August 18, 2023 Hon. Steve…

August 18, 2023

Hon. Steve Clark, Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing
Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing
17th Floor – 777 Bay Street
Toronto, Ontario M7A 2J3

RE: Envision Durham: Regional Municipality of Durham Official Plan
ERO Posting No. 019-7195, Ministry Reference Number 18-OP-237796
325-339 Kingston Road, Pickering
TBG Project No. 21766

We are the planning consultants for the owner of the lands located at 325-339 Kingston Road in Pickering. On behalf of our Client, Old Orchard Kingston Road GP Inc., we are pleased to provide the following comments on the Regional Municipality of Durham’s Official Plan, Envision Durham, currently being reviewed by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

Our Client’s property is located on the south side of Kingston Road between Altona Road to the west and Rougemount Drive to the west, and on the north side of Highway 401. The location of the Subject Site is approximately shown on Figure 1 below.

Figure 1: Location
We would like to recognize Regional Staff and their consulting team on the extensive work undertaken as part of their Municipal Comprehensive Review process and to receive support from Regional Council. While we recognize that the overall Growth Numbers have been provided by the Province, we are also aware that the growth numbers provided are minimums. We also recognize the work of City of Pickering Staff on their creation of OPA 38 and Informational Revision 26 to their Official Plan which has created a distinct vision for the Kingston Road corridor through the entire City of Pickering.

While we support the increased density and heights along the Kingston Road corridor in general, on November 25, 2022, our Client appealed OPA 38, and are now a Party at the OLT hearing regarding multiple appeals of OPA 38. Our Client’s appeal is on OPA 38 in its entirety, excluding Policy 11A.9.1(c).

We write this letter today to request that the Province consider adding a site-specific amendment to the Rapid Transit Corridor designation within the Durham Official Plan to permit an FSI of 8.8, and a maximum building height of 40 storeys on the Subject Lands.

It is our opinion that the site-specific amendment for these lands will contribute to the Province’s goal of construction 1,500,000 homes within the next ten years, while also meeting the overall growth targets provided in the Envision Durham documents.

Sincerely,

Mike Pettigrew, B.U.R.Pl.
Senior Associate