Proposed apartments cause controversy
The plot of land at 450 Sidney St. where the proposed apartment complex will be built if approved by city council. Photo by Charlotte McParland, QNet News
BELLEVILLE – After a heated discussion of a proposal to develop a new apartment complex at a busy intersection in Belleville, city council’s planning advisory committee has approved the first of four steps, to move ahead with the development.
At Monday night’s committee meeting, developer Arnold Vandermeer of Van Meer Ltd. said his company wants to transform the land at Sidney and College streets – now zoned for a nursing home that was never built – into a set of four three-storey apartment buildings.
If council approves the plan, the four 30-unit apartment buildings at 450 Sidney St. will take up 110 square metres of land. There will be 120 rental units in total, and there will be 1.25 parking spots per unit, Vandermeer said.
Vandermeer said there is a need for new rental accommodations in Belleville, and his proposed complex is in a convenient location.
But a group of residents of the area expressed unhappiness about issues related to the proposed development.
Dave Scarlett, who said he has lived on Sidney Street for over 5o years, told the committee he is unhappy about all of the planned parking spaces. He believes they will create a traffic problem, he said.
“I’d rather see a lower-density space. There’s too many automobiles for 120 units in the area,” Scarlett said.
Another resident expressed concern about not only the traffic but also a possible tax increase.
“This area is too busy. It’ll be a bad bottleneck. What’s this going to cost the city and the taxpayers?” Alan McIntosh said.
“It’s going to be a spillover of traffic, and this shouldn’t be approved without another public meeting.”
But Rod Bovay, the city’s director of engineering, said that the new buildings will not affect traffic in the area.
“Based on the fact they’re proposing (one building with) 30 units to start with, we’re quite comfortable the 30-unit building is not going to create any traffic demands,” Bovay said.
But College Street West resident Ralph McLean said he sees many more issues than just traffic.
“First, the groundwater is a big issue. It runs constantly into my backyard every winter and spring,” McLean said. “Second, the amount of traffic on both College and Sidney Street will create a large backup. And the distance between the apartment buildings and my house is a large concern of mine.”
Other nearby residents expressed concerns about the apartment buildings’ height and the possible loss of a tree-lined pathway near the proposed site.
Another resident, who lives on Village Drive, said she was most concerned about the apartments looking into her backyard and apartment residents being able to see her swimming pool and invade her privacy.
In the end, the planning committee decided to recommend to council that the developer be allowed to move forward with the first of the proposed buildings. However, committee members said that there should be continued debate and an in-depth review of the proposal for three more buildings in the area.
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