Huntsville’s Planning Committee recently approved the site plan for two institutional buildings, bringing the vision for a campus of care around Huntsville Hospital one step closer to reality.
The lands where the buildings are being proposed are in close proximity to the lands donated for Fairvern Nursing Home’s new location by owner and president of Greystone Construction, Pat Dubé. In exchange for the donation, the Town of Huntsville agreed to build the road to access the new Fairvern off Earls Road, which would also give Dubé access to the remainder of his lands in that particular location.
You can learn a bit more about the vision for that area here.
At its October 10 meeting, Planning Committee approved the site plan for the two single-storey institutional buildings, to be located at 450 Muskoka Road 3 North, with 76.24 metres of frontage on Earls Road. One of the buildings would have an area of 880 square metres, while the other would be about half the size with an area of about 452 square metres. Both buildings would be situated on a 5,890 square metre (1.455 acre) parcel, in close proximity to the new Fairvern build.
“Beyond the location of the garbage enclosure, the site plan meets all the requirements of the zoning bylaw including parking, buffering, setbacks and height,” Huntsville Planner Curtis Syvret told committee. He said an amended site plan was being prepared to address the location of the garbage enclosure and curb cuts in order to meet the requirements of the zoning bylaw, but none of those changes would significantly alter the site plan proposed. Syvret recommended that the site plan be approved by committee.
In terms of access, he noted, “The lands will be accessed over a future publicly owned and maintained road that intersects Earls Road.” Syvret also told committee that communication was currently taking place between the Town’s Accessibility Advisory Committee and the proponent.
Committee approved the site plan without comment. You can find the full planning report here.
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Why does the building have to be so ugly? Just because it’s institutional doesn’t mean it can’t have the “Muskoka Look”. Or at the very least a more interesting facade.
I don’t enjoy Planning Committee approving this site plan without resolving the concerns of the Accessibility Advisory Committee. As both buildings will be peopled with seniors (nursing home and retirement home?); surely the additional expense of dealing with accessibility issues, while not a deal-breaker, is a significant expenditure. This increasingly common habit of passing their responsibility to Council (who, in fairness, is not nearly as well schooled in accessibility) is patently dangerous.