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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPSD-026-12 Clarington REPORT PLANNING VI CES DEPART PUBLIC MEETING Meeting: GENERAL PURPOSE AND ADMINISTRATION COMMITTEE Date: May 28, 2012 Resolution#: By-law#: Report#: PSD-026-12 File#: ZBA 2012-0006 Subject: TO PERMIT A HAIR SALON AND DAY SPA (PERSONAL SERVICE SHOP) WITHIN AN EXISTING COMMERCIAL PLAZA RECOMMENDATIONS: It is respectfully recommended that the General Purpose and Administration Committee recommend to Council the following: 1. THAT Report PSD-026-12 be received; 2. THAT provided there are no significant issues raised at the Public Meeting, the rezoning application submitted by 1331030 Ontario Inc. be approved and that the proposed Zoning By-law contained in Attachment 2 to Report PSD-026-12 be passed; and 3. THAT all interested parties listed in Report PSD-026-12 and any delegations be advised of Council's decision. Submitted by: Reviewed by: David . Crome, MCI P, RPP F anl<in Wu, Director of Planning Services Chief Administrative Officer PW/COS/df 16 May 2012 CORPORATION OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF CLARINGTON 40 EMPERANCE STREET, BOWMANVILLE, ONTARIO L1C 3A6 T 905-623-3379 REPORT NO.: PSD-026-12 PAGE 2 1. APPLICATION DETAILS 1.1 Owner/Applicant: 1331030 Ontario Inc. 1.2 Proposal: To permit a personal service shop (hair salon and day spa) 1.3 Area: 0.4 Ha 1.4 Location: 170 Liberty Street South, Bowmanville 2. BACKGROUND 2.1 The subject property is located within the island formed by the interchange of Liberty Street South and Provincial Highway 401 in the south end of Bowmanville. The Applicant's property contains an existing 5-unit commercial plaza at the south end of this site while the property at the north end of this site is occupied by the Howard Johnson hotel/motel. 2.2 Site Plan approval was granted on April 1993 for the construction of a 789 m2 commercial plaza on the subject property. Building permits were issued for the construction of the commercial plaza later that year. Following the construction and occupancy of the commercial plaza the subject site was severed from the hotel/motel portion of the property in July of 1994. Due to the access limitations enforced by the Region of Durham, the newly severed lot was required to utilize the existing access to Liberty Street South located on the hotel/motel property. An access easement was jointly approved with the severance granting access for the commercial plaza property to the existing Liberty Street South entrance. 2.3 The existing plaza is currently occupied by five eating establishments (restaurants). The Owner has stated that they anticipate that two of the tenants will vacate the plaza shortly providing space for new uses. The Owner believes that the size of the existing units and the close proximity to competing restaurants within the same plaza makes the replacement of the outgoing restaurants with new ones unsustainable. Therefore, the Owner is seeking to expand the list of permitted uses to include a hair salon and day spa in order to diversify the tenant base. 2.4 On March 16, 2012, 1331030 Ontario Inc. submitted an application to permit a personal service shop (hair salon and day spa) within the existing plaza on the site. REPORT NO.: PSD-026-12 PAGE 3 3. LAND CHARACTERISTICS AND SURROUNDING USES 3.1 „ F� Baseline oacl � r 5 s gzA tf Highway 401 ro FIGURE 1 This property is readily accessible to vehicular traffic going to and coming from Highway 401 . Liberty Street, a Type `B' Arterial roadway provides local north-south traffic flow through Bowmanville, while Baseline Road, a Type `A' Arterial roadway, provides one of the primary means of travel for local east-west traffic through Bowmanville. Pedestrian access to the property is available from a sidewalk located along Liberty Street South. i rd Special � 399 w REPORT NO.: PSD-026-12 PAGE 4 3.2 The surrounding uses are as follows: North - Commercial (Howard Johnson hotel/motel) South - Highway 401 East - Clarington Tourism/Clarington Board of Trade and low-density residential West - Commercial (TSC Store) 4. PROVINCIAL POLICY 4.1 Provincial Policy Statement The Provincial Policy Statement (PPS) promotes efficient land use patterns while at the same time avoiding harmful impacts upon both public health and the environment. The PPS encourages the use of intensification and redevelopment to broaden the appropriate mix and range of employment uses. All of these goals are to be achieved within existing settlement areas and in a manner which minimizes land consumption and servicing costs. The Applicant's proposed repurposing of the existing commercial plaza, by extending the list of permitted uses to include a personal service shop, will not place a greater burden on existing Municipal infrastructure. This application does not conflict with the Provincial Policy Statement. 4.2 Provincial Growth Plan The Provincial Growth Plan (Growth Plan) directs new growth to built-up areas where sufficient capacity exists to accommodate this growth in a compact and efficient form. One of the Growth Plan's preferred means of achieving that growth is through the intensification of existing sites, including the introduction of new uses, such as is being proposed by this application. One of the Growth Plan's goals is to optimize existing land supply in an effort to better utilize existing municipal services. This application does not conflict with the Provincial Growth Plan. 5. OFFICIAL PLANS 5.1 Durham Regional Official Plan 5.1.1 The Durham Regional Official Plan designates the subject lands as "Living Areas". Limited retailing of goods and services is permitted as components of mixed use developments provided that the function of Local Centres (known as Neighbourhood Centres within the Clarington Official Plan) are not adversely affected. REPORT NO.: PSD-026-12 PAGE 5 5.1.2 The Region of Durham has deemed that this application conforms with the Durham Regional Official Plan. 5.2 Clarington Official Plan 5.2.1 The Clarington Official Plan designates the subject lands as "Highway Commercial". The abutting roads (Baseline Road —Type "A" Arterial, Liberty Street South —Type "B" Arterial) are intended to carry higher volumes of traffic through Bowmanville. 5.2.2 Lands designated as "Highway Commercial" are intended to serve the specialized needs of residents on an occasional basis. "Highway Commercial" areas are located on the edge of high-volume transportation corridors and are intended to be patronized almost exclusively by vehicular traffic due to their physical separation from residential areas and the absence of day-to-day retail and service uses. 5.2.3 Uses identified as permitted by the Clarington Official Plan include: • motor vehicle sales and service establishments; • home improvement centres; • large format home furnishing stores and other similar large format retailers; • garden centres and nurseries; • restaurants; • motels; • hotels; and • service stations. These uses typically require larger parcels of land to accommodate their business operations (which may include outdoor storage and display) and provide visibility to high volumes of traffic. In further clarifying the permitted uses the "Highway Commercial" policies specifically exclude those uses which may be frequented by residents on a regular basis such as: department stores, food stores and banks, and which do not otherwise reinforce the goals of the "Highway Commercial" designation. 5.2.4 Further discussion on the conformance of the Owner's proposed amendment with the Clarington Official Plan is contained in Section 9 of Report PSD-026-12. 6. ZONING BY-LAW 6.1 Zoning By-law 84-63 zones the subject lands "Special Purpose Commercial Exception (C5-4)" and "Environmental Protection (EP)". 6.2 The "Environmental Protection (EP)" zone, located along the east side of the site, is the result of the property's proximity to the floodplain of the Soper Creek. No portion of the existing building or parking area are within the "EP" portion of the property. 6.3 Up until September, 1984, this property was zoned "Commercial (C)" within the Town of Bowmanville Zoning By-law No. 1587. The "Commercial (C)" zone was a broad commercial category which permitted commercial uses that are today associated with REPORT NO.: PSD-026-12 PAGE 6 the "General Commercial (Cl) Zone" (i.e. restaurant, bank, retail store, office, hotel, etc.). The "Special Purpose Commercial Exception (C5-4)" zone was created in 1984 as part of the consolidation of Zoning By-laws from Darlington, Bowmanville, Clarke and Newcastle. The "C54' zone limited commercial uses on this property to: • an eating establishment; • an eating establishment take-out; • a hotel; and • a motor vehicle fuel bar. The Applicant is requesting that personal service shop (hair salon and day spa), be added to the list of currently permitted uses on the property. 6.4 A personal service shop is defined as: "a building or part of a building in which persons are employed in furnishing services, conducting limited retailing of goods associated with the service and otherwise administering to the individual and personal needs of persons, such as a barber's shop, a ladies hairdressing establishment or other similar services." In addition to a hair salon and day spa, other uses which would be permitted under the definition of personal service shop include: • barber; and • aesthetician. The proposed day spa use may include aesthetics, tanning and massages performed by Registered Massage Therapists. No overnight accommodation would be permitted under the understanding of day spa. 7. PUBLIC NOTICE AND SUBMISSIONS 7.1 Public notice was given by mail to each landowner within 120 metres of the subject site and one public meeting notice sign was installed on the property, on the Liberty Street South road frontage. The public notice was also posted on the Municipal website and in the Planning Services electronic newsletter. 7.2 At the writing of this report, Staff had received no inquiries regarding this application. 8. AGENCY COMMENTS 8.1 No objections to this application were received from any of the circulated departments or agencies. REPORT NO.: PSD-026-12 PAGE 7 8.2 The Finance Department has confirmed that the taxes on the subject property have been paid up-to-date. 9. STAFF COMMENTS 9.1 The proposed personal service shop (hair salon and day spa) will be contained within the existing commercial plaza. No changes to the building or the parking area are envisioned as a result of this proposal other than minor facade improvements to accommodate new tenants. By adding diversity to the list of permitted land uses for this property, the Applicant intends to keep the existing plaza fully tenanted and prevent one or more of the units from being left vacant for a prolonged period of time. 9.2 Area Context The subject property is located along two arterial roads, a Provincial highway and the associated on-ramp and off-ramp to that highway. Together with the hotel/motel development to the north the subject site forms part of a commercial block. This commercial block is served by a single commercial entrance onto Liberty Street South. Due to the proximity of the major roadways, and the minimal landscaping around the perimeter of the site, the area surrounding the existing commercial plaza is subject to a lot of road noise and is open to the elements. The existing restaurants within the plaza serve the various needs of industrial park employees, local residents and hotel/motel visitors to this area. Since the site possesses sub-par pedestrian connections (the sidewalk is located beside the curb, the sidewalk does not connect major pedestrian destinations) it is likely that vehicular travel is the primary mode of transportation for patrons to this site. This travel pattern is characteristic of typical "Highway Commercial" properties which are intended to serve customers from a broader, regional catchment area on an occasional basis. 9.3 Conformity with the Official Plan Personal service shop (hair salon and day spa) is not a use that is typical within the "Highway Commercial" designation. "Highway Commercial" uses are commonly identified by the following criteria: • Requiring large parcels of land for their building and associated parking; • May require outdoor storage or display of goods and materials; and • Usually benefit from access to high-volume transportation corridors in order to attract customers from a larger catchment area. Personal service shops do not require any of the above criteria in order to operate and hence are not specifically identified as a "Highway Commercial" use in the Clarington Official Plan. However, like restaurants, a hair salon and day spa would be supportive of the adjacent hotel/motel use which is a clearly permitted use within the "Highway Commercial" designation. REPORT NO.: PSD-026-12 PAGE 8 The subject property is small by the standards of land area commonly associated with "Highway Commercial" uses. A 0.4 ha site would not be large enough to accommodate the main types of"Highway Commercial" use. Similar to the restaurants which are already permitted on the subject property, personal service shops are service uses. Given the proximity to Howard Johnson Hotel they could be a supportive use for the hotel's patrons. While it would not be appropriate for a full range of commercial uses, it is Staff's opinion that the proposed personal service shop use is minor in nature and does not impact the planned function of the designation. 9.4 Commercial Context The subject site is located over 1,100 metres from the Bowmanville East Town Centre (Liberty Street and Queen Street) and over 2,100 metres from the closest Neighbourhood Centre (Waverley Road and Quinn Drive). Throughout Clarington, and in Bowmanville in particular, personal service shops are currently permitted to operate in the majority of commercial and residential areas. It is thereby evident that the nature of personal service shop use is not geographically sensitive in its own right. Adding zoning permission for the operation of a hair salon and day spa on the subject property is not expected to hinder the operation of similar uses elsewhere in the community. Therefore, it is Staff's opinion that the inclusion of personal service shop (hair salon and day spa), to the list of permitted uses for this site, would not be in conflict with any other commercially designated site in Bowmanville. 9.5 Parking & Loading The site currently offers 44 parking spaces (including one barrier-free parking space) and 2 loading spaces. It is anticipated that the parking needs of the proposed hair salon and day spa will not exceed those of the current restaurant uses. In addition, a hair salon and spa will not require regular or prolonged use of the on-site loading areas. Therefore, it is Staff's opinion that the replacement of one or more of the existing restaurants, in favour of a personal service shop, will not inhibit the safe and efficient operation of traffic on this site. 9.6 In view of the preceding comments, it is Staff's opinion that the subject application is: • Minor in nature; • In conformity with the Clarington Official Plan; • Will not detract from the character and operation of the existing "Highway Commercial" or surrounding areas; and • Represents good planning in the best interest of the community and the Municipality. REPORT NO.: PSD-026-12 PAGE 9 10. CONCURRENCE — Not Applicable 11. CONCLUSION 11.1 This application proposes to add personal service shop to the list of permitted uses on the subject property. Provided there are no significant issues raised at the Public Meeting and based on the comments in this report, it is recommended that the rezoning application submitted by 1331030 Ontario Inc. be approved, and that the draft Zoning By-law Amendment, as contained in Attachment 2 to Report PSD-026-12, be passed. CONFORMITY WITH STRATEGIC PLAN The recommendations contained in this report conform to the general intent of the following priorities of the Strategic Plan: X Promoting economic development Maintaining financial stability Connecting Clarington Promoting green initiatives Investing in infrastructure Showcasing our community Not in conformity with Strategic Plan Staff Contact: Paul Wirch and Carlo Salazar Attachments: Attachment 1 - Key Map Attachment 2 - Zoning By-law List of interested parties to be advised of Council's decision: J.R. Freethy Architect 1331030 Ontario Inc. Attachment 1 To Report PSD-026-12 L •; 2 i °i U y,d , E O 3 L m O E C en N Q O CD C O a � �3ais�n° �`Ob N A M CO z r J a N LLLLLi i , C ° 3 a a _ N O 2 a. JL33NJ.S AIN3811 � 0 a� 0 0 C z 0 •- •- ' wpm o _ DUKE STREET Attachment 2 to PSD-026-12 CORPORATION OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF CLARINGTON BY-LAW NO. 2012- being a By-law to amend By-law 84-63, the Comprehensive Zoning By-law for the Corporation of the former Town of Newcastle WHEREAS the Council of the Corporation of the Municipality of Clarington deems it advisable to amend By-law 84-63, as amended, of the Corporation of the Municipality of Clarington for ZBA 2012-0006; NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT, the Council of the Corporation of the Municipality of Clarington enacts as follows: 1. Section 20.4.4 SPECIAL PURPOSE COMMERCIAL EXCEPTION (C5-4) ZONE is hereby amended as follows: "Section 20.4.4 SPECIAL PURPOSE COMMERCIAL EXCEPTION (C5-4) Notwithstanding Section 20.1, those lands zoned C5-4 on the Schedules to this By-law may only be used as an eating establishment, an eating establishment take-out, a hotel, a personal service shop and a motor vehicle fuel bar. The placement of buildings and structures shall be subject to the regulations set out in Section 20.2. 2. This By-law shall come into effect on the date of the passing hereof, subject to the provisions of Section 34 of the Planning Act. BY-LAW passed in open session this day of , 2012. Adrian Foster, Mayor Patti L. Barrie, Municipal Clerk