LEASIDE RESIDENTS HAVE expressed concern over the proposed grocery store development at the northwest corner of Bayview Avenue and Broadway Avenue.
“We completely understand the property is going to be developed,” Wayne Silberman, a Resident Working Group member said but added, “This is not the place for a big box retailer.”
On Jan. 7, about 125 residents of North Leaside and Sherwood Park held a meeting to discuss the ramifications of the proposed development at the former site of the Brennan Pontiac Buick dealership.
Their main concern is traffic that is caused by this type of retailer, according to Silberman. He also said residents were concerned with the proposed size of the building because the dimensions that were presented to the city greatly exceeds the zoning bylaws for that particular property.
Coun. Cliff Jenkins said the application is for a two-storey grocery store and LCBO, but at 50 feet high, it would compare to a four-or five-storey building. He said the developer applied for a minor variance to the existing bylaw, but he added, “It is probably more properly dealt with as a full rezoning application.”
He explained the application method the developer chose excludes any type of community consultation.
Currently the site is zoned so that a building can occupy up to 33 per cent of the site, but the proposal is for 96 per cent occupancy.
Geoff Kettel,the first vice president of the Leaside Property Owners’ Association, said residents are concerned with maintaining the Bayview commercial strip.
“The more sort of one-off developments there are, the more that impinges on the Bayview commercial strip, the old-fashioned main street,” Kettel said, adding the old-fashioned street is already succumbing to development on Laird Drive.
The earliest the committee of adjustment could make a decision on the proposal is Feb. 3.
