Tuesday, October 07, 2003
Annette Phillips
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The Kingston Whig-Standard
City councillors will be asked tonight to support a new laneway and courtyard development across from City Hall over the "historic right" of a restaurant to store garbage behind its business.
City planning staff favour negotiating a two-pronged deal with Kincore Holdings Ltd. that involves the sale of a municipal laneway off Clarence Street and a long-term lease on a strip of road to allow for construction of a three-storey historic facade, according to a report to council.
Kincore is restoring the Ontario Bank Building at the corner of King and Clarence streets and is seeking permission to build Victorian-style balconies on the upper floors of the building, overhanging Clarence Street. Pillars to support the balconies would stand on the municipal road allowance. The Kincore proposal also calls for outdoor patios flanking the building - one of which will be below street level. To accomplish this, sidewalks will have to be extended by about four metres, which means narrowing Clarence Street and losing five parking spaces, said Kincore president Kim Donovan.
The second part of the deal has Kincore taking over a municipally owned laneway that skirts the buildings bordered by King, Brock and Wellington Streets. Kincore owns five of the 17 buildings on the block as well as a vacant Clarence Street property that is zoned for condominiums. The company wants to build the same system of winding stone walkways and outdoor patios it created across the street in Brock Street Common, a restored carriageway that connects to the courtyard behind Chez Piggy. Kincore was awarded a 2003 Livable City Design Award for its restoration of a stone carriageway.
The new pathway will be cut through the former Atlantic Direct building on the Brock Street side, Donovan said. A second pathway will be opened up between the Masonic Building, a Kincore-owned property across from Market Square on King Street, and the adjoining building which is home to Morrison's Restaurant.
William Poulos, a lawyer who represents the owners of the Morrison's building, told The Whig-Standard earlier this year that his clients objected to the Kincore proposal because it would close the lane to vehicles and interfere with the owner's "historic right" to store garbage in large bins behind the buildings. The owners of the building don't run the restaurant. "The position of the owners of the Morrison's Restaurant building is the same," Poulos said in a voicemail message yesterday. "They don't want the laneway closed to vehicular access."
Kincore received approval yesterday from the city's architectural advisory committee to remove some of the newer building additions at the rear of the Masonic building, a move that clears the way for the King Street part of the laneway, Donovan said.
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City staff back Kincore's old-fashioned proposal: Laneway and courtyard off Clarence Street |
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