Campus Trails project moves forward with three, four-storey multi-residential buildings

Huntsville’s planning committee approved a zoning amendment to permit three, four-storey multiple residential buildings on the south side of Campus Trail, the road which shares the name of the development and one which once completed will be assumed by the Town—an agreement between developer Pat Dubé of Greystone Project Management and the municipality in exchange for the land where the new Fairvern Nursing Home will be located.

According to planning staff, the lot has an area of approximately 2.01ha (4.967 acres) and 156m of frontage on the south side of Campus Trail, again an unassumed road at this time that will eventually be publicly owned and maintained and connect Earls Road and Muskoka Road 3 North and access both Fairvern and Dubé’s development.

“This proposal is very similar to the ‘The Tom’ development, located on land on the north side of Campus Trail,” noted Huntsville manager of planning Richard Clark in a report submitted to Huntsville’s planning committee on April 14.

The zoning amendment, which would change the zoning on the lands from Industrial to Residential Four, includes an exception to increase the maximum height of the buildings from 11m to 15.8m, and reduce the width of driveways providing access to parking lots or parking garages from 6.7m to 6.1m. The buildings would be developed in phases and each one would contain 38 units for a total of 114 units once all three are built, Clark told committee.

Dubé joined the meeting held remotely and shared his vision for the 32-acre project. He said the idea is to build a community “within a wellness environment where services are fully integrated. The campus of care, if you will, where people are connected, feel safe, and have the convenience of health services as part of their community at their doorstep or even within their building. So, our goal to achieve this has been to do it without an institutional feel.” He said the development would include trails and interesting topography while making sure that the built form of the development will blend well with nature and the things about Muskoka people love.

The development would use both the Huntsville District Memorial Hospital and the location of the new Fairvern Nursing Home as its anchors.

“So, to date, Campus Trails has seen the construction of the road and the road will be assumed by the Town of Huntsville as soon as the asphalt plants open…further on the Campus Trails project, we’ve opened the first medical building, and it is a busy place, there’s people coming and going seeing their doctors, going to the pharmacy, going to their physiotherapist. We’ve also started construction on a second medical building which will further retain services in the area and within the community,” said Dubé, and noted that in addition, the development contains The Tom, a sold-out condominium with expected occupancy occurring at the end of June.

The new Fairven Nursing Home will be located at the west end of the 32 acres, “which allows us all kinds of opportunities between where we are at the east end and the west end where Fairvern will eventually be,” said Dubé.

He said the next phase of the development involves the three buildings. He said given the demand for The Tom, adding an additional floor seemed wise. He said to mitigate the additional height impact of a fourth floor the walls on that floor would be drawn into the building, which would also create a terraced space for the two end units of the buildings, giving them a unique look.

Dubé told committee outdoor amenities in the area will include such things as a pickleball court, a greenhouse, gardens, and a firepit.

“We’re happy to bring this to you, we hope you support it. Respectfully we think the project is going very well. I think there’s need for the product. We’re conscious of what we’re doing, we’re trying to maintain the tree buffers that we’ve talked about,” he also told committee, adding that the height of the buildings will be buffered by the trees and slope of the land. “I’ve looked at this property at distance. I’ve looked at it from Hwy 60, I’ve looked at it from the edge of Fairy Lake. I don’t really see this property from any vantage because every time you look at it, you’re looking up at the hill and there’s a lot of vegetation between where you are and where the project is.”

Committee chair and Councillor Nancy Alcock asked Dubé what the cost of the units would be. He said that building costs had increased, but “I can assure you that when we release these for sale there will be [some] below average market price in Huntsville. So what may have been $280,000, I think was our lowest unit in The Tom, is going to be in the low $300s, but anything starting with a three these days won’t stay on the market very long. We understand affordable housing—you create it by creating alternative housing for people to move through the system, vacating other homes lower in the chain. So, that’s what I like about these buildings, and as we see them develop in other towns where we’re working, it really is creating inventory that’s well-needed in the community. Dubé noted that while the average selling price in Huntsville is now just under $600,000. “I do not want this to become unaffordable,” he added.

Wayne Simpson, the planner working on the proposed Earls Road Development located on an estimated 100-acre property on the north side of Earls Road, and about 250 metres from the Campus Trails development, spoke to committee about a letter which had been received that morning and was not included in the agenda package. The letter was from an Ottawa solicitor on behalf of the Earls Road developer.

Simpson said he wanted to ensure that the letter made it on the public record. He said his client had submitted an application for a zoning amendment about a year ago, which was amended in September 2020 to reflect some additional findings from an environmental impact review. Committee also heard that the applicant’s files for a draft plan of subdivision at the District and a rezoning application at the Town were currently before the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT), but Simpson noted that a hearing date had not yet been set.

He said the letter from the lawyer was requesting that committee defer Dubé’s application. He said his client had not been notified of the zoning request but learned about it through a newspaper notice. He said as the letter points out, development in the north end of Huntsville has been under discussion and while a secondary plan was proposed for the area which would halt development through an interim-control bylaw while the various interests were studied, it did not materialise. Instead, planning committee instructed staff to engage developers in the area and have them work collaboratively to address issues such as traffic, and limited water and sewer service capacity.

“The effort to bring collaborative work together of the developers was to be led by Town staff and that has not happened,” Simpson said. He added that the lawyer was disappointed “with the seemingly preferential treatment afforded the present project…”

Those comments seemed to irritate Huntsville Mayor Karin Terziano. “I certainly respect and accept the fact that the Earls Road applicant can have their lawyer send us a letter and point out different issues, but Wayne I just want to say that I really take exception to the suggestion that you are making on behalf of those lawyers, or your applicant, that our staff give preferential treatment to one applicant over another because that’s simply not true, so I just want to go on the record to say I take exception to that suggestion.”

Simpson responded that he was simply endeavouring to provide a summary of the comments made by his client’s solicitor because the letter had only been provided to the committee that morning and he wanted to ensure the essence of the letter was discussed in an open forum. “I appreciate your comments and I sincerely respect the fact that staff do their best, and in my experience it’s been that they do their best to be fair and honest with all proponents.”

In the end, committee unanimously approved the zoning amendment and the exemptions requested with the following conditions:

• that adequate provisions for infrastructure including stormwater, roads, water and sewer services are secured to the satisfaction of the Town of Huntsville and the District Municipality of Muskoka and the necessary agreements to address the site development and the provision of municipal services, capacity allocation, disposal of solid waste, and any other related matters, have been entered into;
• that a peer review of the Scoped Environmental Impact Study prepared by Riverstone Environmental is conducted to the satisfaction of the District of Muskoka and/or confirmation is received from Ministry of Environment Conservation and Parks that Endangered Species Act requirements are addressed;
• that an updated Traffic Impact Study be submitted to the satisfaction of the Town, and any recommendations are implemented through a development agreement; and
• that Campus Trail has been assumed by the Town of Huntsville as a municipal road.

You can find staff’s full report here (PDF).

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