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HomeMy WebLinkAboutDTS-07-106 - Land Use Question, Municipal Plan Amendment MP06/01/G/TMW, Zone Change Application ZC06/05/G/TMWii ID ~_ ~... .~ REPORT Report To: Development & Technical Services Committee Date of Meeting: June 18, 2007 Submitted By: Jeff Willmer, Director of Planning 741-2325 Prepared By: Tina Malone-Wright, Senior Planner 741-2765 Ward(s) Involved: Ward 6 Date of Report: June 11, 2007 Report No.: DTS-07-106 Subject: LAND USE QUESTION MUNICIPAL PLAN AMENDMENT MP06/01/G/TMW ZONE CHANGE APPLICATION ZC06/05/G/TMW IRA NEEDLES COMMERCIAL CENTRE JOINT VENTURE GLASGOW STREET/WEST HILL DRIVE (FUTURE IRA NEEDLES BOULEVARD) RECOMMENDATION: That Planning Staff in their processing of the Municipal Plan Amendment Application MP06/011G1TMW and Zone Change Application ZC06/051G1TMW work with the applicant to retain some employment lands for true industrial type uses so as to provide a long term opportunity for future industrial uses in the northwest part of Kitchener and to encourage and support a complete and balanced community as set out in the Provincial Policy Statement. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Planning staff are in receipt of applications to change the land use designation and zoning from `General Industrial' to `Planning Commercial Campus' for a parcel of land located in the northwesterly corner of Kitchener at Glasgow Street and future Ira Needles Boulevard. The approval of the applications would permit a commercial development of approximately 900,000 square feet of floor area. Planning staff are of the opinion that some of the lands should be retained for industrial uses. The purpose of this report is to request that Council consider the land use question and the need to protect and provide industrial lands in northwest Kitchener to encourage and support a complete and balanced community. BACKGROUND: The subject property straddles the border between the City of Waterloo and the City of Kitchener and is 38.2 hectares (94.4 acres) in area. The Ira Needles Commercial Centre Joint Venture is proposing an integrated retail, service and office commercial centre. A concept plan is attached to this report. The applicant has submitted applications in both the City of Waterloo and the City of Kitchener to facilitate the proposed development. The applicants lands within the City of Kitchener, which are 19.7 hectares (48.7 acres) in area, straddle Glasgow Street at the northwesterly corner of West Hill Drive (Future Ira Needles Blvd) and the Goderich Exeter Railline. The applicant's lands within the City of Kitchener are generally shown on the map that follows. The applicants lands within the City of Waterloo are approximately 18.5 hectares (45.7 acres) in area. Approximately 13 hectares (32.1 acres) of the Waterloo portion of the applicant's lands are already designated `Arterial Commercial' and zoned for Commercial 3. The applications in Waterloo propose to redesignate and rezone the industrial portion of the site, which is approximately 5.5 hectares (13.6 acres) in area, at the rear of the Commercial 3 zoning (that otherwise would have limited or no visibility from West Hill Drive) and integrate this portion of the site into the entire commercial development. Proposed Municipal Plan Amendment -City of Kitchener The applicant proposes to amend the Land Use Plan to redesignate, approximately 19.7 hectares (48.7 acres), the portion of the subject property located within the City of Kitchener, from "General Industrial" to "Planned Commercial Campus". The current "General Industrial" designation permits manufacturing uses including recycling completely within a building, a wide variety of industrial businesses including technical scientific 2 businesses, repair service, transportation depot and terminal facilities, warehouses and uses relating to motor vehicle and major recreation equipment sales and service. Industrial businesses are those industrial operations with a commercial component which requires large areas for the storage of goods such as building materials and decorating supply sales, industrial office supply or industrial service. The intent of the "Planned Commercial Campus" designation is to provide for large concentrations of commercial and entertainment uses that are planned to function as a unit and are intended to accommodate large retail uses in a campus environment consisting of individual buildings or plaza groupings. Planned Commercial Campuses have a city wide or regional orientation. Planned Commercial Campuses permit the broad range of commercial uses including retail, freestanding office to a maximum Floor Space Ratio of 0.5, major entertainment, conference/convention/exhibition facilities. The full range of retail uses are permitted and individual retail outlets shall generally be restricted to those having a minimum size of 1,500 square metres. A certain amount of small retail establishments may be permitted on either a percentage of the overall gross floor area with a particular Planned Commercial Campus or on other factors such as lot size and configuration. In addition to retail, permitted commercial uses are restricted to offices, office support services, health offices, club facilities, funeral homes, financial establishments, educational establishments, religious institutions, medical laboratories, studios, day care facilities, tourist homes and a limited amount of personal services and convenience retail. Proposed Zoning By-law Amendment -City of Kitchener The applicant proposed to rezone the portion of the subject property located within the City of Kitchener from "General Industrial Zone (M-2)" to "Planned Commercial Campus Zone (C-8}" and "Open Space Zone ~P-2)". The purpose of the zone change to "C-8" is to implement the new "Planned Commercial Campus" land use designation and facilitate the proposed development. The "P-2" would apply to the stormwater management area which has already been conveyed to the Region. The applicant is also requesting a special regulation provision to allow the whole of the subject lands to be considered as one lot for the purposes of calculating Minimum Gross Floor Area Devoted to `retail' uses other than those listed as a specific type of retail use in Section 12.1 of the Zoning By-law. REPORT: In 2005 with the new Provincial Policy Statement and in 2006 with the Places To Grow Plan the Province of Ontario identified the preservation of employment lands as a matter of provincial interest. In order to protect employment lands, policies were put in place to require a comprehensive review of employment areas to ensure municipalities would have sufficient employment lands in relation to current and projected needs over the long term. Provincial Policy Statement 2005 This municipal plan amendment application is subject to the policies of the Provincial Policy Statement. The application predates the Places To Grow Plan which came into effect on June 16, 2006. Section 1.3 of the Provincial Policy Statement -Employment Areas states that 3 planning authorities may permit the conversion of employment areas to non-employment uses through a comprehensive review which demonstrates that the lands are not required for employment purposes over the longer term. An employment area is defined as follows: "means those areas designated in an official plan for clusters of business and economic activities including, but not limited to, manufacturing, warehousing, offices, and associated retail and ancillary facilities." City Planning staff are of the opinion that in accordance with the Provincial Policy Statement 2005, a comprehensive review would be required to demonstrate that these lands are not required for employment purposes over the longer term. The comprehensive review would include a review of population and growth projections, consider alternative directions for growth and how best to accommodate the growth while protecting provincial interests, consider opportunities to accommodate the projected growth through intensification and redevelopment, confirms the lands do not compromise specialty crops, the lands are integrated with planning for infrastructure and public service facilities and consider cross-jurisdictional issues. A comprehensive review has not been prepared by the applicant. There have been some preliminary discussions with the applicant with respect to the interpretation of the provincial policies and the need to complete a comprehensive review in the case of the subject lands. Staff has conveyed to the applicant that it would consider the intent of the Provincial Policy Statement 2005 in terms of comprehensive review to be met, if the combination of office and true industrial employment uses results in no net loss of employment potential on the site. Initial Planning Staff Review of Applications Planning staff has been reviewing the applications for the redesignation and rezoning of the lands from `industrial' to `commerciallretail' and have been considering the following: • Recommending that a portion of the lands, closest to the landfill site and/or the railway line, be retained for industrial uses. The retention of some industrial lands would provide for an appropriate mix and range of employment uses in the northwesterly area of Kitchener. These lands would have to be configured and integrated appropriately on the site and be sufficient in area to be functional and marketable as a viable employment area. Attached to this report is a map showing the location of Industrial/Business Park designated lands within the City of Kitchener. As can be seen by the map, if the lands were to be lost to uses other than employment uses, in particular industrial uses, this area of the City would be deficient in being able to provide a balance mixed and range of uses. The retention of industrially designated lands in this location would ensure acity- widedistribution of industrial employment lands. • Refining the industrial zoning to only allow true industrial employment uses. • Industrial uses can be developed in reasonable proximity to residential neighbourhoods and still be compatible, as is seen along Bleams Road in Kitchener. • Ensure that office uses are developed as part of a commercial/retail development on the subject lands. This again would provide for an appropriate intensity, mix and range of employment uses within this area of the community. • Retail uses may be appropriate adjacent to future Ira Needles Boulevard and would provide an appropriate buffer between the landfill and the industrial uses on the westerly 4 or southerly side of the subject lands, and the residential uses to the east on the other side of Ira Needles Boulevard. However, retail uses approaching 900,000 square feet may saturate the market and decrease the likelihood of additional, better distributed retail development on the west side. The applicant has requested that the same land use designation and zoning as the existing Sunrise Centre in Kitchener be applied to the Kitchener portion of the subject lands. Given the considerations as noted above, Planning staff would like to see more of a `town centre' or `mixed use centre' for this site because of its location at the most northwesterly corner of Kitchener. It has the ability to provide for a range of employment uses, as well as some retail uses. With its location at the terminus of University Avenue it also has the potential to provide a transit terminal to link it with a future rapid transit corridor at the central axis of Kitchener/Waterloo. Input From Economic Development Advisory Committee (EDAC) Given Planning Staff's initial thoughts on the applications with respect to the retention of some industrial employment lands, Planning staff attended the Economic Development Advisory Committee on May 23, 2007 to obtain their input on the land use question. In particular Planning staff wanted to get EDAC's comments on the idea of retaining employment lands for industrial uses in northwest Kitchener and posed the following questions to the Committee. 1. Should a portion of the subject lands within the City of Kitchener be retained as industrially designated and zoned lands? 2. If so, what minimum area of industrial lands would be necessary to constitute a viable employment area? 3. If EDAC supports that a portion of lands should be retained for industrial uses, is it beneficial to refine the industrial zoning to provide for only true industrial employment uses? The Committee indicated that they were okay with the loss of these employment lands for industrial uses. They had also indicated that currently there is no market for industrial lands in this area of Kitchener and that they may currently be more suited for commercial/office type uses. EDAC did not support the retention of any portion of the subject lands for true industrial type employment uses. Despite the recommendation from EDAC, Planning staff is of the opinion that it is important to retain some employment lands in northwest Kitchener. Although EDAC has indicated that there is no market demand now for industrial lands in northwest Kitchener, it should not be a reason to redesignate to other uses and lose any future opportunity to provide employment opportunities in this part of the community. A market feasibility and impact report has been prepared by the applicant in support of a commercial development having approximately 900,000 square feet of floor space. Currently the Sunrise Centre provides approximately 500,000 square feet of floor commercial floor space. Although the applicant's market consultant has indicated that the proposed 900,000 is warranted, Planning Staff are still awaiting the peer review of the report. Planning staff do not dispute that additional commercial retail floor space is warranted but the amount of commercial retail floor area that is proposed and the loss of industrial employment lands in this area of Kitchener is of concern. 5 As briefly discussed above, the applications are subject to the policies of the Provincial Policy Statement 2045. Planning Staff need to ensure that the applications `shall be consistent with' these policies. In reviewing these policies it is staff's initial concern that the applications do not support the idea of encouraging and providing for a complete balanced community. A community which provides a mix and range of land uses to provide opportunities for living and working in close proximity to one another which would in turn reduce commutes to work, reduce traffic congestion, and support energy efficiency and air quality. EDAC has indicated there is limited market now for industrial lands but this could change in the future. The retention of some industrial lands would provide along-term opportunity for industrial employment in northwest Kitchener in keeping with the policies of the PPS. Planning staff have indicated to the applicant their concerns with respect to the proposed change in land use from "General Industrial" to "Planned Commercial Campus" for all of the lands within Kitchener to accommodate only commercial uses. Also, given the intent of the `Planning Commercial Campus' land use designation and its city-wide or regional orientation and location near or adjacent to the provincial highway system, this may not be the appropriate commercial land use designation. Planning staff will discuss the most appropriate land use designation and any necessary special policies that may need to be applied to the lands once the peer review is complete on the market feasibility study. As previously indicated if the combination of office and true industrial employment uses results in no net loss of employment potential on the site staff would consider the intent of the Provincial Policy Statement 2045 to be met and no comprehensive review would be required. To ensure that these applications are consistent with the PPS 2045, Planning staff feels it is appropriate to retain some industrial employment lands on the site and would like to work with the applicant at achieving the appropriate balance between industrial employment, office employment and retail. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, Planning staff would like Council to consider the land use question and the need to protect and provide industrial lands in northwest Kitchener to encourage and support a complete and balanced community. Tina Malone-Wright, MCIP, RPP Alain Pinard, MCIP, RPP Senior Planner Manager of Long Range and Policy Planning Jeff Willmer, MCIP, RPP Director of Planning List of Attachments Concept Plan forthe subject property City of Kitchener Business and Industrial Land Use Plan 6 y ;. ,, ' Cit of Kitchener , ~~"~ ~~~, Growth Mana ement Anal sis ~` g Y ..~~ N ,'~ Scale 1:24,000 ~.' i B INE AND IND TRIAL ~~~~® ~' us ss us ~~ ,~., '~, ~, ,. 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