Phase 2 of a new development in the heart of St. Thomas, Ont. has received conditional approval from the city’s site plan committee. “We're really excited,” says Diana House of Fast Forward Ventures, and part of the ownership group. “In Phase Two we got site plan approval for the first residential tower on the site, which will be a 14 storey, over 160-unit residential building.” The project was discussed at the pubic meeting of the Site Plan Control Group on Tuesday. After a short presentation by the applicant’s team and comments and questions from committee members, community stakeholders and the public, the committee gave conditional approval to the site plan. “Additional Planning Act approvals are required, some minor amendments to the site plan are expected based on input and feedback provided at the site plan meeting before the site plan receives final approval and the applicants are in a position to obtain building permits,” says Lou Pompilii, director of planning for the city of St. Thomas. “The applicant has communicated that they hope to break ground in the second half of this year and that timeline is quite possible.” An additional 160 housing units are a boost to the booming community. “We need it bad as we have a housing crisis,” says St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston. “We need to continue to say yes to development. Not everybody will go into a single family home, and purpose-built rental apartments are exactly what else is needed. We are knocking on every door we can to ensure we get more. This site is available to do more than the one tower that has been looked at, and we will certainly encourage them to move forward”. Preston adds while it will take a couple of years to complete, the city has to keep going. The Alma College development has already had tenants move in, and Preston says the corner of Wilson Avenue and Elm Street is also being looked at as a housing option. House says the ownership group and developers have received so much support from the city and says they’ve been “amazing to work with.” “Our tagline is ‘Changing the landscape,’” says House. “We really looked at this development as an integrated live, work, play site — where people could live on the site, be able to go out for coffee on the site, go out to get food, do their groceries, have it really walkable. The city has all the transit here as well. So we really see this as a very dynamic site that offers a really great place for people to live.” Preston believes putting housing where transit is also creates other things from an environmental point of view. “People can live there without cars, shopping and jobs are nearby,” says Preston. “Let's continue to work on those types of processes as a city that has transit. We have a transit system, and we can put housing right near it, we'll make it work.” According to Pompilli, the site at Talbot Street and First Avenue, permits a wide range of commercial, retail and residential uses up to 45 metres in height. “This site represents an ideal location for this scale and form of residential development and will complement the existing and anticipated uses in this area,” says Pompilli. “The Timken site has been undergoing considerable environment cleanup and remediation and this portion of the site has been cleared for residential development. We are hoping to see additional lands within this block come forward in the future as the site remediation continues.” Phase One of development on the former Timken site is underway, as the group is bringing 16 commercial tenants to the location, including the city’s first Starbucks franchise. “Depending on how this goes, we have the opportunity to potentially have a second tower in Phase Two,” says House. “After that, we have the remaining roughly six acres of Phase Three, which we will be master planning over the next 12 months. So we're open to attracting some additional commercial tenants as well as potentially additional residential later on in the site.”
