Oakville News N.M.
FORMAT construction at the corner of Chisholm Street and Lakeshore Road West
The mostly vacant property at the southwest corner of Lakeshore Road West and Chisholm Street has been a development in the making for more than a decade now.
The site is approved for a five-storey residential building and various developers have suggested various designs for the lot.
But the latest proposal – to double the building’s approved height and more than triple its number of units – is out of balance for the community, local residents say.
Format Lakeshore, the current owner of the property, has applied for an official plan amendment to build a 10-storey building with 152 residential units and ground-floor commercial and retail space.
It also wants to tear down the decaying heritage home on the property and replace it with a steel-framed "commemorative heritage structure and interpretative space."
Town of Oakville
The scale of the plan earned opposition from nearby residents when it was introduced at the town’s Nov. 13 planning and development meeting.
With only 36 homes on Chisholm Street south of Lakeshore, the approved five-storey, 47-unit building would double the density of the neighbourhood, Mark Krajewsky told town councillors.
"A 10-storey building is a 500 per cent increase." he said. "We’d be happy with a nice five-storey development that doubles the population of Chisholm Street, but we don’t need a biblical change to increase someone’s profits."
“There’s no buildings over four stories west of 16 Mile Creek, south of Lakeshore, as far as the eye can see.”
The narrow street – already experiencing "gridlock" as visitors use it to get to Tannery Park – can’t handle the extra traffic or the parking demands created by a development proposing too little parking, Krajewsky added.
Format’s plan calls for four floors of underground parking with a total of 183 spaces, including 31 visitor spaces to be shared by both the residential and commercial units. Vehicle access is planned from Chisholm.
The size of the proposed new development is a concern for many residents, agreed Manlio Marescotti, who canvassed the neighbourhood with a petition he submitted to Oakville planning staff.
"We’re not opposed to the development, it’s just the scale of it," he said.
In response to questions from Ward 2 councillor Ray Chisholm about the request for increased height, Format’s planning consultant Paul Demczak pointed to buildings ranging from six to 17 storeys on Forsythe and John Streets and the other side of Lakeshore.
He also pointed to new provincial rules and housing goals.
"There’s obviously a changing landscape, in terms of the provincial policies," said Demczak, adding that he believes the site offers "a good opportunity for providing additional housing."
"I don’t think people want to see it vacant for another 10 years."
The new plan will place the bulk of the development toward the corner of Lakeshore and Chisholm and further back from surrounding homes, Demczak added.
Ward 2 councillor Cathy Duddeck focused her attention on the developer’s plan to demolish the 1880 heritage designated home on the property.
Preserving the house, which was once owned former Oakville mayor William McCraney, was always part of the site’s development plan, she noted.
"In each and every rendition that was presented, the heritage home has always been retained," Duddeck said.
Town of Oakville
But Demczak said the building is in poor shape, with many of the heritage attributes damaged or removed.
In 2016, a previous owner removed a large magnolia tree that was also a designated heritage attribute of the property.
Town planning staff will review the development and bring a recommendation report to a future planning and development meeting for council’s decision.
