Newmarket
The Newmarket Branch of the ACO was formed in 2016 to defend from developers the Town's historic downtown and its priceless Heritage Conservation District with its unrivalled vistas and panoramas. Despite passing a By-law in 2013 which mandates a three storey height cap, the Town is actively considering an out-of-place seven storey apartment building in the heart of the Heritage Conservation District, destroying at a stroke the area's charm and ambiance.
The proposed development will overshadow the iconic Clock Tower. And historic commercial buildings adjacent to it will be demolished with only the facades being retained. The photo top left shows Main Street South in the 1940s. It has of course changed incrementally over the years but it is still recognizably the old Main Street.
If the proposed development goes ahead it will drive a coach and horses through the Town's own planning policies.
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Update on 9 December 2016:
At its meeting on 5 December Newmarket Council threw out the proposed development, rejecting the original monstrous application and an amended version proposed by the Town's own planners. Both were grotesquely out of scale.
The Floor Space Index - which regulates the size and massing of structures on a given lot - is 1.0 in the Heritage Conservation District and in the Town's zoning by-law. The developer was proposing 2.9 (improperly using the floor area of the proposed underground car parking in his calculation) but we calculated the reality was a staggering 4.279.
How on earth did this happen?
If the proposed development had gone ahead it would have had the highest density in the whole Town of Newmarket - higher than the major corridors earmarked for intensification.
Many questions remain unanswered.
But we are on the case until we get them.
