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Trouble on Stella Street

Proposed subdivision draws ire of adjacent neighbours Some two dozen Stella Street residents — former engineers, construction workers, retired teachers, and others — had an informal meeting on the roadway in front of their homes a couple of weeks bac

Proposed subdivision draws ire of adjacent neighbours

Some two dozen Stella Street residents — former engineers, construction workers, retired teachers, and others — had an informal meeting on the roadway in front of their homes a couple of weeks back. They were masked, socially distanced, and angry.

A land developer’s proposal for the adjacent Kunda Park and Forest Park subdivisions was the source of their displeasure.

The Voice was invited to attend the Stella street-meet as witness to neighbours sharing their grievances. They are passionate about their community. The area was constructed around 1975, and a few of the residents have lived on Stella for over 40 years.

For some residents, it’s the safety aspect, the worry of children walking down an increasingly busy street. Others object to potential destruction of the pavement due to heavy construction equipment travelling on the roadway, and the flooding that already occurs in some local backyards and basements. Negative impact on the natural wetlands and fields, and the wildlife species that live there, is a concern for many. But the erosion of personal privacy is perhaps the main distress. Many spoke of moving to Fonthill because they wanted to live in a community with a small-town feel, a characteristic which they believe is rapidly diminishing due to the Town’s prioritizing high urban intensification.

On October 13, some of these residents took the opportunity to share their frustration and disappointment with Town staff, councillors, and the developer’s engineering consultant (Matt Kernahan, of Upper Canada Consultants) during a livestreamed public meeting from Town Hall, with participants remotely connecting via Zoom videoconferencing.

Town Planner Curtis Thompson provided the background for the development at the start of the meeting, explaining that it was a re-submission of a 2002 application of Kunda Park Phase Four, by Sterling Realty (Niagara) Limited, which has owned the property since 2012.

The proposal called for 84 single detached residential lots and associated public streets, and requested a zoning bylaw amendment from R1 to higher-density R2 with EP (environmental protection). Thompson noted that the Niagara Region, Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority, and service providers Enbridge Gas, Canada Post, Bell Canada, and Hydro One had no objections to the development as proposed. The District School Board of Niagara’s only request was that a fence be erected along the lot line of the proximally located Glynn A. Green School.

View of proposed development. Top is west. SUPPLIED

Reached after the public meeting for comment, Mayor Marvin Junkin was upbeat, telling the Voice that he thought the meeting went well.

“The residents aired their major concerns and the developer’s agent answered them,” said Junkin. “Continued communication is essential.”

Stella Street residents do not necessarily share that perspective.

Natalie Stickles, one of the residents leading the charge against the current proposal, said that she was happy to see a number of councillors supporting her neighbours’ concerns.

We definitely need other exits out of the proposed development…I am just unsure that what they are proposing is the best solution.

“My main issue is the traffic congestion on our dead-end street that leads to the school yard [at Glynn A. Green],” she said. “Parents will park on our street to pick up their kids from school at the end of the day, so as to avoid the buses on Port Robinson Road. We definitely need other exits out of the proposed development…I am just unsure that what they are proposing is the best solution.”

Rob Montgomery, of 11 Stella Street, a retired school principal and one of the first residents of the neighbourhood back in the 1970s, said, “At the start we were looking at traffic accessibility, to and from this new subdivision, and its effect on Stella Street. But residents have brought forward one unresolved issue after another. It points to more than just a Stella Street problem. It clearly demonstrates that something is wrong in the planning procedures of the Town of Pelham,” he said.

Magdalena and Janusz Woszczyna, of 13 Stella, said that the Kunda Park Phase Four development does not provide any amenities for the future inhabitants.

“There are no parkettes or playgrounds, even though the Town of Pelham Official Plan states that council will require the dedication of five percent of the land within a residential subdivision to be dedicated as parkland,” they said. (Editor’s note: Cash-in-lieu of parkland is also permitted.)

It seems that in the rush to expand the tax base, our planners completely forgot about the people who already live here

The Woszczynas believe that a holistic approach to urban planning in Pelham is lacking.

“It seems that in the rush to expand the tax base, our planners completely forgot about the people who already live here,” they said.

The Woszczynas pointed to the Community Vision component of the Official Plan, in which it is stated, “The primary purpose is to provide the basis for managing growth that will support and emphasize the Town's unique character, diversity, civic identity, rural lifestyle and heritage features, and to do so in a way that has a positive impact on the quality of life and health for the citizens who live and work in Pelham.”

Lina and Rich Lianga, retired teachers who live on Stella, said that their main focus was to address how the proposed development may destroy the biodiversity of the sensitive wetlands on the development site.

“We are asking that the mature trees be saved, by incorporating a natural landscape buffer behind the houses on Stella Street,” said Lina. “This is a small yet important compromise. We’d like to see these trees protected under the Niagara Region’s tree bylaw. Our forests, wetlands, and meadows are the lungs of the world, but now they’re fading, and our ecosystems are dying. Fonthill has an opportunity to build better.”

Bill Heska, a retired engineer living on Stella, stressed that the rezoning proposal has not been satisfactorily justified by the developer or Town planners, and he objects to the decreased size of lots from the original plan. Storm water management is another of Heska’s concerns, arguing that redirecting the Kunda Park drainage to a storm water pond east of the Steve Bauer Trail does not make good sense from an engineering perspective.

“My neighbours and I strongly oppose the change in designation from R1 to R2,” said Heska. “Although [the developer’s consultant] Matt Kernahan says that the lots are large given today’s standards, that does not change the fact that people purchased homes on Stella Street knowing that the designation on this empty tract of land was also R1. Changing it at this point would only benefit the developer. Allowing this to happen constitutes a breach of trust.”

Allowing this to happen constitutes a breach of trust

The change from R1 to R2 is not just a Kunda Park issue, emphasized Heska, but a decision that will affect all of Pelham.

“People are moving here because of the larger lots, with room for a garden, a play area for their kids, and space for areas to sit outside,” said Heska. “This is our town, not the developer’s town. We should not be left with a Toronto-style suburb built behind us, while the developer laughs all the way to the bank. The growth must be thoughtful of all residents. Council has an obligation to see that happens.”

Christine Kreutzer, of 14 Stella, said she found the responses to the majority of the residents’ concerns disappointing.

“The broad, sweeping statements from the consultant and Town staff, such as ‘that has already been addressed and approved’ and ‘those are details worked out at another stage’ neither addressed our concerns nor provided any details,” she said.

Kreutzer believes an important issue is the order in which the two developments [Kunda Park and Forest Park] commence.

“Given that these developments were originally submitted together and much of the infrastructure for Kunda Park is dependent upon Forest Park, the details should be presented and considered in tandem, yet this is no longer occurring,” she emphasized.

Resident Barbara Arndt thought that the applicant’s representative at the public meeting “showed no empathy for the issues that were raised by current residents, and seemed to brush off all of our concerns as irrelevant. I was somewhat insulted by his cavalier attitude.”

She has serious concerns about the drainage issues, as “this property is always wet, even in dry weather.”

Arndt is opposed to the smaller lots proposed behind Stella Street.

“If our properties are devalued by this hodgepodge mess behind our lots, who will be responsible for compensating us? When we bought our properties many years ago it was with the understanding that future development would include lot sizes the same as the existing lots.”

Pelham’s Director of Community Planning and Development, Barb Wiens, spoke with the Voice to address the questions and concerns raised.

Wiens noted that the current plan proposes two new entrances in the northwest portion of the Kunda Park subdivision, in addition to the street “stub” that currently exists on Stella. Construction traffic would not access the site from Stella Street.

The proposed low-residential development is not anticipated to create increased traffic that would cause safety issues

“That's not the intention at all,” she said. “The proposed low-residential development is not anticipated to create increased traffic that would cause safety issues.”

Niagara Region and Town engineering staff determined that a Traffic Impact Study was not warranted.

Drainage flow from the Kunda Park subdivision will be directed north to a new storm pond that's going to be constructed in the Forest Park development, said Wiens, which she asserted will adequately address storm water concerns. While construction activities are not anticipated to created impacts on adjacent homes, the contractor carries liability insurance in the event that there may be such an issue. Finally, the overall grading plan for the subdivision will be developed during the detailed engineering design phase.

There was concern raised by Stella Street residents that a small lizard identified as an endangered species, the five-lined skink, inhabited the site. Wiens said that a two-year study had been conducted involving biologists and ecologists from the Ministry of Natural Resources, and the result of this work indicated that the skink wasn’t present. Accordingly, the site has been cleared with respect to threatened and endangered species.

According to Wiens, Sterling Realty (Niagara) submitted applications for Kunda Park and Forest Park concurrently, and Town staff have been reviewing them concurrently. She said that there are a few items that require further information on the Forest Park subdivision, so the Town is waiting for those details before setting up a public meeting on this part of the plan.

“We know what the various agencies are going to be requesting, as a part of a condition of approval,” said Wiens. “On October 13, we received resident feedback during the public meeting, which is an important part of the process. We'll be meeting with the developer to review all the consultant and public comments, and determine whether adjustments need to be made to the plan.”

There is a two-step approval in Ontario for development proposals, said Wiens, involving in the first stage what is referred to as a “draft plan approval,” with a number of conditions. Often, the level of detail that neighbouring residents and other stakeholders are looking for is not available at this initial stage, but this information will be included at the final approval stage, which includes detailed engineering design. A preliminary engineering review has already been completed, she said, which provides a functional servicing analysis of the site.

“I know that residents are looking for a lot of answers about issues like grading and drainage, and those details will come forward at the next stage of approval. There's capacity in the proposed water and sewage systems…the facility on the Forest Park land would be sized and designed to accommodate the flows from Kunda Park,” she said.

Wiens acknowledges that the proposed lots are smaller than what was in the original Kunda Park design, but commented that they are “much larger than what is being proposed further east of here.”

From a natural heritage perspective, she is confident that the wetland area is being conserved.

“This development is not allowed to take place in the wetland, and there's a buffer area around the wetland.”

 

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