1593 Four Mike Creek Road P.O. Box 190 Telephone (905) 468-3266 Virgil, Ontario Facsimile (905) 468-2959 L0S 1T0 Report: UDC-20-02 Committee Date: January 28, 2020 Report To: Urban Design Committee Subject: Queenston Quarry - Urban Design Guidelines 1. RECOMMENDATION It is respectfully recommended that: 1.1 The proposed Queenston Quarry Urban Design Guidelines be revised as follows: 1.1.1 General Architectural Design Guidelines be grouped with the specific guidelines for Townline Road Design Guidelines and the Apartment and Hotel Design Guidelines; 1.1.2 Descriptive annotations be included for all drawings and diagrams to demonstrate how the images supplement the content of the guidelines; 1.1.3 The remaining recommendations as proposed by Staff be incorporated into the revised guidelines. 1.2 The Urban Design Committee provide comments on the proposed Urban Design Guidelines for Queenston Quarry for consideration and incorporation into the proposed future Official Plan Amendment. 2. PURPOSE / PROPOSAL The purpose of this report is to provide comments on the proposed urban design guidelines (herein referred to as the "guidelines, attached as Appendix A) to guide future development within the Queenston Quarry Development. The guidelines are proposed to be incorporated within the Town's Official Plan through an Official Plan Amendment (an OPA). 3. BACKGROUND 3.1 Site Description and Surrounding Land Use The Queenston Quarry development is located on the north side of Townline Road and the General Brock Parkway (Highway 405) between the urban areas of St. Davids and Queenston. The subject property consists of an approximately 100 Report : UDC-20-02 Page 1 hectare parcel, of which 12.14 hectares is within the urban boundary, and the remainder of the subject property is outside the urban boundary. The subject property is within the Niagara Escarpment Control (the "NEC") Area and is therefore governed by the policies of the Niagara Escarpment Plan. The location of the subject property is shown in Figure 1. Figure 1 - Subject property shown in yellow with the urban boundary of St. Davids shown in red. The property operated as Queenston Quarry from 1837 until 2005. The use as a quarry has created a unique and dynamic setting for the proposed Queenston Quarry development. The development intends to make use of the dramatic and sheer rock faces to frame the future development. As described in the guidelines, the setting within the quarry environment results in a setting that is visually isolated from adjacent land uses, thereby creating an opportunity to build a distinctive development with its own unique character as related to the quarry setting but also connected to the larger character of historic Niagara-on-the-Lake. Surrounding land uses include the residential community of Bevan Heights in the urban area of St. Davids, to the west of the subject property, which is largely comprised of single detached dwellings. There are further rural residential uses to the south, as well as key transportation corridors, including Townline Road and Highway 405. To the north and east are naturalized areas that fall within the NEC control area. 3.2 Previous Applications In January 2012, approval was granted by way of Ontario Municipal Board Minutes Report : UDC-20-02 Page 2 of Settlement for a Regional Official Plan Amendment and Town Official Plan Amendment. These approvals are part of the overall planning policy framework to redevelop the Queenston Quarry lands. The Town's Official Plan designates the subject lands as: Lands within urban area: Urban Residential Recreation Commercial Lands outside of urban area: Escarpment Natural Area Escarpment Protection Area Escarpment Rural Area The guidelines are intended to guide development within the urban area of the subject property. The development proposal consists of the following uses within the urban boundary of St. Davids: Townhouse units fronting onto Townline Road with access via a parallel internal road A maximum of for a total of 750 apartment dwelling units 1 hotel building for 200 hotel units Wine storage caves Staff note that the proposed "manor building" (apartment) described in the guidelines is currently not an approved use but is part of the Official Plan Amendment The following uses are contemplated for lands outside of the urban boundary: Winery 18-hole golf course and clubhouse Golf academy Equestrian centre, including indoor and outdoor arenas The proposed guidelines were reviewed by the Urban Design Committee (the "UDC") twice in 2015 and twice in 2016. In September 2016, the Committee passed several motions in support of the proposed guidelines, but then passed the following motion to defer the matter "that a revised submission of the Queenston Quarry Official Plan Amendment to enact the Queenston Quarry Design Guidelines be brought back to the Urban Design Committee at a later date." The Committee deferred the following recommendations: 1.1 The Queenston Quarry Urban Design Guidelines should be supported, subject to the following conditions: 1.1.1 Revisions be made to reflect the fact that the Queenston Quarry Urban Design Guidelines are only for lands designated as Urban Residential and Recreational Commercial and 1.1.2 References to developments lying outside of the lands designated Urban Report : UDC-20-02 Page 3 Residential and Recreational Commercial shall be removed. 1.2 The Committee shall review the Queenston Quarry Urban Design Guidelines after the issuance of a Niagara Escarpment Commission development permit. It is understood that the NEC has approved a conditional Development Permit for the lands within the urban area. 3.3 Next Steps in the Planning Process With the issuance of the NEC Development Permit, the applicant is resuming the OPA process. The applicant has submitted revised guidelines for review as part of existing Official Plan requirements. Input is requested from the Urban Design Committee as part of the preliminary review process. The application will be circulated for input from external commenting agencies (ie - Niagara Escarpment Commission, Niagara Region, etc) and further public input will be collected at the Public Meeting. A future Town staff recommendation report for the proposed OPA will be presented to Town Council. 4. DISCUSSION / ANALYSIS 4.1 Town Official Plan The Town's Official Plan provides the policy basis for requiring urban design guidelines for the development within the urban boundary and requires all proposed development to be reviewed against the urban design guidelines prior to issuance of building permits. The proposed urban design guidelines are to be implemented through an OPA (attached as Appendix A). 4.2 General Comments on Organization of Guidelines The guidelines are incorporated within "Section B - The Amendment" in the proposed OPA. The content of the guidelines includes the following: 1. History and Context 2. Vision 3. Design Guideline Objectives 4. Urban Design Guidelines 4.1 Design Principles 4.2 General Design Guidelines 4.3 Architectural Design Guidelines 4.4 Landscape Design Guidelines 4.5 Townline Road Design Guidelines 4.6 Apartment and Hotel Development The intent of design guidelines is to first identify the unique character and vision for a community, and then to provide specific direction to property owners, developers, municipal staff and consultants on how to maintain or achieve that character with on-going development. It is important that the content of guidelines is clearly and concisely articulated as the guidelines form the basis of urban design reports and give direction to many different planning-related processes. Staff are of the opinion Report : UDC-20-02 Page 4 that, overall, the proposed guidelines achieve this intent, but offer several recommendations to provide greater clarity to the guidelines. Prior to addressing specific content, staff have several recommendations pertaining to general organization of the guidelines in order to make the document more comprehensible for current and future users. Firstly, section 4.3 "Architectural Design Guidelines" sets out the general architectural treatment for the community. Sections 4.5 and 4.6 subsequently provide more detailed guidelines for specific areas of the development, including addressing architectural treatment for the Townline Road development and the Apartment and Hotel development. It is understood that section 4.3 applies to all development, including to the Townline Road development and Apartment and Hotel Development. As such, it is recommended that Section 4.3 be re-labeled to "Architectural Design Guidelines for all Development" or "General Architectural Design Guidelines" and that Sections 4.5 and 4.6 be re-labeled to denote that these sections provide specific guidelines for that area of the development. Further, it is recommended that these sections be renumbered so as to be grouped together, consecutively. Staff recommendations are shown in red below: 4. Urban Design Guidelines 4.1 Design Principles 4.2 General Design Guidelines 4.3 Architectural Design Guidelines for all Development 4.4 Townline Road Design Guidelines Specific Guidelines 4.5 Apartment and Hotel Development Specific Guidelines 4.6 Landscape Design Guidelines Secondly, all sketches and diagrams within the document should contain descriptive annotations to demonstrate how the images supplement the specific content of the guidelines. The images are a valuable guide in interpretation of the guidelines. 4.3 Specific Comments for each Subsection