Photo Credit:  The Rosseau Group

If you were surprised when it was announced Rosebay was seeking (and received) permission to build two towers at 14 and 18 stories on the previous Planet Nite Club site… well, you better sit down.

It was announced just recently that the Casablanca Winery Inn had been sold to The Rosseau Group (link here).  TRG will keep the Inn and is hoping to build two towers on the site (now the hotel parking lot), from the image above we estimate at 18 and 21 storeys.

You can read the full story in Niagara NewsNow at this link:  https://issuu.com/newsnowniagara/docs/newsnow_niagara_e-edition_december__aa3cf40467792c

We had a tip-off on this some time ago and the recent comment matrix from the GO Station Secondary Plan confirmed it.  Here is what the Town received from Weston Consulting who are the planners working on the project for The Rosseau Group:

While the comment only speaks to one tower, as you can see in the first image there is two with the shortest being 18 storeys.  It seems developers all want to be “the tallest in Grimsby” before any shovels are even in the ground, this might make for good marketing… but is the race to the sky really a race to the bottom for the Town?

The Official Plan & Winston Road Neighbourhood Secondary Plan as passed by Council provides for a 12-storey height limit in this area.  Although also defined as an “intensification area” being more permissible for  extra height, this does not mean the rule book goes out the window and the “sky is the limit”.   Given the predominantly 3 storey character of the area it is hard to argue there is proper transition between heights.  It may even cause Rosebay to feel “inadequate” and come back demanding more height.

Considering the Town’s Planning Department is lacking key policies such as a Section 37 “bonusing” framework for extra height and no shadow study criteria to measure potential negative impacts on nearby properties, it makes you wonder who is really calling the shots… and why it’s being done with no-holds barred?

Given the influx of new residents moving in to the Lakehouse development, slipping through another out-of-scale development may not be as easy as it was in the past.  Elected officials if hoping to survive the will of the 2018 electorate will need to remember it’s the residents (new and old) and not developers who are eligible to cast votes.