Prespa development on William St.

The Prespa property is a 0.63 hectare (1.56 acre) vacant parcel of land located at the northwest corner of William St. and Edith Cavell Boulevard. The original development proposal was for a 9 storey mixed-use building consisting of 52 apartment style residential units, with ground floor commercial units fronting on William Street. The proposal was presented at a public meeting on March 1 2016, drawing considerable opposition and was not supported by municipal planning staff.

The PSVA consulted with members and presented a formal presentation at the public meeting, detailing the reasons for opposing the development and suggesting changes. This presentation and a written submission to CE is included below.

The municipality did not officially respond to the developer’s application within statutory time limits, resulting in the developer’s appeal to the OMB (now LPAT) in December, 2017. 

Prior to a hearing in March, 2019, the developer submitted a revised proposal consisting of two 5 storey buildings: a commercial residential building fronting on William St. with 32 apartment style residential units and commercial ground floor units; and a solely residential building fronting on Edith Cavell Boulevard with 30 apartment style units. The revised proposal was still opposed by many residents and was not initially supported by municipal planning staff.

The PSVA appeared at the hearing and presented the views of the members of the association as detailed in the presentation included below. At the commencement of the hearing, however, the municipality and the developer agreed to what the PSVA felt were modest and inadequate changes, as a result of which, the municipality then supported the development at the hearing. This proved to be a critical turning point and a bylaw supporting the development was ultimately approved.

The property currently remains vacant.

Full particulars and site and/or subdivision plans for active developments, including Prespa, are available on Central Elgin’s website at Current Planning Applications - Central Elgin. The development is listed as well as all supporting documents filed. The Planning Reports, in particular, will provide a detailed description of the development.