Kingston ponders its own planning power

BY NANCY KELLY

Kings County Register

A potential multi-unit residential development planned for Maple Avenue in Kingston has ruffled feathers and may prompt a local area advisory committee to address future planning issues.

Chrystal Fuller, manager of planning for the Municipality of the County of Kings, attended the January 13 Kingston village commission meeting to address commissioners’ planning-related concerns.

A discussion of the town’s land and growth centre boundaries quickly evolved into a discussion over activity at the northwest corner of Maple and Pineridge avenues.

Last fall, Thomas Brown applied to the county to rezone a portion of a lot, at 1631 Maple Street, from Residential Single Dwelling to Residential Mixed Density. Details from the Dec. 18 agenda of the county Planning Advisory Committee indicate the applicant is not committed, but he would like to create single unit lots along Maple and a large lot in the rear for a multi-unit dwelling. He intends to develop the lot over an extended period, constructing and selling one dwelling at a time. Brown wants the rezoning to facilitate development, allowing the entire property to be within the same zone.

Commissioner Doug Beaman lead the charge about the rezoning application, which could lead to 30 to 35 residential units in a variety of housing types on the 3.2 acre lot. While he has no issue with new R1 construction, he fears Kingston could be negatively affected by multi-unit development that “doesn’t fit in.”

The site now includes one single-unit dwelling with two accessory buildings, within the Residential District in an area of mixed densities at the centre of the Kingston Growth Centre. “The village has not been involved in this process at all,” said Beaman, who alleged “poor communication between the village and county.”

Fuller replied the county followed its protocol of advertising meetings and informing nearby residents about the rezoning application. Kingston’s clerk treasurer Greg Towne confirmed the village was aware of the application last fall, but the information was lost in a “communication black hole” during administrative turnover in the village office. The matter was not brought to the attention of the commission until after a public meeting had been held.

Fuller reported the Nov. 18 public information meeting garnered very little participation. Nine people were in attendance; the meeting lasted 20 minutes. Subsequent recommendations were made to PAC and county council to approve the rezoning application, which goes before a public hearing Jan. 28 at 7 p.m. in Kings County Council’s chambers. “In the meantime, we have no information about this piece of property,” said Beaman, whose concern multiple multi-unit apartment buildings could spring up was shared by his fellow commissioners. “I have a vision of a village I want to live in and multiple-unit buildings are not part of that vision,” said Martha Armstrong, who contends such developments can have a “stigma attached to them.”

Brad Beardsley said the village is “all for progress and development,” but added the commission would “like more power in the process.”

Fuller said the only way to achieve that would be to form an area advisory committee that feeds into Kings County’s PAC. The villages of New Minas and Centreville have such committees. “It is a mechanism that offers more involvement at the community level,” noted Fuller, who added another option would be for the village to “move to a different municipal structure,” such as a town. Fuller encouraged commissioners and residents concerned about the Maple Avenue project to “come to the public hearing and say (their) piece.”

Beaman, who raised the issue of the village becoming a town earlier in the meeting, pointed out “the bottom line is, if we want more control, we have to become a town.”

There was no further discussion of that at the meeting.

Staff plans to report back to the commission’s February meeting about forming a planning committee.