Ontario Construction News staff writer
A developer has been granted a new hearing after appealing an earlier Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT) decision against two high-rise buildings in Kingston.
Homestead Land Holdings requested an LPAT review for their plan to build a 19-storey building at 51-57 Queen St. and a 23-storey building at 18 Queen St. and 282 Ontario St.
Frontenac Heritage Foundation opposed the development and LPAT had ruled the buildings were not compatible with the area.
Maria Hubbard, associate chair of the LPAT, wrote in a letter that there were errors made in the original ruling.
“I have concluded that this is a rare instance in which the exercise of my review power is warranted,” Hubbard wrote.
“The request has established a convincing and compelling case that there are significant errors of law in the tribunal’s interpretation of the (official plan) and if these errors had not been made, it is likely that the tribunal would have reached a different decision.
Homestead took the city to the former Ontario Municipal Board, now the LPAT, on the grounds that approvals for an official plan amendment and zoning bylaw were delayed.
The errors, if considered individually, may not be sufficient to warrant a review, Hubbard wrote. “However, the cumulative effect amounts to a manifest error that exceeds the high threshold set out in … to authorize the exercise of my discretion to rescind the decision and order a rehearing.”
In a 45-page LPAT decision last August, Marcia Valiante said although the developer had lowered the height of the towers and included a municipal art gallery, the plan did not conform to the city’s official plan and would “create undue adverse effects that have not been sufficiently mitigated, specifically visual intrusion and architectural incompatibility.”