Duane Hicks
The redevelopment of a local church property into a multi-residential dwelling will be able to proceed after the Ontario Municipal Board denied an appeal of a zoning amendment at 1345 Emo Rd. and declared the rezoning “in effect.”
OMB chair Gary O’Connor delivered his decision last week to dismiss an appeal by local resident Larry Buttner, which he had filed last fall after council passed a bylaw Oct. 27 to rezone the property at 1345 Emo Rd. from institutional to multi-residential (Residential Type Four, or R4).
The move was made so local resident and business owner Dave Petsnick could convert the United Pentecostal Church into a three-unit apartment complex, as well as permit the possible construction of an additional four-unit complex there at some point down the road.
Based on evidence produced both for and against the rezoning at a hearing here April 1, O’Connor said the OMB “accepts that the appellant’s concerns about the changing nature of his neighbourhood are sincere, but he did not adduce any land use planning evidence to demonstrate that the proposal should not be allowed to move forward.”
“While ‘the public interest’ is an issue to which the board must have regard, such regard generally falls under the rubric of ‘good land use planning,’” he explained. “In making decisions on the merits of planning changes, the board relies on evidence being presented, the veracity of which can be ‘tested’ by cross-examination.
“The board, in this case, explained to the appellant that without the authors of his submitted material being in attendance for such examination, its relevance is essentially ‘hearsay’ and therefore given little weight,” O’Connor concluded.
At the April 1 hearing, Buttner, backed by several west-end residents, cited various reasons to disallow the rezoning and proposed development, including increased traffic, insufficient notice of the rezoning, increased noise, decreased enjoyment of wildlife, decreased property values, loss of water pressure for the existing homes in the area, and the possibility of the apartments being converted into subsidized housing.
At the same hearing,
municipal planner Faye Flatt presented evidence that all relevant planning issues were considered and addressed prior to the zoning bylaw amendment coming before town council last October.
In his decision, O’Connor said the OMB “prefers the planner’s uncontroverted evidence” and “is satisfied that she has addressed all of the concerns.”
Petsnick also spoke in favour of the rezoning, noting he wanted to renovate the church into three apartments, and later build four more units in a second single-level, easy-to-access building to be constructed in the future just south of the existing structure, and that they wouldn’t be subsidized housing.
Rather, he wanted to market them either to seniors or young professionals who have a regular turnover in their jobs (such as police officers who only are here for a couple of years).
As well, United Pentecostal Church pastor Sean Ward and several members of the congregation spoke in favour of the rezoning.
Citing a rapid growth in church membership, they said if the rezoning was to go ahead, they would be able to sell the Emo Road property to Petsnick and the church could move into the former St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church at the corner of Church Street and Victoria Avenue.
The new location not only would better accommodate the membership, but address parking issues and traffic congestion resulting from the church being on Emo Road.
The church’s relocation has been put on hold until now since it has remained contingent on the property sale.
