I wish to express my concern about Council’s amendment of the R.4A-34 (Residential Apartment) Zone at 410 Clair Road East to permit a religious establishment. My concern relates to the broader implications of this approach to rezoning that could potentially impact any residential neighbourhood in the City, as well as implications for our Official Plan.
As you know, Section 7.2.26 of the Official Plan (regarding non-residential uses in a residential area) permits “small-scale institutional uses” such as schools and churches, and convenience commercial uses. While the latter are limited to a maximum leasable floor area of 300 square metres, no definition of small-scale institutional is provided. Section 7.2.27 requires that non-residential uses be developed in manner that is compatible with adjoining residential properties, including an encouragement to locate these uses at “neighbourhood nodes”.
The amendment that Council passed, in effect, defines small-scale institutional uses (at least religious establishments) as up to 2,000 square metres, and signals that some key provisions of Section 7.2.27 are not to be taken seriously. It seems to me that a more appropriate approach, and one respectful of our Official Plan, would have been to rezone the property in question to Institutional. While my understanding of the process surrounding development of religious establishments in the City is not comprehensive, I would be very surprised if the approach taken with this current proposal is consistent with previous cases. Importantly, where does Council go from here. Should the Official Plan be amended to fully reflect all of the implications of this amended zoning bylaw? Is Council comfortable with an approach to planning that lets the tail wag the dog? Does Council have complete confidence in the advice it gets from planning staff? Certainly, my reading of the staff report left me disappointed in several respects, including the absence of any attention to the experiences of other municipalities and the OMB regarding the definition of “small scale” in a religious establishment context.
To those councillors who supported a definition of a small-scale religious establishment as 2,000 square metres of gross floor area, acceptable in any residential context, may I respectfully ask…what might define a large-scale religious establishment, and what kind of locational and other planning considerations might be appropriate for a large-scale establishment? RK