Activa Holdings Inc. - Barnswallow Drive/Church Street West - Elmira

Applications for a Draft Plan of Subdivision, Official Plan Amendment and Zone Change have been submitted by MHBC Planning on behalf of their clients Activa Holdings Inc. for the property located west of Barnswallow Drive and south of Church Street West in Elmira. A public meeting regarding these applications was held on October 19, 2021 at 7 pm.

Details of the applications:

The subject lands are 30.7 hectares in size, designated Residential and Ancillary Use and are included in the Barnswallow Drive Policy Area (Special Policy Area 10) in the Township’s Official Plan. The lands are zoned Agricultural (A) with site specific provisions (Section 26.1.293).

Activa is proposing to amend Section 7.18.5.2 b) of the Township’s Official Plan to increase the gross residential density from 14.8 units per hectare up to 26 units per gross residential hectare for the subject lands.

The proposed changes to the Zoning By-law to facilitate the development includes rezoning the lands from Agricultural to:

• Residential Mixed High Density with Design Guidelines (R-5A) to provide for singled detached and semi-detached housing;
• Residential – Multiple with Design Guidelines (R-7A) to provide for street row townhouses and street back-to-back row townhouses;
• Residential – Multiple with Design Guidelines / Mixed Use to provide for cluster row townhouses and cluster back-to-back row townhouses and apartment buildings;
• Open Space (O-1) for active parkland purposes;
• Open Space (O-2) for storm water management facilities; and
• To place a holding provision on a portion of the lands to restrict registration of these stages until such time as additional wastewater servicing capacity is available.

Additionally the applicant is requesting a site specific amendment to the above noted residential zones for general lot requirements including area, width, setbacks, coverage, amenity area, landscaped area, building height and minimum parking spaces.

The proposed changes to the Official Plan and Zoning By-law would provide for a subdivision plan totaling between 662 and 803 residential units and comprising of the following:

• 337 to 410 single detached and street fronting townhouse units; and
• 325 to 393 multiple residential units.

The subdivision plan proposes a connection to the existing neighbouring streets via an extension of Eagle Drive and Muscovey Drive. New streets are proposed to access Church Street West and Barnswallow Drive (across from Eldale Road, Bristow Creek Drive and Brookmead Street). The proposed storm water management facilities, passive open space/parkland areas, active parkland, walkways, future street extensions and reserves will be conveyed to the Township. The Activa lands will be developed in phases and will contain full municipal services (water, sanitary and storm).