Builder feels 'caught in maze' over housing project

Posted By Michael-Allan Marion Expositor Staff

Posted 8 hours ago

A local builder says opposition on city council to a simple site plan agreement for the next stage of his housing development on Grand River Avenue is just another example of the "mindless" politics swirling around his project.

"I feel like a rat caught in a maze, just trying to go for the cheese, but they keep finding ways to try to block me," Mike Quattrociocchi, president of Mayberry Homes, said Tuesday.

He had calmed down from a committee of the whole meeting the evening before where a site plan control application for the third stage of his stretch development on Grand River near Jarvis Street failed on a 5-5 tie. This, even though the application is supported by the city's planning staff.

Council has a policy that site plan agreements for developments along the Grand River must be vetted by the representing ward councillors. Quattrociocchi said he worked with staff and ward councillors Mark Littell and Jennifer Kinneman to hammer out an agreement, and thought all concerns were satisfied.

"But they went and voted against it anyway," he said. "It doesn't make any sense."

He hoped for a better result at the next council meeting on June 22, when Coun. Vince Bucci, who was absent from Monday's meeting, may be present to cast a deciding vote in his favour.

Read the full story in Wednesday's Expositor