Despite concerns from residents, a city committee has approved the rezoning for a new apartment building on Howard Avenue.
Windsor's Development and Heritage Standing Committee met Monday afternoon, with one report looking for approval to rezone the corner of Howard and Holburn Street.
This rezoning proposal includes a six-storey building with 90 dwelling units and more than 110 parking spaces.
A small group of residents attended the committee meeting as delegates and expressed concerns over traffic, sewer capabilities, the height of the building, and neighbourhood character.
City administration stated during the meeting that the current sanitary sewer would be able to accommodate this development, as the current sewer is only at 50 per cent capacity. However, they did state that upgrades to the sewer would need to occur for any future developments as the area continues to grow.
Administration also stated that while a traffic control study was not needed for this particular proposal, that Howard Avenue is capable of handling additional vehicles.
Gero Lapico lives across the street from the proposal and says the size of the development is unnecessary.
"Our community is defined by low-density, single-family residential character... a six-storey structure is an architectural anomaly in this context. There are many other properties in Windsor specifically suited for high-density development. It is unnecessary and inappropriate to force a building of this magnitude into an already established - well established - low-density area."
John Vallance lives adjacent to the proposal and says he's worried about traffic and parking.
"There's already parking issues, people park on both sides of the street currently without the impact of 90 additional units and all the vehicles that come with that."
Stacey McGuire, the city's Executive Director of Operations, says this development is only expected to add roughly 35 cars to Howard Avenue during peak hours.
"We do have some numbers from 2017 and 2020 along that corridor, and both of them put the traffic along Howard as being within an acceptable range for even a Class 1 arterial road, and this is a Class 2 arterial road that is supposed to take even more traffic than that. So, we're confident that we're within the acceptable range here, so these additional 35 trips wouldn't have an impact on the traffic."
Committee member and ward 9 councillor, Kieran McKenzie, says this development complies with all areas, and doesn't add risk to nearby residents.
"I recognize that folks don't like the height of the building... I get that. And the shadow piece, that is frankly an unfortunate part for some of living in an urbanized environment... that's what happens, especially on arterial roads. You're going to see buildings built, especially in the middle of a housing crisis, we need units."
McKenzie says while he's giving his approval to this development, there needs to be larger conversations on making infrastructure improvements to the Howard corridor.
"A highly developed part of the city, no curbs, poor sidewalks, no bike lines, soft shoulders, gravel, but it's a Class 2 arterial... that's not right. It's not right. So, we've got to do better and I hope all of the folks that make decisions - including the mayor - around what we fund, and how we fund it, and when we fund it are listening."
The development will still require final approval from city council at a later date.