Thorold residents are still recovering from the heartbreak of seeing Riganelli’s Bakery torn down, but some neighbours are much more emotional about what may replace it: a six-storey, 40-unit apartment building.
Developer Shane Webber is proposing an apartment complex at 16 Ormond St., and he is asking the city’s Committee of Adjustment to approve some minor zoning variances. A public meeting (virtually) is scheduled for March 17.
In the meantime, a group of residents has already banded together to oppose the construction project. They call themselves “Citizens for Responsible Development and Neighbourhood Preservation.”
“On Ormond Street, there’s not a single building that reaches four stories, so now all of a sudden they want to put this big clunker of a six-storey building squeezed on this lot?” says Tim O’Hare, who lives across the street from the site. “It is shocking to me that the city would even consider allowing this.”
Webber is asking the Committee of Adjustment to approve five variances, including reducing the minimum step back of the building above a third or fourth storey. The current bylaw says the step back must be 1.5 meters; he wants it to be zero.
Webber is also asking that the building be allowed to have one parking spot per unit. Currently, a building with more than 15 dwelling units must have 1.25 parking spaces per unit.
Among their many concerns, neighbours say they weren’t given nearly enough time to prepare a proper response to the variance requests. O’Hare says he received a public notice in the mail on March 3—and the deadline to submit feedback to the city was March 4.
At last night’s city council meeting, Councillor Fred Neale voiced the same frustration.
“They don’t have time,” he told council. “People are not in tune to what the bylaws have and [what] the variances are so they have to get expert advice in order to make presentations.”
Neale wanted to put forward a motion to postpone the March 17 committee meeting, which would have given neighbours more time to consult legal advice and prepare their arguments. But Maria Mauro, the city’s director of finance, said the city has a legal obligation to convene such meetings within 30 days of blueprints being submitted.
“There is a possibility that the city and/or the residents can appear at the outset of the hearing and request that a deferral be made,” Mauro said. “But they must state their reasons.”
Neale vowed to attend the March 17 meeting to fight for a deferral.
O’Hare says his group is ready for a fight, too, determined to preserve the historic feel of downtown Thorold.
“We’re working with others to see where we can get support and how we can try to somewhat influence this,” he says. “Someone needs to be thinking a little bit about Thorold and how it’s going to look in 10, 40, 100 years from now.”
O’Hare is concerned that a six-storey building will “dwarf” nearby homes and block sunlight. His group is also worried about increased traffic that will inevitably come with a 40-unit apartment building.
“There is going to be an entrance to the parking lot on one side and a drive around to the exit, so it’s almost like a secondary roadway that’s going to surround this building,” O’Hare says. “With 40 residents you can imagine how busy the traffic is going to be throughout the day.”
Although the project is not being pitched as a student residence, O’Hare wants assurances that it won’t become one. “We don’t need more student residences,” he says. “The real needs are with the elderly and families that are having a hard time finding places to rent.”
The architect on the project is Raimondo + Associates in Niagara Falls. When ThoroldToday reached out for comment, Zachary Soccio-Marandola, a lawyer for the property owner, replied via email. "The developers and their agents do not wish to comment at this time," he wrote.
Soccio-Marandola went on to tell ThoroldToday that “any reporting of unsupported claims or misleading narratives" would "be met with immediate action for damages." He referred specifically to the issue of student residences.
“This description has never been applied to the subject property by the developers and thus any label of this project as such is wholly unsubstantiated and inaccurate,” Soccio-Marandola wrote. “The narrative of student housing is often used irresponsibly by media outlets to create fear within the Thorold community and discriminate against a group of people whose discerning quality is the pursuit of higher education. Any facilitation of this will not be tolerated.”
“I further remind you that the property is currently subject to an ongoing municipal process, designed to ensure every stakeholder has a fair opportunity to raise concerns of merit,” the lawyer continued. “Any reporting of unsupported claims or misleading narratives with [sic] be met with immediate action for damages. We trust you will employ journalistic integrity while reporting on this."
The March 17 meeting begins at 9:30 a.m.
