Sutton development proposal - Environmentally sensitiveDavid James - Sutton Scene - May 15, 2016
Will council permit a developer to squeeze a substandard road and five houses on subsized lots, plus water pipes & sewer drains into a narrow strip of land that is prone to flooding and borders on a treed wetland along the Sutton River? Those are some of the questions drawing citizens to an extraordinary council meeting on Tuesday, May 17 th , 18h .
That is when Council will decide whether to permit the developer to create “five serviced lots with a minimum average depth lower than 45 metres, as required by the current Subdivision By-Law for a lot located on the bank of a river corridor” and “a street intended to be public with a minimum width of 9 metres instead of 15 metres, as required by the current Subdivision By-Law.”
The developer of ‘Quartier de la Rive’ condos, on the west side of highway
139/rue Principale south, north of BMR and ch. Jordan, recently tore down
the roadside graphic shown here of multiple two-story
buildings, the first of
which is a three-story
roadside unit.
When Council approved the additional story
and a location closer to the highway, it said
that to ‘ require a larger setback from the
main street could affect the possible future
development of land located behind it and
that the impact of the smaller setback was
negligible’ .
The head of urbanism, Réal Girard said that the building could not be erected further back because of the wetland. A row of pine trees separates the new building and properties to the north from an environmentally sensitive area – a narrow strip of undeveloped land and a treed wetland that runs along the Sutton River, both of which are prone to flooding.
A concerned citizen sent me a page from the latest subdivision bylaw 256 whose article 10 requires an expert study for proposed projects in or near wetlands and asks if the developer has met these conditions?
When the project is likely to disturb a wetland, an assessment of the quality of
its habitat prepared under the guidance of a qualified expert and developed taking
into account the following parameters:
- a) The area of the wetland;
- b) The presence of water in the wetland;
- c) The integrity of the adjacent area to the wetland;
- d) The diversity of vegetation;
- e) The presence of flora and fauna threatened or vulnerable in the wetland
- or within 100 metres;
- f) The connectivity between the wetland and other wetlands;
- g) The connectivity of the wetland with a body of water.
