18 May The Return of the CIP
On Monday night (May 15th), Council approved two CIP (Community Improvement Plan) incentive applications for one for 88 James St. and one for 10 Pleasant Ave. 88 James St. recieved a TIF (Tax Increment Finance Program) incentive of a 45% annual tax rebate over a 10-year...
13 Apr The Cost of Parking – Yes Parking Really Does Cost Money
Parking and parking spaces are almost always a hot topic. Or should I say contraversial one. Whether you're talking about having to pay for parking or how many parking spaces a new development (small, medium or large) has - it tends to bring out extreme passion...
06 Apr Planning Decisions – Expanding into the Greenbelt
This past Monday (April 3), Council considered a planning application that was requesting the expansion of a building (adding 2,397 sq.m (25,801 sq.ft.) to an existing 1,216 sq.m. (13,088 sq. ft.)) including increasing the parking lot from 95 to 229 parking spaces. The property and...
18 Oct Q & A with St. Catharines Environmental Alliance
As you know, climate change has been identified as the number 1 crisis facing humanity, and in April of 2019 the City of St. Catharines declared a Climate Emergency. What place does that hold on your priority list, and what measures do you plan to...
13 Oct Adding Housing and Keeping Neighbourhood Character
We can all agree that St. Catharines needs more housing units. Where we tend to get a bit stuck is how we are going to get there. We cannot sprawl out. We have to be creative and we most importantly have to attract developers who will...
21 Sep Innovative Developments Needed!
I had the opportunity to check out the opening launch for Warbler Place Urban Village in Welland. And can I just say WOW!One of the big issues our city faces is Housing, Affordability & Density and I have said that we need to advocate for...
02 Sep Growing Pains – Density in our City
I may be stating the obvious but cities change, populations grow and how we lived 30 years ago is different than how we live today. Cities experience growing pains every day.I'm a big fan of maps and data. To me there is nothing cooler than to...
21 Aug Accessory Dwelling Units & the Community Improvement Plan
We have a housing crisis. There are few, if any, who would disagree with this fact. The question of how we increase the amount of housing and what types are needed is where we get bogged down and NIMBYism happens. One of the types of...
22 Jul Let’s Talk About the Community Improvement Plan (aka CIP)
At our council meeting on July 18th, we approved a Brownfield Tax Increment Finance (BTIF) under the Community Improvement Plan for the development at 7 St. Paul St. West and 7 McGuire St. For those who didn't watch you can watch the delegates and discussion on...
13 Jul Changing the Conversation at Public Meetings and Open Houses
Public meetings and open houses about developments and variances are difficult meetings for many reasons. Most often they are full of speakers who are against the new development - rarely do you hear "I support this". As a result decision makers get a very skewed view...
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