Modifications to a six-tower apartment complex proposed for 777 Laurel Street in Preston prompted council to call for a 30-day deferral Tuesday night.
The extra month will give staff time to organize a neighbourhood public meeting to go over changes to an application to rezone the industrial property for a massive residential complex with about 1,200 units.
Two of the proposed towers now come in at up to 19 storeys and the two shortest towers are now eight storeys.
The change in building height was prompted by the addition of 350 parking spaces and a bump in the per-unit parking ratio.
It went from 0.9 spaces to 1.15 spaces per unit to accommodate more visitor parking and necessitated a larger parking podium.
The current zoning bylaw requires 1.25 parking spaces per unit.
The higher ratio still concerned Coun. Adam Cooper who repeated earlier comments about limited parking excluding families who need more than one vehicle.
Trevor Hawkins from MHBC Planning, the consultant working for E Squared Developments Corp., said the parking would be "unbundled" from the cost of each rental unit, allowing some residents to purchase an additional space from tenants who don't require parking.
Despite the significant bump in parking spots Coun. Helen Shwery said "one space per unit will not work in Cambridge."
She said many residents she hears from feel traffic impact studies don't reflect reality and said the idea that transit will pick up the slack in the future doesn't apply to residents who need it now.
"Has anyone been to Toronto lately? They have major transit routes, subways, bike lanes and has it solved their traffic woes? Definitely not."
She said the need for parking is something that seems to be ignored by the provincial and federal governments which are forcing the city to accept less.
Hawkins said the location, next to existng transit in a "very walkable area" will provide much needed housing, close to the Preston core and future Major Transit Station Area from the proposed ION expansion.
All of the apartments on the property will be rentals.
"It's rare to find a parcel of this size to plan for intensification."
"I would ask the developer to be patient with us while we go through this process," said Coun. Mike Devine in putting forward a motion for the deferral.
Devine said he's eager to see more housing revitalize the Preston core, but thinks a few things need to be addressed before council green lights the project.
One is a shadow study, the other is the change in the height of the towers without public consultation.
The last meeting the developer and staff had with residents was last September, when the project was much different in scope.
Hawkins said the building heights have been increased toward the rear of the site, closest to the industrial uses on the other side of the CN railway that crosses Dolph Street and furthest from neighbouring residents.
A shadow study demonstrated how the buildings would only significantly cast shadows across neighbouring residential and business properties during the morning in early spring. The shadows would shift more towards the train tracks through the summer.
Coun. Corey Kimpson wanted a firm number on affordable units planned for the project, but getting that answer Tuesday night wasn't in the cards.
That's when Mayor Jan Liggett offered her take, urging the consultant to go back to his client with a directive to come up with a plan.
"If it doesn't come in at our expectations we'll be looking at $1,000 a door to be added to our reserve fund," she added.
"This council has developed expectations over the last few years because we haven't been getting the affordable housing we need in this city and we're getting dumped on for that."
The recommendation from staff includes a demand the developer include 20 affordable units or $1,000 per unit in lieu for the city's affordable housing fund.
Some options for affordable units were already being considered by the developer, Hawkins said.
One option was to build a four-plex on city or regional land. E Squared would then hand over ownership to the municipality.
"We understand that may be logistically not as easy to implement, so the owner is also willing to include units within the project that meet the region's threshold," he said.
So far he's committed to providing two of each type of unit; one-bedroom, two-bedroom, three-bedroom, he said.
Settling on an actual number would come after a discussion with staff and be implemented through the site plan agreement.
Coun. Scott Hamilton wanted assurances that beer production at Wavemaker Brewery wouldn't suffer during construction.
Hawkins said the region raised that very issue in discussions about land use compatibility, but concerns identified in the compatibility study pointed to industrial uses across the train tracks and not the brewery.
He said it's not anticipated it will be a problem for that business because there's "quite a bit of distance" between the brewery and the towers.
"I would be jealous of that proximity. And the brewery would be happy to have so many people if this goes through," Hamilton said. "I just wanted to make sure the construction wouldn't jeopardize the operation."
The motion recommending the project is expected to return to council at the end of June.
