WELLINGTON NORTH — The developers behind a proposed 18-townhouse development slated for Mount Forest responded to the concerns of residents at a public meeting Monday night.
McTrach Capital and 427 Management Service Inc. plan to build 18 townhouses at 425 and 427 King St. E. in Mount Forest.
Nearby resident Rachel Kéry was not specifically opposed to new residents in the neighbourhood. However, she did express concern that there may be too many townhouses going up and that density is becoming a problem.
“I understand what he’s saying about how there are already townhouses in the area. That actually speaks to my concern which is that there are too many clustered groupings of housing in the area,” Kéry said.
"And I’m finding that the density in our area is increasing, and putting in an 18-unit cluster in that small zone would add to that problem.” Kéry said.
One of the developers, who also plans to move to this new development in Mount Forest, Maaz Khan, politely addressed Kéry noting that the development will adhere to municipal requirements and be made to operate smoothly in every way.
Khan said the goal is to satisfy the municipality’s requirements as much as possible.
“Because we ourselves are moving there, we’re going to be your neighbours. Our goal is to make everything run very smoothly as well,” Khan said.
Another local resident, Barry Gingrich, raised several concerns.
“I am a neighbour to this empty lot. I’ve had some discrepancies here,” Gingrich said.
“I need to know about the drainage. I’ve yet to see a site plan. And your roadways and parking and curbing, you can’t read them with a magnifying glass, on your website,” Gingrich said.
“And the trees on our site. There are some trees on the site that have been there for 30 years. What’s going to happen to them?” Gingrich said.
Khan gave his assurance that the application is dealing with the concerns Gingrich has.
“I’d love to sit down with you one of these days and discuss this,” Khan told Gingrich. “Part of the application is addressing exactly those concerns."
Khan started the process of getting site plans to Gingrich.
“As far as not being able to see the site plan, I apologize. If you provide us your contact information, we’ll be more than happy to share with you. I haven’t seen the website version yet,” Khan said.
Jesse Gault is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
