Sierra Club has the following concerns with the 40 Wellington application:
1. The parking lot adjacent to Royal City Park is not “excellence in urban design” as required by section 3.6.18 of the Official Plan. This design also violates 3.6.182(a) which requires that parking areas not be visually apparent from the river’s edge.
2. The buffer strip to the Park should be determined in a public process. This is particularly true since there are several large trees in Royal City Park very close to the property line which will be impacted by the development.
The staff report indicates that “the interface between the subject site and Royal City Park is an important aspect of the proposed development”, yet the public will not have an opportunity to comment on the proposed buffer since it will be done during the site plan process.
3. It is bad public policy to use City park land for a parking lot in a private development. If it is to be used as such, major modifications should be made to make it more environmentally friendly.
4. Relocation of the ball diamond in the Park may also be required, but that, again, is to be determined during the non-public, site plan process. Instead, this should be a public process, since it affects public parkland.
5. A butternut tree, a nationally and provincially endangered species, is located near the southwest corner of the site. Ministry of Natural Resources guidelines state that no disturbance should occur within 25 metres of the bole of a butternut tree. It is not clear if this tree falls within 25 metres of the development or if MNR has been consulted about its protection.
We question allowing this type of commercial development to visually intrude into the park and river corridor when the new Downtown Secondary Plan envisions removing commercial development immediately across Gordon Street to turn it into parkland. JM