A special meeting of Amherstburg Council Wednesday will look at a proposed development next to the former General Chemical property.
Piroli Construction is proposing a multi phase apartment building development, on a 6.4 hectare piece of land along Sandwich Street North and Brunner Avenue, situated directly next to the former chemical plant property and right across from the Detroit River.
The project calls for two, six-storey apartment buildings with 114 units each.
Council is being asked to consider a zoning application and site plan approvals for phase one, and zoning for phase two, with a site plan application to be submitted at a later date.
Mayor Aldo DiCarlo says residential demand has skyrocketed in the town.
"Amherstburg, looking at the last census, shows excellent growth in the residential area," he says. "But one of the big things were lacking is rental properties like apartments. So this really does fill a void that we've had for some time."
According to 2021 Census released by Statistics Canada in early February, Amherstburg recorded a 7.2 per cent increase in population, moving to 23,524 people in 2021 from 21,936 in 2016.
Piroli Construction is proposing to build two, six-storey apartment buildings with 115 units each. The project would be located right next to the former General Chemical plant property off Sandwich Street North in Amherstburg. (Photo courtesy of the Town of Amherstburg)
DiCarlo says the location is pretty good for this type of development.
"I mean the view for the people facing the water is going to be great, for everybody else, they're still looking at beautiful Amherstburg," he says.
The General Chemical property has been vacant since the company closed the plant in 2005, with work to clean up the contaminated site proceeding in 2012.
DiCarlo notes that the previous property owner had explored a commercial development next to the vacant land, which he says was not well received by residents in the area and it did not proceed.
"In this particular case, this developer took a bit of a different approach and had a meeting open to the residents before it even got to Council, and it was well received," he says.
The proposal still needs to be approved by Town Council.
Wednesday's special meeting of Amherstburg Council begins at 6 p.m.