Duane Hicks
The United Pentecostal Church property at 1345 Emo Rd. will be converted into a new apartment dwelling later this year after the Ontario Municipal Board last week denied an appeal of a zoning amendment made to allow the development to proceed, declaring the rezoning “in effect.”
Local resident Dave Petsnick, who also owns Revco Carpet, said the deal to purchase the church property should close in the next couple of weeks.
“I am just glad the board ruled in our favour because it makes sense,” he noted. “It was really an unnecessary delay as far I am concerned, but everybody gets due process.
“Some people just don’t like change. That’s the way it is.”
Petsnick said site work will begin this summer or fall.
“I tried to get this all done so we could work on it last winter, but with all the delays we had there . . . we’ll just have to wait and take it as it comes,” he remarked.
“I want to get a crew over there to start doing some demolition work right away, if I can swing it.
“But it’s kind of bad timing to try and do that when we are trying to work on everyone else’s [homes],” Petsnick added. “We’re kind of busy here at the store.”
Meanwhile, Pastor Sean Ward of the United Pentecostal Church said he was “ecstatic” to hear about the OMB’s decision late Friday, noting the church now can go ahead and finalize the deal to sell its Emo Road property to Petsnick and then buy the former St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church at the corner of Church Street and Victoria Avenue.
He added the new location will give his church “room to grow,” adding the central location puts them in a better position to serve the community.
While the church had hoped to move last year, Pastor Ward said his position has been all the way through that all these delays just build our faith.
“And it’s due process,” he noted. “Those people, they have a right to do that [to make an appeal]. I expressed it at the hearing.
“We don’t begrudge,” Pastor Ward stressed. “We have friends on Emo Road, we’ve been friends for 20 years.
“So I felt that either way it went, we were putting our best foot forward, and we were going to be happy either way.
“It’s gone this way, and we’re really happy.”
Pastor Ward said his church had obtained permission to use the former St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in the past couple of weeks, and already has hosted a wedding and a men’s conference there.
“The last day we were supposed to be in there was May 9, and we got the word on May 8. It was like, ‘Yes, this is more than a coincidence,’” he remarked.
“So, we’re currently there. I have a sign on the window of the other building, telling them we’re over at the [new] place.
“We’re tremendously excited.”
As reported in Monday’s Daily Bulletin, 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 on 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 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 held 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.’
“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 to 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.”
Buttner did not return a call seeking comment prior to press time.
