On November 4 there was a statutory public meeting for an application regarding a development application at 15 Charles St;, King City.  The application is for both an Official Plan Amendment and a Zoning Bylaw amendment to enable a severance at 15 Charles so that ultimately 2 single detached homes can be built where there is currently 1 house.  Unfortunately I was not able to make a post on my blog prior to the public meeting.  As there was very limited feedback from the public at the Council meeting for this important application I am writing to say that if you have comments on this application you can still send in your feedback to clerks@king.ca and they will forward it to Planning Staff.  And/or if you simply want to be kept informed about this application  you can send an email to clerks@king ca asking to be put on a list for future communications.  Finally, if interested and you missed the meeting you can watch a recording of the livestream for 2 weeks after the meeting i.e. until November 18; it starts at 1hr:32 minutes.

Here is the presentation by King Twshp Planning and here is the Planning report. To read the Planning Report see the meeting agenda and scroll down to 7.2; you can also see there site plan and elevations.

Here is the presentation by the applicant’s agent. 

An application for a severance in an established neighbourhood is a big deal.  My perspective about such applications has evolved from one of being strongly opposed, for two reasons.  First, we need more houses.  Second, I have observed that refusal of a severance does not necessarily translate to protecting the established neighbourhood as the original house is demolished and a very large house is built in its place with minimum setbacks; the generous side yards etc with trees and bushes is gone.  Our Official Plan provides specific conditions as to when a severance in an established neighbourhood is appropriate.  It was considering those conditions which led to my support of a severance application on Martin Street earlier this year.  The same assessment needs to be done done on the 15 Charles St.

The purpose of the statutory public meeting is to make the Council and public aware of the application.  No decisions are made; rather, the Planning report was received and referred back to Staff to complete their review and to receive and consider comments from the public and Council.