to uh be amending a brand new bylaw. So, the bylaw we are bringing forward as part of the OOLT will be its own standalone um version of that. So, in case you don't get approved with any of these amendments, we're going to be stuck with this decision. Uh would it still permit a 25story building? The zoning bylaw that we are working through with city staff right now will be what permits No, no, I know. But in I'm just saying saying the worst case scenario would be we approve you tonight Mhm. and you don't get the approvals for the other zoning but you know right they fail what what would be the outcome then we would be required to comply with bylaw 3971 bylaw which does not permit that height right? No. Okay good that's all I wanted to ask. Any other questions from our members? Go ahead. If none, I would request a motion. Detsy, go ahead. The chair. Um, I would like to make a motion uh items A and B on the agenda. um located at 9350 Young Street. That is file number CN-26-00002 and MV-26 D- 0 03 be approved subject to the terms and conditions in the city's staff report. Moved by Mr. Deredzi, seconded by Miss Payne. All in favor, it's approved. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. We are going to hear the next four applications together which would be our agenda items C, D, E, and F. Application numbers MV2604, MV2605, MV2606 and MV2607. All located at 45, 47, 61, and 63 Sandals Avenue. Go ahead, sir. Good afternoon. My name is Derek Santos. I represent Royal Pine Homes, and I'm here to answer any questions you may have regarding the four applications. Okay, since there's no one through you, Mr. here. No comments. That's probably some sort of error. I would request ahead. Thank you. Through you, Mr. Chair, I'd like to make a motion to approve applications number MV-26-004 located at 45 Sandals Avenue. MV-260005 located 47 Sandals Avenue. MV-26-00006 located at 61 Sandals Avenue. and MB-26-00007 located at 63 Sandals Avenue subject to the terms and conditions in the city staff report. Thank you. Moved by Miss Kelbus. All seconded by Mr. Dazzy. All in favor? Approved. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Have a good evening. Have a good evening. Do we have any other business other than the minutes? Mr. Chair, there there's no new business. Any comments on the minutes from anyone? No comments. In that case, I would request uh approval of the minutes. Go ahead, Miss P. We'll make a motion to accept the minutes for the meeting. Moved by Miss Payne, seconded by Mr. Deretszi. All in favor? Minutes are approved. And we'd like to move to adjourn this meeting. Yeah, nobody wants. Okay. Hey, Miss Kalpus. Moved by Miss Kalbus, seconded by Miss Pain. Meeting is adjourned.

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