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 spokecommended 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 andopen 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 ofElmvaleAcres CommunityAssociation, 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,OthelloAvenue andSmythRoad.

Retail leasing giant RioCanis planning to redevelop not just ElmvaleAcres, butWestgateShopping Centreand Silver CityGloucester as well.

The plan passed Tuesday will see the 1960sshopping centrelandredeveloped to comprise new commercial, residential and green space, including:

• Four mixed-use buildingsthree at 16 storeystall, 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 roadlikePleasantPark or an arterialmain streetsuch asSmythAvenue," said resident Nicole Blundel.

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