Elmvale Acres mall redevelopment plan gets committee approval

A new secondary plan for a revamped Elmvale Acres Shopping Centre with lower building heights and improved traffic measures was approved by the city's planning committee Tuesday morning.

Unlike many meetings of this sort, most residents who spoke commended city staff, developer RioCan and area Coun. Jean Cloutier for consulting with residents and being open to change.

"I am pleased to say that through a collaborative and open dialogue over hours of discussion and multiple meetings, we were able to address many of the issue identified by the community, " said Kevin Kit, president of Elmvale Acres Community Association, which was founded in late 2015 specifically to deal with this redevelopment.

The original plan called for buildings with maximum heights of 26 storeys and up to four storeys on Othello Avenue, an established residential street. After discussions with the community, those maximum heights have been lowered to 16 and two storeys, respectively.

And residents were pleased to see that transport trucks will be permanently removed from Othello.

Plan will see mall dramatically changed

The 5.2-hectare property to be redeveloped over the next 10 to 15 years is bordered by St. Laurent Avenue, Pleasant Park Road, Othello Avenue and Smyth Road.

Retail leasing giant RioCan is planning to redevelop not just Elmvale Acres, but Westgate Shopping Centre and Silver City Gloucester as well.

The plan passed Tuesday will see the 1960s shopping centre land redeveloped to comprise new commercial, residential and green space, including:

• Four mixed-use buildings — three at 16 storeys tall, one at nine storeys.
• 570 residential units.
• 285 underground parking spots for residential buildings.
• 386 surface parking spots for businesses.
• A new public park.
• Improvements to the transit station and smaller green spaces.
• Improvements to make residential streets more pedestrian and cyclist friendly.

Residents still have concerns

Despite the collaborative tone of the meeting, residents still have concerns about the plan, especially with the amount of traffic that the site's intensification could bring.

Car access to the mall was removed from some residential streets, cutting down on the potential for cut-through traffic. However, some residents are worried there's still an access point on Chapman Boulevard.

"That entrance is a relic from old car-centred design and planning and we would prefer that the site be accessed from a collector road like Pleasant Park or an arterial main street such as Smyth Avenue," said resident Nicole Blundel.

But even Blundel praised city staff for their attention to this project, and singled out city transportation engineer Colin Simpson, who drove around the neighbourhood with her, "proved me wrong on many occasions, and also celebrated my involvement and validated many of my ideas."