By Mike Renzella
The Haldimand Press
CALEDONIA—Haldimand Council has voted in favour of amending a bylaw that will allow for the construction of a 16-unit stacked townhouse building located at 154, 168, and 170 Caithness Street West.
The proposal has been in existence since 2021, with the proponents heading back to the drawing board to make amendments to their initial pitch following a series of resident concerns about the building.
“The applicant held a number of public meetings,” said County Senior Planner Spencer Skidmore. “Through these meetings they heard some feedback from the public. They centre around insufficient parking and potential impacts on street parking, traffic impacts on local streets, the size and massing of the proposal and that it may not be in keeping with neighbourhood character, the loss of vegetation and trees on the site, and privacy and overlook concerns.”
Skidmore said that in response to these comments, the applicant made various revisions, including increasing parking spaces from 28 to 35 (29 of which will be located in an underground parking garage) and a reduction of the overall height of the building to be under 11m, similar to adjacent housing which is 9m high on average. The proponent will also replace any private trees removed from the site during development at a 2:1 ratio, and a protection plan will be utilized to limit the removal of existing trees where possible.
Additionally, the proponent has made changes to the design of the building’s façade, utilizing bricks similar to two heritage buildings also located on Caithness Street West to help blend the new building into the neighbourhood’s existing character.
Currently, the three lots that will house the building are designated Residential Type 2, which allows for single and semi-detached homes and duplexes, but not stacked townhouses. County staff recommended amending the lots to Residential Type 4, which would allow for the proposed building.
Included in the bylaw amendment is a special exception and a holding provision: “The special exception permits reductions to the required front yard, which is west facing Blair, and to the rear yard which is to the east…. It also requires increased exterior side yards adjacent to Queen Avenue and Caithness Street West,” said Skidmore. “The holding provision requires that the proponent address noise issues brought up by CN as they have a main line within about 120m, and that they enter into a development agreement with the County.”
Following resident concerns related to privacy, all balconies on the building will face toward the public right-of-way, not private residences.
Skidmore said staff support the revised proposal as it addresses all comments from the public and all internal departmental and external agency comments, along with being consistent with growth plans: “The proposal also conforms to the County’s Official Plan, particularly how it relates to the County’s development criteria for medium and high density development and the Official Plan’s stable neighbourhood policies.”
Caledonia Councillor Dan Lawrence asked, “This proposal now checks all the boxes?”
“We have done a thorough evaluation and it does satisfy all those criteria,” replied Skidmore.
He said that the development helps the County reach the Provincially mandated intensification target, which states that 20% of all new developments within Haldimand be placed on infill lands in existing neighbourhoods.
The lots will utilize 0.74 acres of land along the north side of the Grand River. The townhouses will be a 400m walk away from Caledonia’s downtown core and are located directly north of Kinsman Park.
The next step for the development will be to establish site plan control to deal with the detailed engineering and design elements of the project.
Haldimand Mayor Shelley Ann Bentley commented, “It does appear that they’ve worked with everyone to develop this nice townhouse. They started out high and then went down and accommodated people. It looks like a really nice site. It’s nice to see the extra parking spaces.”
Council voted unanimously in support of the bylaw amendment.
