| |
Posted Nov 7, 2017, 1:23 AM
|
 |
Registered User
|
|
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Toronto
Posts: 5,380
|
|
The re-zoning application was approved, so the project can move forward. City council is asking for a redesign so that the two shorter towers will be taller and thinner. They will now both be 38-stories instead of the original 35-stories.
Quote:
Council approves application for hotel towers
By Ray Spiteri | October 25, 2017
City council gave the green light on two, 38-storey and one, 56-storey hotel developments on Robinson Street that represent about $600 million worth of investment.
Canadian Niagara Hotels, the company behind the project, said each tower will cost between $180 million to $200 million, while the team’s agent, Michael Kirkland, told councillors Tuesday night it’s going to provide about 2,000 permanent, full-time jobs.
The three towers will provide more than 1,800 hotel rooms, meeting rooms, retail stores, restaurants, on-site surface parking, and parking garages.
“You’re getting close to what it cost to build the casino way back. You must have real confidence in Niagara Falls,” said Coun. Kim Craitor.
The 4.7-hectare parcel of land opposite the Skylon Tower, formerly owned by HOCO Ltd., is currently being used as a commercial parking lot.
The existing zoning bylaw allows for a 30-storey height limit, but taller buildings can be considered, through an amendment application, if no adverse impacts are created by the development, such as shadowing on residential areas and green spaces, and encroachments on the view of the falls.
Currently, the tallest hotel in the city is the 56-storey Hilton Hotel & Suites on Fallsview Boulevard. The nearby Embassy Suites Hotel has 43 storeys.
City staff recommended council approve an official plan and zoning bylaw amendment to allow for two, 35-storey hotels and one, 56-storey hotel.
It would be subject to the development being redesigned to provide 25-metre separation distances between the hotel towers above the podium level to meet design guidelines, rather than the 14 metres initially proposed.
But council, after a lengthy debate, voted to approve the application, but to allow for two of the towers to increase to 38 storeys, with a minimum 21-metre separation distance.
The project is also subject to several holding and conditional provisions.
Kirkland said the development is part of the maturing and transforming tourist district.
“We think this is a historic moment, not because of something so ambitious, and so few objections, but rather because it actually constitutes a moment in this community (that is part of) the evolution of Niagara Falls, which is very significant,” he said.
“It’s not simply a hotel complex that’s being contemplated, but it’s the development of the land at the escarpment level, which will eventually bridge between Murray Hill and Clifton Hill, creating a kind of upper tier ... city development. Our ambition is in fact to complement the existing market by building high-end facilities with special public amenities.”
Brian Duxbury, a lawyer who was representing the Skylon Tower, said his clients were not opposed to the two proposed, 35-storey hotels and one, 56-storey hotel with the seperation distance as originally proposed.
“In addition to your official plan policies, in respect to height and the development of a skyline in this city, there are design guidelines that the city adheres to,” said Duxbury.
“Those design guidelines establish a 300-metre radius around the Skylon Tower, and that’s to allow the visible presence of the Skylon to remain as a signature feature on your city’s skyline, and those design guidelines also go on to direct that positive exposure to the Skylon is to be maintained.”
He said his clients recognize the benefits of a hotel development on the site, and the associated streetscape improvements to the area.
“My clients do not oppose the proposal that’s before you tonight, based on two, 35-storey structures, and then one higher, 56-storey structure at the other end. And they do not oppose the separation distance between these towers as has been proposed in the initial application. My clients would be opposed to two development towers with any additional height beyond what was proposed in the application that was made.”
Duxbury said he attended Tuesday night’s public meeting to “reserve my clients rights in respect to all of its official plan arguments, and zoning arguments, it would make if there’s any shift in this application to allow for greater heights.”
“You might be told it’s only three more storeys. It’s already 35 storeys. That first tower, closest to the Skylon Tower, is at a plain of sight in the skyline that it’s getting close to what I call the bottom of the main pod of the Skylon Tower. Start adding three floors, it’s now up into a line of sight, a line of competition, a line of a feature on a skyline that now is distracting inappropriately from the feature of the Skylon Tower on your skyline.”
|
This thread needs a name update to NIAGARA FALLS (ON) | 5383-5385 Robinson Street | 186M & ?M | 56 & 2x38 FLOORS
|
|
|
Linear Mode
