Report to: Development Services Committee Date of Meeting: November 21, 2006
SUBJECT: RECOMMENDATION
REPORT Box
Grove North Inc.
Application
for site plan approval to permit a shopping centre and a 4-storey medical
office building at the northeast corner of 9th Line By-pass and Copper
Creek Drive.
File No. SC 06 108718
PREPARED BY: Nilesh
Surti, Planner, ext. 4190
East District Team
RECOMMENDATION:
That the report
dated November 21, 2006,
entitled, “Box Grove North Inc., Application for site plan approval to permit a
shopping centre and a 4-storey medical office building at the northeast corner
of 9th Line By-pass and Copper Creek Drive,” be received;
That the site
plan application submitted by Box Grove North Inc. to permit a shopping centre
and a 4-storey medical office building at the northeast corner of 9th
Line By-pass and Copper Creek Drive, be endorsed in principle, subject to the
conditions attached as Appendix “A”.
That site plan
approval be delegated to the Director of Planning and Urban Design or her
designate, to be issued following execution of a site plan agreement. Site Plan approval is issued only when the
Director has signed the site plan.
That a Public
Meeting be held to consider a Zoning By-law Amendment Application (File No. ZA
06 131191) submitted by Box Grove North Inc. amending Zoning By-law 177-76, as
amended, to permit free standing restaurant uses and individual retail premises
having a gross floor area less than 300 m2 within the Business
Corridor zone, as well as, to permit free standing financial institutions
within the Business Park zone.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Not applicable
FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONS:
Not applicable
The purpose of
this report is to recommend endorsement of a site plan application submitted by
Box Grove North Inc. to permit a shopping centre and a 4-storey medical office
building at the northeast corner of 9th Line By-pass and Copper
Creek Drive and to recommend that a statutory public meeting be held with
respect to the Zoning By-law Amendment application (ZA 06 131191) submitted by
Box Grove North Inc.
Property and Area Context
The lands are
located at the northeast corner of 9th Line By-pass and Copper
Creek Drive (See Figure 1). The subject lands include two blocks on a
registered plan of subdivision and are approximately 7.5 ha (18.4 acres) in
area. The property is presently vacant
with no significant vegetation.
To the north,
the subject lands are bounded by Highway 407.
Immediately to the east are vacant employment lands that are also owned
by the applicant. To the south, across Copper
Creek Drive, is a registered residential draft
plan of subdivision (Box Grove Hill Developments Inc & Box Grove North). To the west, the subject lands are bounded by
a minor tributary of the Little Rouge Creek and 9th Line
By-pass. Across the tributary and the By-Pass,
is a sales centre for the Box Grove Community and existing 9th
Line. Further west, across existing 9th
Line, is the Legacy Community (See Figures 2 & 3). The minor tributary noted above once
traversed the subject lands as seen in the Air Photo (Figure 3) but was
permitted to be realigned adjacent to the By-pass as part of the subdivision
approval process. The tributary is
currently contained within a block owned by the Town.
Proposal is for a shopping centre and a
medical office building
The applicant
has submitted a site plan application to construct a 14,624.1 m2 (157,417.6
ft2) shopping centre consisting of 11 commercial buildings intended
for a supermarket (Longo’s) retail stores, financial institutions, personal
service shops, restaurants and other uses designed to fulfill the shopping
needs of the surrounding communities.
Also proposed is a 5,574 m2 (60,000 ft2) 4-storey
medical office building located on the easterly portion of the site (See Figure
4).
The sizes of
the individual units within the proposed multi-tenant commercial buildings
(Buildings A, B, J and K) will generally range between 92.9 m2
(1,000 ft2) and 850 m2 (9,150 ft2). Over 85% of the retail space is expected to
be occupied by premises greater than 300 m2 (3,229.3 ft2).
Official Plan and Zoning
The Box Grove
Secondary Plan (OPA No. 92) designates most of the westerly portion of the subject
lands “Business Corridor Area” and the easterly portion of the subject lands,
containing the medical office building and proposed Building ‘L’, “Business
Park Area”.
The Box
Grove Secondary Plan (OPA No. 92) designates most of the westerly portion of
the subject lands “Business Corridor Area” and the easterly portion of the
subject lands, containing the medical office building and proposed Building
‘L’, “Business Park Area”.
The
Business Park Area designation provides for the proposed office and financial
institution uses at the west end of the site. With regard to the balance
of the site which is designated Business Corridor Area, in August 2005 the Ontario Municipal Board approved OPA No.132 which refined the
planned function of the Business Corridor Area designation and associated
permitted uses. OPA No. 132 also, with certain exceptions involving computer
and office supply stores, generally reduced the maximum permitted floor space
of individual retail premises within this designation from 6000 m2
to 1000 m2. Also relevant to the subject application is that
OPA No. 132 retained the original policy of the Business Corridor Area
designation which only permitted free standing restaurants subject to the
review of a specific development proposal and rezoning application and also the
policy which required individual retail premises to generally have a minimum
net floor area of 300 m2.
Most of
the subject lands are currently zoned Business Corridor (BC) under By-law
177-96, as amended. Notwithstanding the new OPA No. 132 Business Corridor
Area policies which apply to the westerly portion of the subject lands, the
existing zoning, which reflects the earlier Business Corridor Area policies,
was already in effect prior to OPA No. 132 being adopted and approved and takes
precedence over OPA No. 132. The easterly portion of the subject lands,
containing the proposed medical office building and Building ‘L’ (bank use),
are zoned Business Park (BP), also under By-law 177-76, as amended.
The
existing zoning permits retail uses within the Business Corridor zone category,
provided that individual retail premises are restricted to a minimum net floor
area of 300 m2 and a maximum net floor area of 6,000 m2.
Furthermore, free standing restaurant uses are not permitted by the
zoning. Similarly, the Business
Park zoning of the east portion of the subject lands would
permit the proposed medical office building but free standing financial
institution uses/buildings are not permitted.
The applicant
has indicated to staff a desire to have approximately fifteen percent of the individual
retail premises within the lands zoned Business Corridor to be less than 300 m2
in size. Furthermore, the site plan
shows two free standing restaurants within the lands zoned Business Corridor. In addition,
the site plan also shows a free standing bank within the lands zoned Business
Park. The applicant has submitted a Zoning By-law
Amendment application for all of the proposed uses which contravene the zoning
by-law. The appropriate zoning must be
in place prior to occupancy and in the event the required zoning permission is
not obtained the applicant will have to lease the relevant floor space for
retail and services use and store sizes which are permitted by the zoning. Staff recommend that a statutory Public
Meeting be held to consider the proposed Zoning By-law Amendment application.
Minor Variance is proposed to deal with revisions
to some development standards
A minor
variance application is proposed to deal with certain non conformities in an
expeditious manner in order to permit construction of the project in early
spring of 2007. The requested minor
variances include eliminating loading space requirements for the smaller retail
buildings and the medical office building (Buildings G, H, J, K, L and M). The applicant has indicated that most
deliveries to these buildings will be serviced by cube vans and small trucks;
therefore the regular parking spaces can serve as loading spaces. The applicant has provided oversized parking
spaces for the proposed medical office building, which will serve as loading
spaces. The elimination of full size
loading spaces for buildings containing certain types of uses in a plaza
setting is a common practice. Other
variances that are proposed include the elimination of a landscape strip along
the interior lot line as well as reduced building setbacks from the interior
lot line. These variances are considered
appropriate as the two parcels will be integrated from a site plan point of
view and the variances can be supported.
Site Plan and Building Elevations are
acceptable
Staff is satisfied
with the site layout and building elevations (See Figures 4, 5A – 5G). The site
plan provides for three full-moves accesses to the site from Copper
Creek Drive.
The loading and service areas are screened from public view by screen
walls and landscaping. Internal garbage storage areas have been provided for
all of the proposed buildings. The plan
includes a reasonable built edge along Copper Creek
Drive through the use of satellite buildings sited
close to the street. The site is further
organized through a network of pedestrian walkways along internal circulation
routes, building fronts, and connections to adjacent streets. Drive-through lanes are sited for the most
part so that they are not visually intrusive from the streets. The only exception to this is the
drive-through lane between the street and building ‘G’. This is considered acceptable as the building
is to be occupied by a bank and the queuing of vehicles in front of the
building is expected to be minimal.
The applicant
has provided conceptual building elevations which generally show that the
buildings will be linked through a continuity of building materials, colours
and detailing. This design approach will
allow for a visually cohesive development even as individual buildings are modified
to incorporate requirements specific to individual tenants. The key architectural elements that are
expected to be carried throughout all of the buildings include: breaking longer
building facades with vertical pillar elements, vertical window treatment,
consistent base material and also articulating entry points by providing features
such as raised parapets, arches and projecting canopies. Other common elements will
be provided through enhanced corner treatments and unique roof features.
It should be
noted that the conceptual elevation for Building D (Longo’s) (Figure 5D) fails
to incorporate vertical pillar elements to break up the long building facades
along the front and rear elevations. In
addition, further detailing and refinement of the entry feature of this
building is also required. Similarly, the drawings for the medical office
building (figure 5G) does not respect the roofscape elements, entry features
and glazing treatment established for the overall development. The final conceptual drawings to be endorsed
for building D and the office building should be modified to address these
matters.
As noted above,
the building elevations indicated in Figures 5A through 5G are conceptual in
nature and will likely have to be modified somewhat to incorporate requirements
specific to individual tenants. As a
condition of site plan approval the applicant will be required to submit to the
Planning and Urban Design Department the actual elevations of individual
buildings prior to the submission of a building permit application. If such elevations deviate significantly from
the endorsed conceptual elevations and are deemed to be unacceptable they can
be brought forward to Committee for further consideration. In addition, the applicant is required to
submit a sign uniformity treatment plan for all of the buildings in accordance
with the Sign By-law (By-law No. 2002-94), prior to the drawings being endorsed
by the Director of Planning and Urban Design.
A six metre
wide landscape strip is provided along Copper Creek Drive
which will screen the parking areas and drive-through lanes from the
street. The landscape treatment in this
area will primarily consist of shrubs and deciduous trees. The applicant is also proposing a 1 metre
high decorative metal fence with masonry pillars as gateway elements into the
commercial development at all three entrances.
The proposed landscape plans further provide for a common seating area
near the bus stop at the intersection of 9th Line By-pass and Copper
Creek Drive (See Figure 6).
A central
amenity space including a seating area and clock tower, visible from the Ninth
Line and Copper Creek Drive,
introduces a civic element into the development. This will enhance the commercial centre’s
sense of connection.
Sufficient Parking provided
The Parking
By-law requires that parking for the proposed development be provided at the
Shopping Centre rate of 1 parking space for every 18.5 m2 of
leasable floor area. Parking for the proposed
medical office building is calculated at a rate of 1 parking space per 30 m2
of net floor area. The proposed
development requires a total of 951 parking spaces. The submitted site plan shows a total of 958
surface parking spaces on-site for a surplus of 7 parking spaces. The site plan also shows a total of 36
parking spaces for the physically disabled, in accordance with the Parking
By-law.
Illumination Plan is being peer reviewed.
Staff have
concerns with respect to the potential impact of outdoor lighting from the
proposed commercial development on the proposed residential properties to the
south, across Copper Creek Drive. The applicant has submitted an illumination
plan, which is currently being peer reviewed.
The applicant will be required to revise the illumination plan and/or
site plan as recommended by the peer reviewer to ensure that the proposed residential
properties located on the south side of Copper Creek
Drive are not negatively impacted by the lighting
from the proposed development.
Conclusion
Staff are
satisfied with the proposal and recommend that it be endorsed in principle,
subject to the conditions attached in Appendix “A”. Furthermore, it is recommended that a Public
Meeting be held to obtain public input with respect to the proposed Zoning
By-law Amendment application to permit free standing restaurant uses and
individual retail premises having a gross floor area less than 300 m2
within the Business Corridor zone, as well as, to permit stand alone financial
institutions within the Business Park zone.
ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS:
None identified at this time.
ACCESSIBILITY CONSIDERATIONS:
The site plan
shows a total of 36 parking spaces for the physically disabled, in accordance
with the Parking By-law, located generally close to an entrance. In addition, barrier free pedestrian
connections leading from the building entrances to the parking area and to the
municipal sidewalk on Copper Creek Drive
have been provided.
ENGAGE 21ST CONSIDERATIONS:
Proactive
growth management is identified as a goal of the Town and good urban design is
seen as critical to this. The design of
the proposed development is consistent with the Town’s high quality design
requirements.
BUSINESS UNITS CONSULTED AND AFFECTED:
The site plan
application submitted by the applicant has been circulated to various
departments and external agencies.
Requirements of the Town and external agencies have been reflected in
the preparation of this report and conditions of approval.
RECOMMENDED BY:
_______________________________ _________________________________
Valerie Shuttleworth,
M.C.I.P., R.P.P. Jim Baird,
M.C.I.P., R.P.P.
Director of Planning and Urban
Design Commissioner of Development
Services
Appendix A – Standard Site Plan
Conditions
Figure 1 – Location Map
Figure 2 – Area Context/Zoning
Figure 3 – Air Photo 2005
Figure 4 – Site Plan
Figure 5A – Conceptual Elevations
– Buildings A
Figure 5B – Conceptual Elevations
– Building B
Figure 5C – Conceptual Elevations
– Building C & E
Figure 5D – Conceptual Elevations
– Building D
Figure 5E – Conceptual Elevations
– Building G, H & L
Figure 5F – Conceptual Elevations
– Building J, K, M & Clock Tower
Figure 5G – Conceptual Elevations
– Medical Office
Building
Figure 6 – Preliminary Landscape
Plan
AGENT:
David Stewart
Box Grove North Inc.
600
Applewood Crescent
Vaughan
ON L4R
4B4
Tel: 905-760-7300; Fax: 905-669-9600
File Path: Q:\Development\Planning\APPL\SITEPLAN\06 108718 Box
Grove Commercial Centre & medical clinic\Final recommendation report.doc