Raise the Hammer

Thx for publishing this Nicholas.

A few random thoughts from me:

1. I've been pretty consistent over the years in my call for scrapping our height restrictions in places where they aren't needed. Thistle Club site was one of those sites. Hamilton needs to encourage more quality density. As we know Hamilton-based Molinaro has gone over to Burlington (which is supposed to be a little suburb of ours) and have built a whole host of buildings in the 15-30 storey range and have been hugely successful.

2. I can see the angst from the DNA with this change being proposed without their knowledge. The working relationship with the DNA has been good so far, and this clearly won't help. However, knowing the history on height restrictions in Hamilton I'm not sure I would have approached the neighbourhood either.

3. Compromise Time.
   A compromise suggestion may be found here: offer added height on tower 2 of the project, in the centre of the site, in exchange for keeping the corner property smaller. I hope a compromise can be made that is good with the DNA and helps Horizon make some more money. There's a reason no condos were built downtown for 20 years. Even this project was threatened until a reduction in zoning fees and parkland fees was granted. It's still a very slim margin in downtown Hamilton, and I would love to see a builder make money adding high quality condo units to our core. Word spreads through the development industry if money can be made somewhere, and we can all certainly agree that this is one of our shared goals for downtown Hamilton - to become a place where builders can profit by adding high quality, well-designed buildings to the landscape.

I look forward to a follow-up after tomorrow nights meeting when more info is available.

Comment edited by jason on 2013-05-08 20:42:13