Tuesday, June 4th, 2024 5:30 to 9:00pm Drop-in

5:30 – 6:30pm MPP Tibollo will be here to listen to your comments

6:30 – 9:00pm Information, sample objection letters, sign petition

Vellore Community Centre

Community Room

1 Villa Royale Ave, west of Weston Road and north of Rutherford Road

The City of Vaughan is inviting all residents to join the Mayor for a 2023 townhall meeting.

Share your thoughts about what’s happening in your community.

Ward 3:  Vellor Village Community Centre
Monday, Sept. 18, 2023
1 Villa Royale Ave., Woodbridge
6:30PM to 8:00PM

A developer has applied to build four residential apartment buildings on the lands bounded by Langstaff, Silmar Drive and Chrislea Road. (see the area outlined in red in the diagram below). The proposal is for two 35 storey towers and two 32 storey towers, for a total of 1,488 residential units.

The developer has submitted an application for a Community Infrastructure And Housing Accelerator (CHIA) with the Ontario government, which essentially will limit the ability for the public to provide adequate input on the application.

OWNER: Battcorp Holdings (Vaughan) Ltd. and Battcorp II Holdings (Vaughan) Ltd.

LOCATION: 661 and 681 Chrislea Road

FILE: CIHA.23.002 RELATED FILES: OP.23.011, Z.23.020 and PAC.23.030

Notice of Development Application.  Click here to view

What:

WDRA General Meeting to elect executives and discuss current issues facing our community.

When:

Wednesday, March 29, 2023 at 7 pm

Where:     

Ansley Grove Library,
350 Ansley Grove Rd, Vaughan, ON L4L 5C9

Why:         

We need your input to address issues now facing Weston Downs:

• Election of WDRA Executive Members
• Update on 4101 Velmar Condominium Project
• Employment land conversion to allow high density residential condominiums between Weston Road and Highway 400
• Traffic cutting through Weston Downs
• Vaughan Mills Secondary Plan
• Proposed high density development in the Colossus area
• Airplane traffic above Weston Downs

On November 14, 2022, The Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) provided its ruling on the Velmar Centre Property, located at 4101 Rutherford Road.  As you are aware, the City of Vaughan and the Weston Downs community objected to the Developer’s proposal to redesignate this property from a 4-storey mixed-use building with a FSI of 1.5, to a 7-storey mixed-use building with a FSI of 3.14.

The OLT ruled in favor of the Developer, granting him the right to redevelop the property with a 3-storey building along Velmar and a 6-storey building along Rutherford and abutting the park. The following link will take you to the OLT report:

The OLT report indicates that the City argued that this proposed redevelopment was not needed to meet provincial housing objectives and that the developer’s proposal does not fit with the character of the Weston Downs community. The City argued that granting a low-rise classification to a 6-storey building was precedent setting and should not be allowed.

Unfortunately, with the current provincial government’s mandate to streamline the approval process for developers, it is not a surprise that the OLT rejected the City’s and community’s arguments and instead accepted all of the developer’s arguments for higher density and higher built-form.

The Weston Downs community did not receive the results we wanted; however, the Weston Downs residents should be proud of how they worked together as one voice to better our community. The City of Vaughan Council rarely rejects its planning department’s recommendations, however in this case the community worked effectively as one strong voice to communicate to the City  why they needed to turn down this application. Unfortunately, the Ontario government’s housing mandate has created an environment in which the OLT dismissed the City’s and the community’s concerns in favour of the More Homes, Built Faster mandate.

4101 Rutherford Road Development (Velmar Plaza)

On September 19, 2022, the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) hearing for the 4101 Rutherford Road Development (Velmar Plaza) began.

As you may remember, after much community input, the City of Vaughan (City) council rejected the City Planning Department’s recommendation to approve the application and referred the Developer, the community, and the City to OLT-led mediation. The Developer, however, decided to bypass mediation and took the case directly to the OLT. The City hired a lawyer and planner to represent City council’s decision to reject the proposed development.

The hearing had evidence presented by both the Developer’s and the City’s lawyers and experts. The hearing lasted a week and ended on September 23, 2022. The final decision to approve the application in whole or in part, or to dismiss the application will be made by the OLT member and will be communicated in 30 to 60 days.

Background

The Vaughan Official Plan (VOP) designated this site for a 4-storey mixed-use low-rise building. In the application to the City, the Developer was seeking an amendment to allow a 7-storey mixed-use low-rise building. The Vaughan Official Plan permits a maximum 5-storey height under the low-rise designation, however, the Developer applied for a variance to allow a 7-storey “low-rise” building.

At the OLT, the Developer modified their application and was seeking approval for a tiered building which had a 3-storey condominium on the side fronting Velmar Drive and a 6-storey built form fronting Rutherford Road and the park. The amended application included commercial space on the first floor along Rutherford Road.

A 6-storey building is defined as a mid-rise building, not a low-rise building, in the Vaughan Official Plan. The Developer has proposed to maintain the low-rise mixed-use designation but increase the height to 6-storeys with a Floor Space Index of 2.72; both metrics are within the mid-rise classification in the Vaughan Official Plan. Essentially, the Developer has attempted to change the site designation from low-rise mixed-use to mid-rise mixed-use under the façade that the site is low-rise mixed-use with ‘marginal’ increases.

Hearing Summary

The Developer, through his lawyer and expert witnesses, presented a case arguing that the location was underutilized, and the development would provide significant improvement to the neighborhood. Here are some of the highlights of his argument:

• The neighbourhood must experience a change from the “unrelenting conformity” of suburbia.
  • Urban designer Harold Madi gave testimony at length on the need for change and offering different types of housing. The City Lawyer respectfully disagreed principally with the height and density of the proposed development, as well as any change in character.
• The proposed development site is unique and warrants special consideration and could not be viewed as precedent setting.
  • There is no reasonable justification for this claim as there are limited existing commercial or mixed-use sites within established neighbourhoods and the decision to amend Vaughan Official Plan limits on height and density will be used as justification by other developers for their sites.
• The building height is consistent with other buildings in the area.
  • The only supporting reference made was the St Clare Bell Tower.
• The building is buffered by the park and therefore does not have a height issue.
  • However, standing on the ground in the park residents would still be faced with a 6-storey building, it would be in direct view to all surrounding residents, and it only reduced the height to 3-storeys along Velmar Drive.
• Reduced crime – the building height and number of balconies would reduce crime in the park by having more “eyes” on the park.
  • The community, however, does not currently have an issue with crime in the park and the City lawyer clarified this issue several times.
• Our need for neighbourhood amenities would continue to be served by the proposed commercial space.
  • The proposed commercial space would, however, be inconveniently served by underground parking, and the size of the proposed commercial space is about half of the current commercial space.
• Although traffic volume would be higher, the area would accommodate the increased traffic.
  • Regrettably, traffic modelling can be manipulated through various assumptions. Anyone who drives along Velmar Drive during the morning or evening rush hour knows that an additional 130 units will impact traffic.

The City lawyers made a very strong argument that the application itself was precedence setting because the Developer was trying to obtain approval for a mid-rise building on a site designated as low-rise in the Vaughan Official Plan. In addition to the issue of precedence, here are some other highlights of the City lawyer’s argument:

• The height of the building in this development exceeds the maximum number of storeys permitted in low-rise designation of this site and the proposed 6-storey building is and has the built form character of a mid-rise building.
• The development is not in character with the surrounding area.
• The development is not required to meet the provincial and city growth plans.
• There was not a single expert witness or the Developer’s lawyer who provided even remote justification for the need for a 6-storey building when a 3-storey or 4-storey building would provide the same ‘benefits’ their case was arguing.

Decision

We will now have to wait for the OLT member to decide and make a ruling. The timeline for the OLT decision is 1-2 months from the last day of the hearing which was September 23rd, 2022.