A Kingston developer has re-launched plans to create a “landmark” waterfront community by rejuvenating the old Davis Tannery lands in the city’s Inner Harbour.
Patry Inc. Developments is reaching out to community groups to explain and garner support for its 1,500-unit residential plans before they are scrutinized by city planners and politicians. An application to rezone the property from industrial to residential will get its first public airing at the city’s planning committee in March.
“This is a challenging and exciting project, and we are excited to work with stakeholders like you to rehabilitate and redevelop the site into a tremendous asset for the Inner Harbour and the community,” according to IBI Group, an urban planning firm working with the developer.
Concept design of proposed 1,500-unit subdivision on former Davis Tannery lands
However, some early reaction to the subdivision proposal, a collection of four sprawling apartment block squares, is critical.
“The proposal is awful, paving over the whole site,” said community activity Vicki Schmolka.
She also doubts the planned treatment of the waterfront will garner support with Parks Canada as the housing development sits next to the Rideau Canal’s UNESCO world heritage designation. The federal department favours shorelines kept in a natural state with any development set back at least 30 metres from the water, Schmolka added.
Patry Inc. acquired the 15 hectare (37 acre) Davis Tannery lands last fall – left contaminated and abandoned after decades of industrial use – and is moving ahead with its housing development plans. Applications for a subdivision, Official Plan and zoning bylaw amendment and Brownfield clean-up plan were filed with City Hall last month. Supporting studies include urban design, environmental impact, tree inventory, traffic impact, draft subdivision plan and various concept designs.
IBI stated: “The proposal includes remediating the subject brownfield site and will incorporate substantial public waterfront park space and opportunities for waterfront trail connections.”
The developer says highlights of its vision include;
- remediating approximately 22 acres of highly contaminated former industrial lands,
- creating about 1,500 residential units plus commercial/retail space,
- creating a minimum of 3.7 acres of public waterfront park space and a new multi-use watersport facility such as a rowing club,
- sprucing up a waterfront trail with new stopping points for look-outs and activities.
In addition, Patry Inc. says its proposal will create an estimated 2,800 full-time equivalent jobs during the 12 year phased in construction work, 200 new commercial, retail and service jobs once constructed, and generate property taxes of $95.2 million over the next 30 years.
Patry Inc. is inviting stakeholders to attend a one-hour presentation and question-and-answer session later this month on its proposal in order to establish an “open dialogue between stakeholders and the development team.”
The applicant offered up several dates between Feb. 14 and Feb. 28 to attend a briefing at the IBI Group office at 650 Dalton Avenue.
The redevelopment vision comes more than three years after the city abruptly backed away from an offer to act as a ‘middle man’ to facilitate the clean-up and development of the Davis Tannery lands, without offering an explanation as to why.
Councillors initially heard developer Jay Patry’s $223 million housing proposal that involved eight buildings with a total of 1,500 residential units and 50,000 square feet of commercial space on the long-abandoned property. The developer’s plan also requested the city to fast-track the Wellington Street extension.
The city had initially proposed to guide a process to work with the developer in 2014 but, following an in-camera meeting, councillors voted to halt the process. “The City no longer has an ownership interest in the former Davis Tannery property, but remains committed to supporting private developers seeking to remediate and redevelop this brownfield site,” according to the city’s website.
The municipality says the Davis Tannery property remains “strategically important to the redevelopment of the North King’s Town neighbourhood and the Inner Harbour waterfront and the property remains eligible to apply for tax assistance through the City’s Brownfield Community Improvement Program.”
The current vision appears similar to the 2014 plans which were criticized by community activist Mary Farrar with the group Friends of Kingston Inner Harbour. She described the developer’s housing intensification proposal as the “recipe for a ghetto.”
She says the vision to construct 1,500 housing units, mostly rental, is too massive for the waterfront property and the buildings are too close together, which could invite crime and vandalism.
Farrar added: “It’s a design that, in the end, would become a dangerous place. We think there’s not enough green space in the design.”
The site is bordered by River Street to the south, Rideau Street to the west, Belle Park to the north and the Cataraqui River to the east. The factory that once manufactured leather out of animal hides was the scene of heavy industrial uses from 1867 to 1970, and has remained vacant ever since it closed.
The city moved to claim ownership of the site a decade ago due to millions of dollars in unpaid taxes. It then sold the property to Rideau Renewal on the condition the site be developed within five years. However, that plan never materialized.
