The Town of Lunenburg held two recent committee meetings in response to four Heritage/Planning applications from the owners of the Lunenburg Arms Hotel (Richburg LP Management Inc.) as part of a proposal to expand the hotel.
A PDF of this Fact Sheet is available pdf here (335 KB) .
1. The Planning Advisory Committee and Heritage Advisory Committee have considered the applications at their meetings of November 24 and 29 respectively and made recommendations to Council. Committee recommendations are not binding on Council.
2. Two of the four applications will appear on the Council Agenda of December 14, 2021: the demolition application (Heritage) and Municipal Planning Strategy (MPS) amendment application (Planning).
Council may move any or none of the requests to the Public Hearing stage, which requires that they give First Reading. First Reading allows the continuation of public consultation and does not imply approval or disapproval. The December 14 meeting is not a Public Hearing.
3. All four applications break down as follows:
a) Demolish 102 Pelham Street (Heritage) and merge 102 Pelham with 94 Pelham Street (Planning) to enlarge the hotel building (south side of the street). The buildings are not registered heritage properties but are located in the Heritage Conservation District.
b) Merge the two land parcels (Planning) that make up the parking lot across the street from the hotel to build a parking garage and suites (north side of street).
c) It is the intent that the two land merger applications are to be considered as a Development Agreement, so an amendment to the Municipal Planning Strategy (MPS) is needed (Planning). The MPS allows the Town to consider Development Agreements for (1) heavy industrial use, (2) extension or change of a non-conforming use, and (3) adaptive reuse of institutional buildings and sites. If approved, the amendment would add: (4) a waiver in maximum lot size.
The MPS amendment would have to be approved and in place before the two applications to merge lots could be considered. Therefore, it would be premature to bring them before Council at this time.
These applications require Public Hearings to proceed further.
4. Development Agreements are sometimes needed in the case of a proposed project which is not permitted as-of-right under Town regulations, such as in the categories described in 3.c. The recently adopted Planning documents allow more as-of-right development than previously.
5. Hotel building design (south side) is under consideration as part of the Heritage demolition permit application, but not the Planning applications.
Parking lot building design (north side) is not under consideration at this stage but may be considered as part of the Planning Development Agreement process further down the road should they proceed.
6. Applications may be approved with or without conditions.
7. Approval or refusal on a Heritage permit or to enter into a Development Agreement can be appealed to the Public Utility and Review Board. There is no appeal on MPS Amendments.
Resources
• Agenda and minutes packages for the Planning Advisory Committee and Heritage Advisory Committee are available on the Town website here:
https://townoflunenburg.ca/town-government/committee-meetings.html
• To read Lunenburg’s new Municipal Planning Strategy, Land Use Bylaw, and Subdivision Bylaw, visit the Town website here:
http://townoflunenburg.ca/planning-and-development.html