Orillia city council has opted against pre-zoning parts of the city for buildings up to eight storeys in height, despite discussions in favour of the idea in July.
The idea, initially brought forward by Coun. Whitney Smith, would have allowed developers to construct buildings up to eight storeys in height in certain parts of the city.
The plan was to pre-zone lands in the city’s ‘living area — intensification area’ to the maximum building height without the need for a zoning bylaw amendment.
“The proposed municipal initiated zoning amendment would pre-zone all of those lands, within the areas identified, for the maximum building height that's in the Official Plan, which, generally speaking, is eight storeys,” said Ian Sugden, the city's general manager of development services and engineering, at Monday’s council meeting,
“There would be no site specific zoning amendments required for development of those sites if they can work within that building height.”
Developers require a zoning bylaw amendment to proceed with projects above four storeys in height — a process that includes a public meeting, council approval, and can take four to six months.
Smith’s hope was to bring housing more quickly to the city, but council ultimately voted the idea down when it was set to be ratified on Monday.
Several members of council expressed a desire to keep the public’s ability to weigh in on building height intact.
“I'm not in favour of lowering the bar when it comes to a neighbourhood’s ability to argue out height,” said Coun. Tim Lauer.
“I think, given what the province is doing with planning, people are getting less and less control over their own neighbourhoods, and I don't think we should be undercutting that.”
The proposed lands included areas along arterial roads, such as Barrie Road, near West Street North and Fittons Road, and more.
Coun. Janet-Lynne Durnford successfully introduced an amendment to remove all lands near Orchard Point from the pre-zoning process, prior to council voting the idea down.
“We had a couple of constituents contact us with concerns about including Orchard Point,” she said. “I think that it's a historically significant area, (and) it's perhaps an environmentally significant area.”
Despite the change of heart by council, Smith argued in favour of the pre-zoning process, noting the need for more housing in the city.
“If this could have sped up the process for developers to come … at the end of the day, there is only so much land left to build, so we can't just build houses or just townhomes — at some point we're going to have to build more, and bigger,” she said.
“A developer, if they're considering a development … it just (communicated that) ‘Yeah, we're open for business, and we want to work with you.'”
In a report to council in July, city staff noted that approximately 20 zoning amendments have been requested for height exemptions under the current official plan — all of which were eventually approved.
