Dear editor:

I thought your readers might be interested in seeing an illustration showing the difference in height, massing and streetscape of the proposed Parliament Oak hotel compared with the Prince of Wales.

If the numerous negative comments made about commercial enterprises being located in a residential area (including the delivery, trash and related support services), the 700 food and beverage seats (almost 5.5 times the number of hotel rooms), and the egregious lack of parking isn’t sufficient to demonstrate the inappropriateness of this project, then perhaps this illustration will drive home the point.

This illustration was prepared by Chapman Murray Associates Architects and is to scale.

A project like the one proposed for Parliament Oak is likely to create pressure to extend commercial activity another two blocks along King Street.

That’s not what is contemplated in the official plan and is, in fact, contrary to even the broadest interpretation of a compatible use for this site based on that plan.

If council wants to make King Street a commercial corridor it should be honest about it – not allow it to happen project by project.

To be clear, I am not suggesting the commercialization of King Street (or any other residential street in NOTL) rather, that council should either follow its official plan or commence a broader process to change it.

This should only happen after appropriate public consultation and after giving consideration to the implications for the wider Old Town area.

Good planning does not happen site by site or block by block.

Lyle Hall
NOTL