Council Meeting on Hospital Zoning
July 16, 2018, 6 pm
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Mayor Dilken surprised councillors with a motion to combine the Heritage and Economic Development Committee meeting regarding the hospital with the council meeting regarding the hospital. This is highly irregular as the committee usually weighs the issue separately to provide recommendations to council ahead of time for due consideration. With this arrangement there is no time to read reports and carefully consider all options. It violates regular protocol, but all of council seemed to accept it.
Calling this a matter of zoning for the hospital is a bit of a misnomer. It has little to do with a hospital or healthcare needs. The majority of site criteria to chose the hospital had little to do with patients or health care. Most criteria were concerned with things like vehicle access only, and ease of construction. There were criteria regarding zoning and municipal planning but this location was chosen anywa because there was 'potential' for approval. Perhaps the underlying concerns were also profitability as the critieria were similar to those set out for P3 projects regardless of the planned use.
The hospital will occupy just 60 acres of the 990 acres set to be decided upon for development, if the hospital is built at all given the provincial election. So it is not a question of whether a hospital should be approved for zoning or not. The question is whether the city needs to expand by almost a 1000 acres.
For perspective Devonshire Heights, Devonshire Mall and newer attached commercial development all occupy less than 1000 acres. Those residential and commercial areas began in the 1970's and are just beginning to fill up. Our population has grown by about 8,000 people since 1971 and isn't expected to grow much more for a long time.
We must consider what the response would be if another proponent came forward asking for so much development. If it was a commercial developer offering to build another mall we would have to say no. Windsor already has a surplus of commercial space until 2031 according to the Official Plan. Building something to compete with the the existing Devonshire Mall and south Walker Rd "power centre" would be ludicrous. We know that would be unfair to existing commercial retailers and property owners as the excess competition would spread potential customers too thin.
Similarly such a large residential development will reduce competition for space leaving many properties vacant increasing blight. There is without a doubt a housing shortage in the last few years, but if compared to just 5 years ago there was a huge surplus, property values plummetted. We need balance over the long range. Currently we've been hearing numerous planned by developers to build residential units within the existing city. Residential development is market-driven not driven by the amount of available space. There is however a fair amount of space available in the already approved East Pelton Secondary plan which is just beginning to have plans for development. There seems to be enough space already existing for residential development provided there is a will for it.
Now if a major manufacturing asked for the development to be approved, I'm sure most would jump at the chance to approve it. But alas, no manufacturers are asking, and the secondary plan discourages any manufacturing other than "clean" manufacturing. No one wants pollution next to a hospital, but the outskirts of the city would be an ideal location for any necessary but dirty manufacturing or recycling business. Locating a hospital there prevents such reasonable planning.
Yes, there would be many people affected by the closing of two hospitals for this one remote site, but as far as zoning is concerned, locating the hospital and surrounding development there will just mess up any future city plans. No developer, including the hospital, should be allowed to dictate the future development of the city.
For a more comprehensive understanding of the issues here is the hospital employed consultant report on rezoning going before council:
http://www.mhbcplan.com/Windsor-Hospital-Documents
I recommend beginning with the Planning Justification report:
http://www.mhbcplan.com/usercontent/CountyRoad42//WRH_Site_Planning_Justification_Report.pdf
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