Peterborough Examiner Referrer

Council rejects taking rectory property for street rewidening

JOELLE KOVACH

The owner of a former rectory at 334 Rogers St. in East City is getting his house rezoned from clergy residential use to single-family residential use — but the process was far more complicated than he’d expected, with city planning staff recommending that the city take a portion of his property in exchange for the rezoning.

In the end, Stephen Johnston got his way: at a meeting on Monday, city council unanimously granted his rezoning and then voted 7-4 to

drop the requirement that he hand over any portion of his property.

The four votes to take a portion of the land came from Coun. Kemi Akapo, Coun. Stephen Wright, Mayor Diane Therrien and Coun. Kim Zippel.

Coun. Dean Pappas, Coun. Gary Baldwin, Coun. Keith Riel, Coun. Andrew Beamer, Coun. Henry Clarke, Coun. Don Vassiliadis and Coun. Lesley Parnell voted not to take any land from the homeowners.

Asking Johnston for land in exchange for a rezoning was “a travesty,” said Riel, whose Ashburnham Ward includes the property.

“The Johnstons are just trying to do the right thing,” he said.

But the idea from city staff was to reserve space for the city to widen the cross street, St. Luke’s Avenue, at some future time, and also to keep the corner free of development so sightlines can remain clear for motorists at the intersection.

Therrien called it “good planning.”

“We talk a lot about planning for the future — about climate change, about stormwater management, about thinking long-term and not piecemeal planning,” she said.

Meanwhile another similar rezoning application was granted on Monday night as well, for a former nun’s residence at 735 Woodland St. (across from The Mount Community Centre, which was at one time a convent).

In that case, council voted without debate to follow through with the city planning staff recommendation that the homeowners be required to give to the city a two-metrewide slice of their property along Woodland Street in case the city one day needs to widen the street.

Council debated solely about the house at 334 Rogers St., built in 1881 as the rectory for the former St. Luke’s Anglican Church (long since converted into the Peterborough Theatre Guild).

The property is on the northeast corner of Rogers Street and St. Luke’s Avenue in East City.

When Johnston spoke to council on Monday night, he said that when he bought the house in 2021, he knew the large heritage home was zoned for clergy residential use.

“We thought this was just a bookkeeping type of issue,” he told council, adding that he was willing to apply for rezoning to buy this large home for his blended family of six teens.

But then he couldn’t get a mortgage from a bank, because the property wasn’t zoned for residential use: he had to arrange for private financing.

And when he applied for rezoning, city planning staff recommended Johnston be required to give the city a 2.38metre-wide strip of land along St. Luke’s Avenue in case a roadwidening is ever needed.

They also recommended the city take a triangle of Johnston’s property measuring eight metres along Rogers Street and five metres along St. Luke’s Avenue. The purpose is to keep this triangle clear of development for better motorist sightlines at the intersection.

“This is the city I grew up in. And I just feel like this isn’t the way that I expected the city to act,” Johnston said told council at the meeting on Monday.

“Road widening, for our street, seems to be an idea that won’t happen in our lifetime.”

Baldwin — the other Ashburnham Ward councillor — said it makes “absolutely no sense” to take a portion of his land for a road widening that may never occur on a street of just four houses and a 12-unit assisted living apartment complex (Myrtle Terrace).

“If this were my property, I would not be impressed. I would not be happy at all,” Baldwin said.

Riel said he didn’t think the road will be widened for many years to come. “I can tell you I will not be alive to see St. Luke’s Avenue done,” he said.

Clarke agreed: “We are never going to need to widen it.”

But city planning and infrastructure commissioner Jasbir Raina said the city’s “on the cusp of growth,” and that both the Official Plan and Transportation Plan prescribe stormwater upgrades and road widenings across the city in the decades to come.

To anyone who claims there will never be a road widening on St. Luke’s Avenue, he said, “respectfully, I’d say that’s not true.”

Zippel said she didn’t like going “on a case-by-case basis” when the Official Plan sets out road widenings and upgrades decades into the future.

“I have every empathy for the applicants and I understand their concerns … But we do have a policy in the Official Plan and we have applied this policy before,” she said.

Therrien also said she too has empathy for the homeowners.

“But building a community is bigger than the individual homeowner,” she said. “We have to talk about the bigger picture and what is going to help everybody that lives in a community.”

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2022-09-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-09-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

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