Developer buys houses next to McMaster, wants to build student residence
'For once it's the kind of student housing we like being proposed': Coun. Aidan Johnson
By Kelly Bennett, CBC News Posted: Sep 08, 2016 5:45 AM ET
A developer is buying up a row of houses in the leafy, residential neighbourhood to the east of McMaster University, with plans to build a mixed-use, multi-storey student residence.
According to emails obtained by CBC News under a freedom of information request, the developer started talking with the city more than a year ago about the project and a plan to request rezoning for as many as 15 "contiguous lots" at the corner of Main Street West and Forsyth Avenue South.
The developer, Tyler Ross, told CBC News this week the project is in "very early in the planning process".
But he said he and his partners have either already purchased or have contracts to buy 14 homes on Forsyth, Traymore and Dalewood – the length of the city block between the eastern edge of McMaster's campus and Dalewood Recreation Centre.
Behind the houses is a strip of grass owned by McMaster that abuts Main Street West.
The university's director of communications, Gord Arbeau, said the university is in "preliminary conversations" with the owners of student rentals on Traymore Avenue about a student residence development that would involve that strip of land and that could potentially house several hundred students.
"The pressing need we have is for increased student residence space, because we think it leads to greater outcomes for students and allows the university to meet demand," he said.
"Without being on campus proper, it is close — very close — to campus."
But the neighbourhood's single-family homes already house dozens of students, sometimes five or more to a house.
The project would put students within a stone's throw of an LRT stop.
The rest of the article
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilt...ster-1.3751837