BY BARB SWEET
The Telegram 9/14/00

A commercial and housing development proposal for the former Belvedere orphanage property will go to a public hearing in three weeks, while an application for a Sobeys supermarket in the same neighbourhood is now available for public viewing.

While they are two separate developments by unrelated companies, the Belvedere and Shamrock Field projects are united in area residents’ minds for the changes they will bring to their neighbourhoods.

Shelley Morrissey of the Centre City Neighbourhood Association is concerned about the traffic havoc she believes both developments will wreak on Newtown Road. There are already three schools in the area.

“Again, it’s not exactly what people in the area were looking for,” she said, referring to the Belvedere application.

 “I don’t know where traffic is going. I can’t see it,” she said. “I don’t know how they can justify putting that much traffic into a
school zone.”

Both applications — a revised Belvedere proposal and the initial Sobeys application — were brought to the planning committee meeting Wednesday. Several residents from two area groups, the centre city group and the Georgestown Neighbourhood Association, listened in on the proceedings.

The Sobeys application, submitted to city hall earlier this week, was tabled only and will go to staff for comments.

Developer N.D. Dobbin Ltd. has valued its project at $5 million. Townhouses have been added to the proposal in an attempt to
mitigate neighbours’ concerns about the 48,000-square-foot supermarket. Up to 15 will line Newtown Road. The supermarket will have entrances from Newtown and Merrymeeting roads and a road leading to Bonaventure Avenue, but no traffic access.

There is parking for 335 cars. The Shamrock recreational field, MacAuley Hall and Ecole St. Patrick will be bulldozed. All three properties are owned by the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corp., which has an agreement to sell to Sobeys.

Myles-Leger Ltd.’s proposal for Belvedere, revised from the original application submitted a year ago, will be the subject of a public hearing before council makes a final decision.

Originally, there were 114 upscale townhouses. The planning committee raised concerns about traffic and the length of the cul-de-sac, prompting Bill and Randy Clarke, of Myles-Leger, to revise their plans.

Now, however, there are 44 townhouses; a three-storey mini-mall with 12 condominiums and five retail spaces; a four- to five-storey, 95-unit apartment building and commercial or office space in the former convent and orphanage buildings.

The company is working on a plan to save the historic Belvedere orphanage and convent and it has set December as a deadline to find commercial tenants.

Myles-Leger bought the land from the Sisters of Mercy for $500,000.

In both the Sobeys and Myles-Leger developments, rezoning is required for the lands involved, which are currently zoned public and open space.

While both developments have been linked in the public eye, Myles-Leger president Randy Clarke said he thinks his application will be more acceptable to residents, who are vehemently opposed to a supermarket.

“What we’re proposing is largely residential,” he said.