City hall pitch back in play

By TIFFANY MAYER STANDARD STAFF

St. Catharines Standard, Friday July 24 2009

Two years after refusing to negotiate with a developer who wanted to turn Thorold's former city hall into affordable seniors' housing, council has decided to finally listen to what Phil Ritchie has in mind for 8 Carleton St.

In a special meeting Thursday night, council unanimously voted to support Ritchie in dusting off his shelved proposal to turn old city hall into 20 apartments for low-income seniors and apply for $1.5 million in government grants for the project. The grant application deadline is today.

Council also voted to begin negotiations with Ritchie, who transformed downtown Thorold with his brownfield redevelopments, during the next six weeks while he waits for his application to be approved.

The decision comes after a presentation to council Tuesday by resident Dale Robinson, who lamented having to move her aging mother, Marianne, to a retirement home in St. Catharines because of a dearth of options in her hometown of Thorold.

Robinson said her mother is "struggling because of feelings of isolation and removal from all she knows and holds dear."

She pleaded with council to do something with old city hall, a heritage building that has sat empty and cost taxpayers $81,000 to maintain since municipal headquarters moved to Schmon Parkway in 2006.

"If we had dealt with this before in a positive way, people would be living in the building now," Coun. Mike Charron said Thursday.

After Thursday's vote, Mayor Henry D'Angela, who cast the tie-breaking nay that kiboshed Ritchie's plans two years ago, said council has to "look at what's best for the community and any time there's an opportunity, you have to follow through and investigate the opportunity."

When asked what's changed in two years that he's now ready to negotiate with Ritchie, D'Angela said council did negotiate in 2007 but no deal was reached.

When pressed, he clarified there had only been "discussions" with the developer.

D'Angela, who ousted former mayor Robin Brock in 2006 on a campaign of opposition to the city hall move, said in 2007 he envisioned a civic centre at 8 Carleton St. A seniors' centre has also been mentioned as a possible use.

Those are concepts D'Angela said Thursday he wished the city had been able to look at since then, but council decided instead to do a strategic plan and municipal building inventory, due this September, to examine all possibilities.

Ritchie, who used $1.4 million in government grants to build environmentally friendly affordable housing in Niagara Falls after Thorold turned him down in 2007, said he hopes the political tension surrounding old city hall has subsided.

"Without question, the first experience was less than wonderful," Ritchie said. "Going forward, I'm extraordinarily hopeful the key decision makers will recognize the uniqueness of the opportunity and will move forward with a clear and strong resolution to get this done in a realistic manner."

Article ID# 1671146

City paves the way for $75-million retail centre

By MARLENE BERGSMA, STANDARD STAFF
Tuesday June 9 2009, The St. Catharines Standard


City councillors have cleared the way for a $75-million shopping centre on an abandoned industrial site in east St. Catharines, with their decision Monday to eliminate an obstacle to the development.

Councillors voted unanimously to make a decision next month on Smart Centre's proposed 350,000-square-foot retail plaza, overruling the objections of city planning staff, who said the development still needs more study.

It's a decision the company has been waiting for since 2005, when it bought the abandoned Ferranti-Packard Transformers building, said Josh Kaufman, director of land development for Smart Centres.

From the beginning, Smart Centres planned to develop the 30-acre parcel on Dieppe Road between Bunting Road and Neilsen Avenue for retail uses, moving Wal-Mart from its current location in the Lincoln Mall on Welland Avenue into the new shopping centre.

Since 2005, it has conducted and paid for nine different traffic, planning, marketing and engineering studies, Kaufman said.

But with the economy now in a funk, Wal-Mart's position as an anchor tenant is in jeopardy unless the city makes a quick decision, Kaufman told councillors Monday night.

That's why the company took the unusual step of appearing before council to ask for a shortcut.

"The push here today is that it is very possible if timing doesn't progress in as quick a fashion as we are hoping, there is the possibility that the tenant may not be part of this development," Kaufman said.

City planner Paul Chapman had recommended the city undertake a comprehensive land-use study before considering whether to allow industrial land to be converted to retail use. Before industrial land can be changed to retail, the province requires a comprehensive review, Chapman wrote.

Without such a review, the city would have a more difficult time defending a rezoning if the decision is appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board, Chapman wrote. The study would take eight to 12 months.

But Kaufman said Smart Centres can't afford to wait any longer.

Local businesses also want the vandalized, abandoned property cleaned up, he said.

"This can be a catalyst, an opportunity to jump-start development now," he said.

Kaufman also said Smart Centres intends to keep a small strip of light industrial sites along Neilsen Avenue.

The St. Catharines-Thorold Chamber of Commerce also urged speed.

"Don't let this project get tied up in a review process that has already taken too long," said Walter Sendzik, general manager of the chamber. "We believe the city is open for business; you can demonstrate that tonight."

Sendzik said the chamber has always supported the switch from industrial land to commercial at that site because the city should be trying to attract small, light industries, not the massive heavy industry such as Ferranti-Packard once was.

Economic development director David Oakes said St. Catharines is unlikely to attract a company to replace the transformer manufacturer because the site is too contaminated and the building has been stripped of its industrial potential.

"It's not usable anymore," Oakes said.

Smart Centres will demolish it to make way for the plaza.

But first it must clean up the PCB-contaminated site, a move supported by Sendzik.

"This is a company that bought contaminated industrial land and has a plan to clean it up -- and provide a commercial complex in a part of the city that needs a facelift," Sendzik said.

He said the property taxes paid by a new commercial development will help reduce taxes for other businesses.

But council watcher Bernie Slepkov told councillors not to rush into a development that may be rendered obsolete when oil prices skyrocket and imported consumer goods are no longer available or affordable.

St. George's Coun. Greg Washuta disagreed.

"Quite frankly, they can't wait around another eight to 12 months for us to make a decision," Washuta said. Delaying the development further would mean "public perception would not be good."

St. George's Coun. Peter Secord agreed, saying it's the first development in his ward since he's been on council.

"I want to get things moving. It's taking way too long," Secord said.

Councillor Mark Elliott, who owns a retail shop in downtown St. Catharines, declared a conflict of interest and did not participate in the discussion or vote.

The development will be the subject of a public meeting on July 27, when council will make a final decision on whether to rezone the land.

- - -

Green Wal-Mart

The new Wal-Mart shopping centre proposed for Dieppe Road near Bunting Road in east St. Catharines will be cleaner and greener than the Fourth Avenue power centre, promised Josh Kaufman of Smart Centres, the property's owner and developer.

Green features will include:

A white roof to reflect sunlight and help keep the buildings cooler.

High-efficiency lighting and heating

Increased insulation

Lavish landscaping, featuring native and drought-resistant species

More trees

On-site recycling

Water efficient bathroom fixtures

Pedestrian-friendly access and internal pathways

Bicycle parking

Benches and canopies

Streetscaping along Bunting Road, Dieppe Road and Welland Avenue

"Living wall" to mark the site's north boundary


Article ID# 1604417

ARTS CENTRE A GO

Posted By MONIQUE BEECH , STANDARD STAFF
Friday May 22 2009, The St. Catharines Standard


Jubilant local politicians announced $54 million in funding Friday morning to build a downtown performing arts complex in St. Catharines that's being hailed as key to revitalizing the city's ailing core and boosting the economy.

The federal and provincial governments pledged a combined $36 million, with another $18 million coming from the City of St. Catharines to construct the Niagara Centre for the Arts by 2012. Securing cash from Ottawa and Queen's Park was key to the project, which is expected to break ground next year.

Officials say the arts complex will create thousands of jobs during construction and after it opens, and make the city a cultural hub in Niagara.

St. Catharines Mayor Brian McMullan called the performing arts centre a cornerstone of a plan to pump life back into the city's struggling downtown.

"There's been talk in this community for many years about revitalizing downtown," McMullan told the crowd gathered for a news conference in the lower-level parking lot below St. Paul Street.

"That has left some people skeptical when it comes to plans for our downtown core. This time we have a plan for downtown to turn it into thethriving city centre that we want -- a place where people can live, work and play."

"This project is the first step in that plan," McMullan said.

The arts centre will be located next to and run jointly with Brock University's Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts.

The school, which will house about 600 students and 50 faculty, will be located in the former Canada Hair Cloth Building in the lower-level parking lot.

Brock's Centre for the Arts and all the performances that happen there will be moved downtown to the arts complex, which will feature a 800-to 900- seat theatre, dance hall, film theatre and recital hall.

The next step for the city and Brock is to hire an architect to design the complex, which is expected to cost about $101 million, Brock president Jack Lightstone said.

The university is counting on money from a large ongoing capital fundraising campaign, cash from the province and $15 million donated by Marilyn Walker to cover its share of the cost, Lightstone said.

The university has the experience to make the centre sustainable and a success, as well the critical mass of people to boost business downtown, Lightstone said.

"That's going to have an amazing effect on downtown, another 500 people who are here all day everyday needing the services, needing food. That's the whole idea here is to get more density down here..."

Driving the economy is what made the project a winner for the federal government, St. Catharines MP Rick Dykstra said.

"It's good news about jobs," Dykstra said.

"It's good news about our local economy. I believe at the very heart of what we speak, it's good for the very spirit of our city."

The arts centre is the kind of project that will transform the Garden City, said St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley, who called it a great example of what can be accomplished when all levels of government work together.

"I know this will be a welcome catalyst for change and encourage new development within our city's downtown," Bradley said.

McMullan said the arts centre has already sparked interest among developers looking to invest in the core.

The exact footprint of the building has yet to be decided, the mayor said.

But the centre will have an entrance off St. Paul Street, which means the city might need to buy or expropriate businesses on the street near Carlisle Street.

The city's arts community hailed the funding announcement as a boon to all local cultural organizations.

"We're enthused about the idea that people can come downtown and visit the Niagara Centre for the Arts, then also discover some of the other smaller organizations and theatre groups that dot the downtown," said Steve Remus, director of programming and operations for the Niagara Artists' Centre on St. Paul Street.

"It makes the whole community alive and functioning."

- - -

Facts about the NiagaraCentre for the Arts

What it will include:

800-to 900-seat concert hall

200-to 250-seat dance venue, also suitable for theatre and music events, and a 125-seat community theatre (combined in one building)

200-seat film theatre with an extensive schedule of first-run and revival film programming

250-to 300-seat recital hall

main lobby and cafe for popular music and cabaret

What it will cost:

$54 million split three ways between Ottawa, Queen's Park and the City of St. Catharines. Money from the province and federal governments comes from the 2008 Building Canada Plan Framework Agreement, which resulted in $6 billion for infrastructure in Ontario

The city already has the money from a combination of sources including reserves, $6.5 million in recent bonus cash from the province, and hydro dividend cash

Projected economic benefits for St. Catharines/Niagara:

$7.4 million per year and total direct and indirect economic spin-off of $17.3 million

Operating costs:

Niagara Centre for the Arts is expected to cost about $4.5 million per year to run

One-third ($1.5 million) will come from contributed sources (including St. Catharines taxpayers and Brock University) as well as donors, other government sources and eventually proceeds from an operating endowment

One-time start-up cost of $1.3 million expected, plus creation of a capital reserve fund.

Article ID# 1581137

Greens, builders both raining on green-roof plan

Mandatory aspect alarms industry, backers dislike exemptions

The Toronto Star
April 10, 2009
Vanessa Lu
city hall bureau chief

Trees, shrubs and flowers could soon dot the roofs of certain new construction projects across Toronto, if City Hall gets its way.

Under a proposed bylaw before the planning and growth committee next week, the city would require a "green roof" on any office building or retail plaza bigger than 5,000 square metres (about 53,000 square feet), as well as on most condominium buildings higher than seven storeys.

The retail dimensions are about half the size of a regular Canadian Tire store, said Jane Welsh, the city's acting project manager for environmental planning. Green coverage of a roof could vary between 30 and 60 per cent, depending on building size.

Green roofs are touted as a key element in Toronto's environmental effort. Benefits include smog reduction, less stormwater runoff and an advantageous cooling effect on summer temperatures.

"It's a fairly bold move," said Welsh, noting that the only Canadian municipality with a green roof bylaw is Port Coquitlam, B.C.

Toronto can unilaterally impose such a bylaw because of its special powers under the City of Toronto Act.

But response has been mixed. Developers would prefer to keep the concept voluntary, and worry about the added cost.

Green roof proponents, including Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone, argue the proposed bylaw doesn't go far enough because it leaves out schools, non-profit housing and factories.

"If Toronto wants to be a leader, then lead" and don't deal in half-measures, said Steven Peck at Green Roofs for Health Cities, a non-profit industry association.

"I don't understand why businesses in the public realm have been exempted."

Other jurisdictions may cite Toronto's example to exempt many classes of buildings, Peck argued.

Green roofs can act much like parks to reduce the "urban heat island" effect, in which built-up areas become several degrees warmer in summer than surrounding areas. That contributes to smog and raises the energy bill for air conditioning.

While green roofs cost more to install – an extra $10 to $40 per square foot – they can double its life by providing shelter from extremes of cold and heat.

The insulation also brings energy savings, winter and summer.

"We have serious reservations about this bylaw," said planner Steve Daniels at Tridel, whose condo projects would be affected.

Another bylaw requires outdoor amenity space in condo towers, he noted, while green roofs must be irrigated and cannot be walked on for the first two years.

Growth strategy sparks debate

Freezing urban boundaries raises concerns

St. Catharines Standard, January 30 2009
By MATTHEW VAN DONGEN, STANDARD STAFF


Niagara's proposed 25-year growth plan risks chasing away new residents and businesses by freezing urban boundaries, said several presenters at a public meeting Thursday.

Consultants recommend a long-term strategy for the Region that includes more growth in south Niagara, more intensification in urban centres, better transit for the whole peninsula and frozen urban boundaries.

The controversial boundary proposal spurred five hours of presentations from 25 delegations at a meeting attended by more than 80 people. Developers, church and community groups, municipal planners and ordinary residents stood up to speak for -- and in a few cases, against -- urban boundary expansions in Niagara Falls, Grimsby, West Lincoln and Welland.

Growing south is easier said than done, said Stephen Kaiser, a consultant for the Niagara Home Builders' Association.

"Growth directed to south Niagara is not likely to meet market expectations and location preferences," said Kaiser, who told regional councillors they need to recognize the attraction of west Niagara to new home buyers.

"If growth is not directed to areas that have market support, the Region's planning and fiscal objectives will be seriously jeopardized."

Planners and developers from Grimsby and West Lincoln made the same argument.

Keith Vogel, director of planning for Grimsby, said the west Niagara town could run out of room for townhouses and single-family homes in the next decade without urban boundary expansion.

The Region's projection of 95 per cent intensification for the town of 22,000 is overly ambitious, he said.

"And if growth can't be accommodated in Grimsby, it won't necessarily go to the rest of Niagara," he said, pointing to neighbouring building opportunities in places like Winona.

West Lincoln will also soon run out of urban building space without expansion, said Bernie Hermsen, a planning consultant for the municipality. Some developers have already planned new subdivisions straddling the existing urban boundary, he said.

A consortium of landowners urged council to allow an urban boundary expansion at the northwest corner of Niagara Falls for a variety of reasons.

Club Italia, for example, has long delayed plans for new seniors housing in the area.

The Redeemer Bible Church wants to build affordable housing. Mont Rose at Niagara, a local development group, wants to build 240 villas to complement a planned golf course and winery.

Ed Lustig, who spoke on behalf of that development for Hospitality Resorts, argued the Region needs to take the economic meltdown into account and encourage new development, not shut it down.

Other presenters, however, urged council to stick to its guns.

"This shouldn't be called Option D, it should be called the good planning option," said St. Catharines author and environmentalist John Bacher.

He praised council for its commitment to stop sprawl and argued the strategy is flexible enough to accommodate change.

"If land supply changes drastically in the next few years, the plan can be reviewed," he said.

Former regional councillor Don Alexander of St. Catharines said the Region should have ambitious intensification goals.

"Infilling, time and time again, has proven successful in building successful cities," he said. "I hope you will think of infilling and intensification as a solution to many of the problems outlined today."

Council's committee of the whole voted to receive the presentations but put off a debate and decision until a later date, to be set by Regional Chairman Peter Partington.

A Design For Downtown

Design Awards
Posted By PETER DOWNS , STANDARD STAFF
As posted on the St. Catharines Standard website, January 28 2009


Architect David Parker has been hoping other St. Paul Street property owners would follow his lead by giving their buildings major facelifts.

It's been nearly two years since he gutted the 18th-century building he bought and renovated it inside and out.

"We thought maybe we can be influential. Maybe we can fix the place up and others will do the same," said Parker, who runs his company, Parker Architects, from the location at 156 St. Paul St.

Parker is still waiting to see other signs of major redevelopment on St. Catharines' main downtown street.

But that doesn't mean his revamp has escaped notice.

The project was among eight developments recognized Tuesday night with Niagara Community Design Awards.

The awards, handed out by Niagara Region and the Niagara Economic Development Corporation, recognize excellence in community design.

Parker's renovation of the former Garden City Florist store won in the facade redevelopment category.

"Any award like that is some sort of recognition that what you've done is acceptable or appreciate," Parker said.

The architect said he has received plenty of positive feedback from downtown business owners, including others who would like to carry out similar overhauls.

But most are putting investments on hold until they see what happens with a proposal by the city and Brock University to transform the old Canada Hair Cloth building into an arts centre.

"There's a lot of buildings that have been left to dilapidate, but if they were rejuvenated, the street's got a lot of potential," Parker said.

The design awards program was created four years ago to honour projects that placed an emphasis on creativity and imagination, said Niagara Region planner Terri Donia, who co-ordinates the event.

"It's really to recognize great design projects ... at look at those to be emulated elsewhere in Niagara."


Niagara Community Design Award Winners


Large-scale Project:Lancaster GreenCondominium Residences, St. Catharines

Adaptive Re-use:Kevan O'Connor real estate office, 336 Mary St., Niagara- on-the-Lake

Brownfield:Honourable Mention, Stokes Community Village, St. Catharines

Policy and Plans:Queenston Secondary Plan, Niagara-on-the-Lake

Urban Design, Facade:156 St. Paul St., St. Catharines

Urban Design:Erie Beach Trail, Fort Erie

Award of Distinction:Centre for Conservation at Ball's Falls, Lincoln

Award of Distinction:Southbrook Vineyards, Niagara-on-the-Lake