Opinions

Back to the drawing board

Chris MacNaughton, Grimsby Resident

Re: Mixed-use proposal at 133 Main Street East

November 9, 2019

The proposed development at 133 Main St. East is hideous, and it crowds the available land, being jammed up against the lot line it shares with Cole’s and the travelled portion of Main Street East. And it is way too high. The proposed development is only good for the developer. The proposed development is far too big.

There should be a height maximum of three stories throughout, and a required street setback from Main, and eastern side yard requirement of at least ten (10) meters per storey , each with grass and additional trees and shrubs in those setbacks. At least one such tree fronting Main must be the largest available Japanese pink Magnolia to replace the two -storey tall gorgeous magnolia that this or the previous developer chopped down early on in this attack on our remaining Main and Nelles green street scape and such of our small town ambience as remains.

The proposed building complex does not respect the heritage character of 133 East Main or it’s history of being a block of green up until the Burgess family sold the property. While the proposed design attempts to match the colour of the old brick of 133 Main East, the remaining ‘high tech’ portions of the facade can only be described as an excrescence of ugliness.

Back to the drawing boards developers! Think Heritage, and leave your greed behind wherever you came from.

Where in the world does the developer get the idea that 148 units, some of which will have two cars, will only generate 60 trips in the peak morning traffic hours and 84 in the peak afternoon hours?!

Far more likely is a scenario in which there are well over 100 trips in both peak traffic times.

The Main and Nelles Road intersection is already so busy at peak hours that I have longed for advance green lights for cars on Main needing to turn left onto Nelles both North and South.

And this being a condo development ignores the actual housing needs of Grimsby’s increasingly elderly population. A substantial number of the older persons, particularly older unmarried or widowed women who have not had a house that can be turned into a down payment on a condominium have been having to move away from Grimsby due to the distinct shortage of pleasant apartments of medium and low density format in the older parts of town where operation of a motor vehicle is not so necessary.

Grimsby is already too dense in the quadrant North and West of Casablanca. And hideous as well. The Town must defend the interests of our existing citizenry.

Doubtless the Town favours condominium developments because condo corporations have to privately contract garbage and snow removal services rather than receive municipal services for same. But it is a short sighted approach for Grimsby to take. It places dollars ahead of the well established psychological benefits provided by maximizing green spaces of trees and shrubs.