ELORA – The developer is walking back its original proposal for 350 Wellington Road 7 between Salem and Elora, removing the plan for an eight-storey apartment building in favour of adding more townhomes.
Eldon Theodore, a planner with MHBC Planning, presented the revised plan for the property at a May 31 public planning meeting.
The developer hopes to build a 273-unit townhome community with a mix of conventional, back-to-back and live-work townhomes.
Each unit would have frontage on an internal street system and the live-work units would front onto Wellington Road 7.
Units would have their own driveways, plus internal visitor parking. There would also be bike storage, a park and access to nearby hiking trails.
The project requires an official plan amendment change to go from highway/commercial zoning to highway/commercial exception.
The company hosted an informal open house to introduce the concept to interested parties and based on that feedback, a few changes have been made.
“We did resubmit,” said Theodore, noting the revised plan has wider sidewalks, higher fencing and a centre turn lane from Wellington Road 7 into the townhome community.
“But the big thing is the eight-storey apartment building. We removed that based on what we heard at that meeting.”
Theodore said the company will install a crosswalk at the David Street/Middlebrook Road intersection and take its aesthetic cues from the Dalby House in downtown Elora, with its arched windows and stately appearance.
Other feedback was to align the main entrance to the development with South Street across the road as that was thought to be safer for entering and exiting the site.
“We want to keep the central driveway,” Theodore said, adding it is important to internal traffic flow and access to internal amenities like the central park.
Melinda Croft was the only one to delegate.
While she’s not opposed to more housing, she has concerns as her property fronts onto Middlebrook Road and its back border would meet with the back end of the townhouse community.
Her business is a farm that grows and sells sunflowers. It gets a lot of visitors in late summer when the sunflowers are in bloom.
She had a list of requests of the developer, from keeping dust down during construction, to taller privacy fences across the back rather than the chain link fencing proposed, to concerns about grading and possible flooding of their driveway.
Theodore was optimistic solutions could be worked out.
No decision was made at the meeting. The proposal will return to council at a future date.
