Resident tells King Township ‘Not in my back yard’ on storm pond

YorkRegion.com
July 17, 2014
By Tim Kelly

King City resident Peter Nufrio went down swinging during a recent meeting of King Township council saying he did not want a new development springing up in his back yard.

Nufrio had two chances to speak and let council have it, as he vented about the problems he believed a 28-unit development at Dew Street and King Road would cause him and adjacent homeowners.

Nufrio sparred back and forth with Councillor Cleve Mortelliti over issues of stormwater management, as well as concerns about intensification in the village.

“I...find a depreciation on my property to have this over here, to have all these semis over here. I feel I’m being punched; other residents don’t seem to care. I do, I chose to live in King, not forced to live in King, but now it seems like I’m being forced out,” Nufrio said.

“I can’t live with that stormwater pond. Not behind my back yard.”

Mortelliti said plans showed the stormwater pond proposed for the development was a dry, not wet pond, and that a small plot of land separates it from Nufrio’s back yard.

Additionally, the King City councillor said the original proposal by the landowner was for 39 residential properties and that through several public meetings with residents and e-mail exchanges and phone calls between himself and Mayor Steve Pellegrini and talks with the developer, the property was downsized to 28 units.

But that did not satisfy Nufrio.

He wanted a definition of intensification.

“I see it as suffocation. What does intensification mean, can anybody tell me? If you’re going from six lots to 12, OK.

To 18, intensification, OK. But 28? That’s suffocation. This is Maple, Woodbridge, this is not King anymore. If we continue with this, it’s not.” He asked that the Township knock “50 per cent off my taxes to accommodate this eyesore.”

Murray Evans, an agent for the landowner, who was successful in having council approve the development draft plan for subdvision, argued the owner had made sufficient revisions after meeting with and hearing residents’ complaints.

“The plan has changed noticeably. The previous plan contained multiple unit-type development fronting onto Dew Street, a road that connected onto King Road and 39 units. There were issues over density, compatibility, safety issues, vehicles on street, public school on east of property.

“The client has taken discussions to heart and come up with revised plan. (I) believe it addresses many, if not all of the issues raised by staff,” he said.

Concerns about drainage in the stormwater pond were addressed and Evans told council, “experts in engineering tell me that (it) will in a four to six-hour period after a storm event.”

Again, Nufrio said he was extremely concerned about the stormwater pond and its effect on his property.

“I am in the trade, I do build homes, I do build subdivisions. This stormwater system has to be located or found an alternative to it; where it sits it cannot be, not behind my back yard, put it in someone else’s back yard, but not mine.”

After direction from council, staff will continue to work with the developer to address any concerns Nufrio may have.