While Lea Westlake might think Queen Street is a great place to intensify downtown, it’s ‘how’ intense a 227-unit,16-storey building would be that has her concerned — and she’s not alone.
A number of residents in the area near Queen and Barrie streets want to see something that is more in keeping with the neighbourhood.
“The zoning bylaws for that site is four to six storeys,” Westlake says
The proposal is set to go before the Ontario Land Tribunal. Global News has tried to contact the property owner for comment and has yet to hear back.
According to Kingston Mayor Bryan Paterson, city council hasn’t decided on their position in an upcoming closed session meeting.
“The discussions that council have need to be in closed session because we want to protect the city’s interest,” Paterson said. “We want to make sure that in our discussions and in our deliberations that we aren’t revealing any information that could actually harm the city’s position.”
Colborne Street resident Bill Woods had this to add.
“We’re concerned that as proposed, there’s no mention of affordable housing,” Woods said. “That’s certainly an issue in Kingston and so we want to see some more consultation.”
And with the current proposal before the land tribunal, residents like Westlake worry the city has lost the ability to decide what is appropriate development in this case and that public consultation and municipal staff work could be ignored.
“Its technical review which had 90 items of concern, we also had a peer review that … very much kind of echoed the comments of the neighbourhood,” Westlake said.
“We are hoping that the city is going to the Ontario Land Tribunal in the spirit of these things.”
Residents have formed a group called ‘Friends of Queen Street Kingston’ and have applied to be part of the Ontario Land Tribunal hearings.
They hope to find out whether they’ll get a chance to participate in the appeal later this month.