Planning Justification Report 221-225 John Street & 70-78 Yonge Street Corktown Plaza Inc. City of Hamilton Official Plan and Zoning By-law Amendment Applications July 2018 Planning Justification Report 221-225 John Street S & 70-78 Yonge Street Official Plan and Zoning By-law Amendment Applications City of Hamilton July 2018 Prepared for: Corktown Plaza Inc. 121 King St. W. Suite 200 Toronto, ON M5H 3T9 Prepared by: GSP Group Inc. 162 Locke Street South, Suite 200 Hamilton ON L8P 4A9 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Project Team ....................................................................................................... 1 2.0 SITE DESCRIPTION AND SURROUNDING USES...................................................... 2 2.1 Site Description ................................................................................................... 2 2.2 Surrounding Land Uses & Community Context .................................................... 6 2.3 Future Development ............................................................................................ 9 3.0 PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT ................................................................................... 11 3.1 Overview of Proposed Development ................................................................. 11 3.2 Supporting Plans, Drawings, Reports and Studies ............................................ 25 3.2.1 Cultural Heritage Impact Assessment ................................................................ 25 3.2.2 Record of Site Condition - Phase 1 - 2 Environmental Site Assessment ............ 26 3.2.3 Functioning Servicing & Stormwater Management Report ................................. 27 3.2.4 Noise & Vibration Feasibility Assessment .......................................................... 28 3.2.5 Sun/Shadow Study ............................................................................................ 29 3.2.6 Transportation Impact Study, Parking Justification and TDM Options Report .... 30 3.2.7 Tree Management Plan/Study and Preliminary Landscape Layout Plan ............ 32 3.2.8 Urban Design Brief (including a Visual Impact Assessment) .............................. 32 3.2.9 Pedestrian Wind Study ...................................................................................... 35 3.2.10 Right of Way Impact Assessment .................................................................... 36 3.2.11 Public Consultation Strategy ............................................................................ 36 4.0 PLANNING POLICY AND REGULATORY CONTEXT ................................................ 37 4.1 Ontario Planning Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. P.13 ....................................................... 37 4.2 Halton-Hamilton Source Protection Plan, 2015 .................................................. 37 4.3 Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act, 2016 ....................................... 37 4.4 The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 ................................. 38 4.5 Provincial Policy Statement, 2014 ..................................................................... 38 4.6 Places to Grow Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe, 2017.............. 46 4.7 Urban Hamilton Official Plan .............................................................................. 51 4.8 Downtown Hamilton Secondary Plan ................................................................. 56 Planning Justification Report | 221-225 John Street S. & 70-78 Yonge Street i GSP Group Inc. | July 2018 4.9 Hamilton Tall Buildings Study & Guidelines ....................................................... 62 4.10 Corktown Neighbourhood Plan .......................................................................... 63 4.11 Hamilton Zoning By-laws No. 6593 and No. 05-200 .......................................... 67 5.0 PLANNING APPLICATIONS ...................................................................................... 72 5.1 Official Plan Amendment ................................................................................... 72 5.2 Zoning By-law Amendment ................................................................................ 72 6.0 PLANNING SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS ................................................................... 73 6.1 Site Suitability and Context ................................................................................ 73 6.2 Provincial Plans and Acts .................................................................................. 74 6.3 City of Hamilton Official Plan ............................................................................. 84 6.4 Hamilton Zoning By-law ..................................................................................... 90 7.0 RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................................................................ 101 Figures and Tables Figure 1 Site Location ............................................................................................................ 4 Figure 2 Aerial View of Site.................................................................................................... 5 Figure 3 Neighbourhood Context ......................................................................................... 10 Figure 4 Conceptual Site Plan ............................................................................................. 12 Figure 5 Urban Hamilton Official Plan Schedule E—Urban Structure .................................. 53 Figure 6 Urban Hamilton Official Plan Schedule E-1—Urban Land Use Designations ......... 54 Figure 7 Urban Hamilton Official Plan Schedule C—Functional Road Classification ............ 55 Figure 8 Corktown Neighbourhood Plan .............................................................................. 66 Figure 9 Current Zoning ....................................................................................................... 70 Figure 10 Proposed Commercial and Mixed Use Zones ...................................................... 71 Table 1: Site Assessment Matrix.......................................................................................... 63 Table 2: Provincial Interest .................................................................................................. 74 Table 3: Requested Modifications to C5 (Mixed Use Commercial) Zone .............................. 91 Appendices Appendix A: Formal Consultation Document (March 14, 2018 meeting) Appendix B: Draft Official Plan Amendment Appendix C: Draft Zoning By-law Amendment Appendix D: Public Consultation Strategy Planning Justification Report | 221-225 John Street S. & 70-78 Yonge Street ii GSP Group Inc. | July 2018 1.0 INTRODUCTION This Brief has been prepared by GSP Group (Retained Sep. 2017) in support of a City of Hamilton Official Plan Amendment and Zoning By-law Application Amendment application (the “Subject Applications”) on behalf of Corktown Plaza Inc. to permit the redevelopment of lands municipally known as 221-225 John Street South and 70-78 Yonge Street within the City of Hamilton (“the Site”) to facilitate the redevelopment of the Site for two residential towers atop a multi-storey podium. Specifically, the proposed amendments are as follows: • An Official Plan Amendment application to permit the height of the Proposed Development. A draft Site-specific policy for inclusion in the UHOP has been prepared and appended to this Report (see Appendix B). • A Zoning By-law Amendment is required to rezone the Site from a modified “CR-2/S- 572”, “CR-2/S572a”, “CR-2/S-572b” (Commercial-Residential), and “E-3” (High Density Multiple Dwellings) to a modified “C5” (Mixed Use Medium Density) zone including site specific regulations (see Appendix C). This Report and the Subject Applications have been prepared by GSP Group Inc. The purpose of this Report is to describe the Proposed Development, the Subject Applications, the applicable planning policies and regulations, and to provide justification to support the Subject Applications to permit the Proposed Development. A Formal Consultation (FC-18-024) was held with City of Hamilton staff on March 14, 2018 and is attached as Appendix A. 1.1 Project Team Owners: Slate Asset Management L.P. Planning: GSP Group Inc. Architects: Core Architects Inc. Cultural Heritage: ERA Architects Inc. Landscape Architecture: Janet Rosenberg & Studio Civil Engineering: Lithos Group Inc. Noise & Vibration: RWDI Inc. Traffic & Transportation: Paradigm Transportation Solutions Ltd. Wind: Theakston Environmental Inc. Planning Justification Report | 221-225 John Street S. & 70-78 Yonge Street 1 GSP Group Inc. | July 2018 2.0 SITE DESCRIPTION AND SURROUNDING USES 2.1 Site Description The Site is composed of three (3) parcels of land, together forming a city block bounded by Young Street to the north, Catharine Street S. to the east, Forest Avenue to the south, and John Street S. to the west. The Site is approximately .595 ha in size with a frontage of ±72.5m along Forest Avenue. The Site is pictured in Image A. The Site is presently dominated by a parking lot that covers approximately 60% of the surface area. The most significant building is a rectangular, one-storey commercial plaza (refer to Image B) that was built between 1984 and 1985 and situated on the eastern side of the Site, with a lot coverage of approximately 35%. The current tenants of the commercial