The people behind a new home in Hintonburg say developers don't always have to be at odds with their neighbours when it comes to infill housing.
First-time developer Nicolas Longo purchased 93 Armstrong St. in 2010. On March 21, 2011, Longo and his then architect presented an infill project to the Hintonburg Community Association that was unanimously criticized for not fitting into the community's vision.
"I presented it to the community, and the community was not happy at all," says Longo. "As the residents and neighbours who were invited to the meeting said, it just didn't fit."
The HCA's Linda Hoad was blunt in her assessment of the original plans.
"It was an almost exact replica of two triplexes that were built on Sterling Avenue," she says. "[Those triplexes] tower over everything else on the street. They are very very basic, not terribly well designed. They were built as triplexes with high basements that they then came back and asked to add a unit to."
Hoad says the community doesn't want historic replicas of houses, but new homes that fit to the scale, mass, and style of existing homes.
Encouraged by members of the community outside of the meeting, Longo approached Anthony Bruni. Bruni is a Hintonburg resident and the latter half of Colizza Bruni Architecture, a firm responsible for recent modern infill in the Hintonburg area.
"I think generally what was missing was the understanding of the context of the site," says Bruni, of the original proposal. "The neighbourhood is basically a lot of small, residential forms. They're generally two stories in height, they don't have front garages, there's an eclecticism there … And I think to do a sensitive infill you have to address those issues."
The new proposal is a modern-style duplex with front parking, and measures a full storey shorter than the previous proposal. It was approved by the Committee of Adjustment on Nov. 2, and construction should start in the Spring.
"I think the irony with this is the project that the neighbourhood did not like ... required two minor variances," says Bruni. "The one that we're proposing is a full storey shorter, probably a third in total mass, but it requires 12 minor variances."
Longo's learned quite a bit from the experience.
"Me going down this route for the very first time, I learned the hard way. It cost a lot of money to take into account what the community wanted," says Longo. "Had I known in the beginning, I would have approached the neighbours first before I did any type of design. At the end of the day, I want to develop something that makes sense."
Bruni's confident in 93 Armstrong's new design, and he spoke to his rather uncommon relationship with the people who live around his work.
"If you talk to any of the neighbours, I think you'll find that they are happy with the fact that they spoke to a developer, and for once he actually listened."
