A controversial condo project proposed for Charlton Ave. East hit a roadblock Thursday as the Niagara Escarpment Commission decided the project is still too intrusive on escarpment views.
The NEC voted Thursday to appeal the city's September decision to rezone the land in order to allow the project to be built.
The commission made its decision behind closed doors after hearing presentations from the developer, a neighbourhood resident and organizer, and Environment Hamilton. Commission staff had recommended the appeal be withdrawn, but the commission went forward with it.
'I felt that the city council made a decision based on sound and reasonable changes.'- Councillor and NEC member Russ Powers
Now the matter enters the Ontario Municipal Board process, which will first involve a pre-hearing where the sides can talk about possible settlements to avoid a full hearing a year from now.
Environment Hamilton's Lynda Lukasik and Stinson resident Brenda Mitchell, opposing the development, waited for close to an hour for the decision to be announced.
"I think our jaws dropped," said Lukasik. "We were pleased with the decision."
Ed Fothergill, a planner from the development team, was surprised, too, but not pleasantly. He said additional hearings will cost everyone involved more time and resources.
"It's not normal for the commission to interfere or challenge the decisions of municipalities on decisions such as this," he said. "It is unfortunate because here we have a provincial government trying to fight a decision that was made after a thorough investigation by the city of Hamilton, that the city feels is in its self-interest."
Managing change on 'a valuable resource'
The property is on a terraced piece of lower escarpment land above the Rail Trail in the southern edge of the Stinson neighbourhood. The parcel was previously Sportmen's Lanes, a bowling alley, before it was a transportation depot. The zoning change would take the property from its industrial use to allow for multi-unit housing use.
The property is owned by Ron Van Kleef, president of Hamilton Cab, and he is developing the site with Paul Black under the name Vetco Development Corporation.
The commission had to decide Thursday whether it should continue on a path that would mean arguing with the city's and the developer's planners over how to interpret the commission's own rules about protecting the views of the escarpment.
The developer had already made some compromises to the project, on city recommendation, in attempts to address commission concerns. Those include changing the number of storeys in the project to comprise two six-storey buildings and one five-storey building instead of all three the same height. Still, the proposed project exceeds the commission's four-storey trigger for review.
In approving the project in September, elected city officials were balancing protecting the escarpment with a slate of other municipal and provincial development goals. City planners at that time recommended approving the zoning change. The project fits the city's and province's goals for growth in the region, is near downtown and transit and would be a new use for a former industrial and commercial, or brownfield, site.
That doesn't mean the city doesn't prize the escarpment, said Steve Robichaud, the city's director of planning. But it's just not their sole focus, like it is the Niagara Escarpment Commission's.
"Obviously it is a valuable resource," he said. "How you manage change on that resource is what we're concerned with."
A 'subjective' interpretation
The changes the developers have already made caused NEC staff planners to wonder if the fight was worth having. With the new version, the project's visual impacts on the escarpment were "no longer as serious" as they once were, and so the NEC's interpretation might not be "persuasive enough" when taken with the positions of the city and the developer, according to commission staff planner Martin Killian in his prepared report.
"Unlike some [Niagara Escarpment Preservation] policies whose interpretation is more clearly defined and defensible, each of the NEP policies on the matter of the degree of visual impact compatibility is more subjective in interpretation," Killian wrote.
Hamilton's elected representative on the commission, Coun. Russ Powers, said he voted with the minority to support the city's position – to approve the development.
"We need to do what we can with reason to protect the view and more importantly, the escarpment (itself)," Powers said. "I felt that the city council made a decision based on sound and reasonable changes."
Powers said he hopes the project can go forward without going through a whole OMB hearing.
"I'm sure there's going to be creative solutions sought," he said.
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