Agent for the applicant, Gerry Tchisler from MHBC Planning, address: 442 Brant Street, Suite 204, Burlington and Douglas Scarlett, director of industrial leasing at Oxford properties, provided an overview of the application.
Questions to Gerry Tchisler and Douglas Scarlett
Member Ellahi inquired, if the office space is reduced, does that mean the remaining space gets adjusted into the warehouse space. Gerry Tchisler stated this is correct, as the footprint of the building is already there, thus it is either going to be office or warehouse space, they are looking from anywhere between 5% to 10% to be used as an office component, thus if they wanted more than 5% of office component it is certainly possible. However, they are looking to reduce the minimum requirement to 5%. Member Ellahi asked if they could provide him with a number in square feet as to how much is going to be increased in warehouse area, by reducing the office space. Douglas Scarlett stated, generally speaking if 10% of 75,000 square feet is 7,500 square feet then there would 3,750 square feet of warehouse space versus office space by virtue of the reduction from 10% to 5%.
Questions to Town Planner Natalie Stopar
Member Trombino inquired what would be the community risks of allowing this nature of variance in the area. Town Planner Natalie Stopar claimed she doesn't believe there to be any risks to the community, rather her recommendation to refuse the variance comes from the analysis of the policies of the official plan. The policies at the time the secondary plan was created in 2015 envisioned this business park to have a significant office component, which required a significant office particularly along large corridors, such as James Snow Parkway and Derry Road with portions fronting on those lands designated as prestige office and those connecting points (such as what this designation is), as a street-oriented area requiring a significant office component. A few years ago, when the town completed the original Zoning By-law amendment application, when those policies were interpreted, the Town was comfortable going down to a very minimum of a 10% office component for buildings of this size. Thus, it is in her professional opinion, that reducing the minimum office component down to 5% would no longer be meeting the intent of the policies of having that significant office component. Member Trombino stated he would like to know if there would be any impacts to the surrounding neighbourhoods if the variance was approved. Town Planner Natalie Stopar claimed she doesn't believe there would be a significant impact to the community, as warehouse uses are permitted on this designation provided as a significant office component.
Chair Kluge asked Town Planner Natalie Stopar to clarify if regardless of whether they are warehouses or office spaces the Town's intent is to have high quality design in those corridors. Town Planner Natalie Stopar stated the street-oriented overlay area included policies not only for the types of permitted uses for those lands, but it also included separate policies regarding the urban design of those buildings. Thus, Oxford worked very closely with our site plan staff on the design of those buildings, in order to the meet the Town's requirements of urban design along James Snow Parkway. Chair Kluge stated his concern lies on whether or not this is a trend, and whether or not the Town has received previous minor variance applications to reduce office component spaces, and will the Town staff take this under advisement, as 2015 (when the secondary plan was created) is a very different world from 2023. Town Planner Natalie Stopar stated the Oxford development is a part of phase 1 development of the Derry Green Secondary plan, which is a pretty large employment area for the Town of Milton. The only other developments currently within the Derry Green area that are built and occupied are all designated as industrial areas, so this never came up through the tenancy of those buildings. Oxford is quite far along, as they are looking to get tenants. She stated she believes it's quite possible, given the change in market conditions, they could get more requests such as this one in the future, given the demand of office space has a really gone down in the last few years, in which the Town has internally been taking a look at this. However, any decision to amend the Town's planning policies would have to be made by Council through an amendment to the secondary plan.