HOW MUCH RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY SHOULD PORT COLBORNE ALLOW IN COMMERCIAL ZONES?

CONVERTING STOREFRONTS TO HOUSING A 'RED FLAG' FOR COUNCILLORS

Amid the housing boom, the owner of a commercial building along the city's main street commercial zone is looking to switch gears. The building at 193 Main St. W. once housed two stores, a nail salon and a clothing store, both of which have since vacated.

Rather than look for new commercial tenants, the owner of the building sought a rezoning change to convert them to residential units instead.

Ward 1 Coun. Dave Elliott said he voted in favour of the zoning change because all the paperwork was in order and all the ducks were in a row, meaning he had no proper reason to vote against; however, he was strongly against the zoning.

"This is worrisome to me," said Elliott during city hall's council meeting on March 14. "Personally, and I know several people on the downtown BIA also are wholeheartedly against this. I don't think we want to see either Main Street or the downtown area having numerous buildings converted to residential on the main floor."

The upper floors of the building were already residential units, which is common for downtown and commercial-area buildings, but Elliott said the street-level units should remain commercial.

"If you go through any flourishing downtown anywhere, there is no residential on the main floor," said

Elliott, who called this a "red flag" that the city needs to be aware of.

"Somehow, we have to lock down the zoning bylaw so it doesn't allow it, at least on

the main floors."

Other councillors agreed and said certain areas of the city such as the commercial area of Main Street and the downtown core should have stricter zoning to prevent residential creep into commercial areas.

"I think this is concerning from a staff point of view as well," said the city's chief administrative officer, Scott Luey. "We know there's a premium on residential properties right now, but that's part of a cycle. If we allow commercial properties to come out of circulation and be replaced by residential, we might be in a different cycle later where there is a shortage of commercial properties."

Luey said he will be consulting the city's planning department and potentially making adjustments to the city's official plan to try and tighten zoning rules to stop further conversion from commercial to residential in specific areas.