A group of neighbours are expressing their concern with a proposed nine-story, mixed-use building on Gordon Street.
Launching a petition on Wednesday, residents living in the Gordon Street and Vaughan Street area say the proposed official plan amendments being sought would negatively impact the neighbourhood, including the destruction of vital wildlife habitat.
Petition organizer Jackie MacKenzie said the goal of the petition isn’t to kibosh the project, rather to bring forward solutions they believe will allow for a tangible coexistence between the neighbourhood and the developers.
“This is a community that wants to work this the city and the developer, and we hope that they’ll do the same,” said MacKenzie.
If approved as-is, the development proposal for 1373 and 1389 Gordon St. would see the ground floor largely used for commercial purposes and the top-level as office space, with seven storeys of residential units containing 98 units with a mixture of one, two and three-bedroom unit types.
The plan also includes 162 parking spaces, including four accessible spaces, in a rear surface parking lot accessed from Vaughan Street.
A total of 113 parking spaces is for residents and 49 parking spaces for commercial and visitor parking.
“We wanted people to be aware of the potential impact of this apartment,” said MacKenzie. “And clearly, we are not opposed to the apartment at all, we are just wanting to talk at the council meeting about the impact on the neighbourhood and feeling like we want to have a voice in this. We do have a lot of very keen and interested people that have been working together,” said MacKenzie.
Two of the major points of concern revolve around the potential destruction of wildlife habitat, including the removal of upwards of 200 mature trees, and the projected roadway congestion these residential units will bring.
“Any issue needs to be looked at with the understanding that humans, animals and the environment are inextricably linked and you can't look at one or impact one without impacting the other,” said Marina Kashevska-Gozdez, resident and final year student at the Ontario Veterinary College. “ So, in that vein, I've been kind of considering the impact this will have on the wildlife in the area.”
“First and foremost, the subject lands that are kind of being discussed here are adjacent to significant wildlife habitat, so that might be a little bit different from some of the other developments in the area and I think that that’s a very important thing the city and the developers need to consider.”
An earlier development concept proposed a six-story mixed-use apartment building fronting onto Gordon Street with 30 stacked townhome units fronting on Vaughan Street. Municipal staff expressed concern that this concept provided excessive surface parking and did not retain sufficient trees and landscaping along Vaughan Street. In response, Vaughan St. GP Corp. revised that initial concept into the current proposal which intensifies the mixed-use building along Gordon Street and replaces the stacked townhomes along Vaughan Street with landscaping.
This includes a proposed rear surface parking lot accessed from Vaughan Street.
Residents say this amendment would cause major disruptions in the local traffic during the morning and evening rush hour times.
“This parking lot would lose 200 mature trees and we’ve got this traffic jam issue, and why not put underground parking like we have done in so many buildings around here. It seems like it would be a solvable solution,” said MacKenzie.
The development is proposed to generate 72 trips during the morning peak rush hour and 74 trips during the evening peak rush hour.
The petition is expected to be brought forward to the Guelph city council on March 21 and can be found here.
