A seven-storey hotel and a restaurant are coming to Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Council approved the official plan and zoning bylaw amendments needed for the project at 524 York Rd. on Tuesday, clearing the way for a 227-room hotel and a restaurant next to two existing hotels in the Glendale area. The decision still needs to be formally adopted at an April 28 council meeting.
The development, led by Niagara York Road Inc., includes 273 parking spaces — a number that drew concern from some councillors as being too low.
“Is that how we do planning?” Coun. Gary Burroughs said. “We just hope like heck that they’re not all going to be full at the same time?”
Coun. Andrew Niven also raised concerns about weekends, conferences and weddings.
“Are you confident there’s enough parking for all of that?” he asked.
Aimee Alderman, the town’s director of planning, building and development services, said hotel guests would likely also be using the restaurant and that “staff are comfortable” the plan would not create additional pressure on surrounding parking.
“We feel very confident in terms of it working,” said planning consultant David Falletta of Bousfields Inc., representing the property owner.
“We’ve done a thorough parking analysis based on not only this site, but similar sites throughout the region.”
Falletta said buses are expected to drop off guests and leave rather than park on site.
“There’s a lot of opportunities throughout the community where these buses can park,” he said.
Burroughs asked staff to identify those locations. Staff said it would report back.
Coun. Sandra O’Connor also questioned delays tied to earlier environmental commitments on the site.
“Five years later and fulfilling the other woodlands, reciprocation, replanting hasn’t been done yet,” she said. “You’re talking about wanting to work on this quickly. Why has it taken five years?”
Falletta said woodland compensation tied to the first phase was planned but never finalized.
“Unfortunately, that agreement never came to fruition, even though my client tried to get that agreement in place,” he said.
The current proposal requires that agreement to be secured before any new development can proceed.
“We’ve advanced what we think needs to go into that agreement,” Falletta said, adding that it will be reviewed by town staff.
The proposal has been years in the making — first pitched as a 10-storey hotel with two restaurants before being scaled back following concerns from the Niagara District Airport last year.
Walkways and landscaping have been added to improve pedestrian safety and connections across the site, and the buildings themselves have also been shifted closer to York Road — “in better alignment with the Glendale district plan,” Alderman said.
