Five public meetings held in council chambers
by Michelle Minnoch

The town held five public meetings in the council chambers last Wednesday evening.

Two of the public meetings were regarding a re-zoning by-law amendment for Innisbrook Developments. Regarding Part of the North Half of Lot 23, Concession 7, Part of Block 118 is being rezoned because the storm water management facilities have been redesigned within the Registered Plan. The Town owns the lands and it was agreed the area would not be rezoned until the land was transferred from the Town to Innisbrook.

"We are correcting an error of the mapping," said proponent Anna D'Alessandro. She said in 1988, they came up with the first phase of the plan, and the entire proposal was zoned in phase 2.

The second public meeting regarding Innisbrook homes was regarding the allowance of 12m frontages.

The lands, Part 23 of Concession 7, will consist of 86 single detached units.

According to Staff Report PDS 001-07, an inconsistency occurred when the zoning by-law was written, and a number of lots in the Innisbrook Development, Phase 2, were zoned with a minimum of 15m frontages. According to the subdivision Draft Plan, forty two of the lots were designed with 12m frontages. The Draft Plan of the subdivision was approved on August 30, 2006.

"We are just fine tuning the configuration of the property," D'Alessandro said. The area, which would be located south of Innisfil Beach Road and east of Jans Blvd, would have a cement wall facing Innisfil Beach Road, which would hide the parking in front of the building.

Ross Cotton, Manager of Planning and Development said that in the true sense of the Urban Design Plan of the area, parking would not be located in front of the property.

"They were able to come a long way and meet what the urban design guidelines are," he said.

Councilor Pring asked if "we are too late in asking if it meets our new criteria?"

"As far as Urban Design Guidelines for Innisfil Beach Road, we don't have any," stated Councilor Lynn Dollin. "Council hasn't adopted any yet."

Shayne Graham, a Thompson Street resident, said the development looks nice, but it is all around Thompson and Gina Streets.

"People do not want it," he said of the subdivision. He says people in the area are already dealing with the "sights and sounds of Sobey's."

Gina Street resident Walter Pylypczuk said he backs onto the area being developed and has watched the ponds and the turtles disappear. "The traffic and the access to areas are a little unsettling," he said.

Jones Consulting Group was looking for a by-law amendment in which the storm water retention facilities would be relocated to the east of the proposed townhouse units, and the old pond location a townhouse block.

"This is an entirely new sub division," said Cotton. He explained it was essentially a matter of switching the land, blocks 245 and 247, and the pond would go where a block would go, and vice versa.

Ray Duhamel, the proponent, said the sizes of land were fairly comparable.

"Basically we are doing a swap," he said. "One block is .19 ha, the other .14 ha".

The fourth public meeting was in regards to Timothy Claudio of TJ Music, to rezone his property from Residential Rural to Residential Rural Exception, to accommodate the expansion of his music school.

"We would be allowing a larger portion of the house to be used for the music school," Cotton said.

Claudio said he started teaching music ten years ago and with the expansion, could hire three music teachers.

The final public meeting was held in respect to a zoning by-law amendment for Previn Court homes. When Zoning by-law 054-04 was written, it allowed for a minimum lot frontage of 10m for semi detached and link homes. According to the report, "the applicant has requested the Town amend the existing Zoning by-law to bring the by-law into conformity with the Registered Plan by rezoning the 19m lots RSS(H) Site Specific Exception, which permits a minimum lot frontage of 9.5m for semi-detached and link homes".

"Again, we are correcting a mapping error," said Cotton. "The re-zoning would affect 33 lots, or 66 units." He said it would be the homes on Lambstone Street that would have 9.5m instead of 10m frontages.

"The 9.5m is consistent with the abutting lots in Previn Court," he said.

Councilor Lynn Dollin asked if they were getting to the end of their mapping problems, in which Cotton replied, "we are still finding a few."