Neighbours oppose inn designation for Albert Street triplex

The owner of the triplex at 220 Albert St. is proposing making it a three-unit inn, prompting many neighbours to ask how that would change their street.

CONNOR LUCZKA, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

John Broad moved to his home on Albert Street four and a half years ago, falling in love with the neighbourhood. Now, he’s worried that the neighbourhood will drastically change.

“I moved to Stratford because I love the town, I love the street. I want to keep this street,” Broad said. “… I think that we're going down a really dangerous path here. I think you're going to change the whole impact on this city if you approve this application.”

Broad spoke at the June 23 Stratford city council meeting, where a public meeting was held for the potential zone change of a triplex at 220 Albert St.

The owner, Sara Headley, runs a number of long-term accommodations on Ontario Street, which her Albert Street triplex backs onto. The goal of the application was to zone the property as mixed-use to allow the property to be properly licensed with the city as a three-unit inn.

As explained by Richard Kelly-Ruetz of GSP Group Inc., the applicant’s agent, Headley’s business Sally’s Place offers a niche service for the city, offering short-term accommodations that focus on long-term stays, such as tourists making a longer stay, workers for local factories that need more than just a hotel room or residents that are doing extensive renovations in their homes, to name a few examples.

No changes to the property are proposed with this potential zone change (though a separate building permit has been issued to locate the outdoor stairs indoors) and a site-specific provision to have all required parking spaces be located at the existing driveway was recommended.

Like Broad, many other neighbours came and spoke against the application. They had issues with the “precedent setting” decision, the “commercial traffic” that will threaten the neighbourhood, the potential for a through-driveway to be constructed that connects Albert Street and Ontario Street and property decisions the owner has already made, like the removal of a mature tree and the dividing fence between the three properties.

They also took umbrage with the loss of housing stock in the city.

“We have a lot of tourist accommodations in Stratford, and we do want to, of course, raise our local economy and get money from tourism – but I've also never seen a tourist sleeping on the street,” neighbour Alex Sparling said. “… If we want to grow our economy, what is that worth when our neighbours are sleeping by the river and in encampments?”

The zone change did have its supporters. A number of short-term accommodation owners came to speak in favour of Sally’s Place.

One of them was Amanda Hatton, owner of Avery House. She spoke highly of Headley’s practice and her diligence in trying to be a good landowner and accommodator. She also said that each year she gets calls from tourists looking for longer stays and finding that the accommodations that do offer that service are often full – indicating to her that there is a need for more of these “long-term accommodations.”

“And I hope that what folks keep in mind is that there is no change to the number of units. It's simply using the existing units differently,” Hatton said. “And it's also important to understand that this is not an unsupervised, transient property … Staff are always between those three properties. There's someone always floating around, and so there's always someone on site or nearby committed to addressing guests needs. This is not what we visualize as the stereotypical keyless entry, where the property owner only responds by text. These folks are there. They're present, meeting their guests’ needs and making sure everything's addressed.”

Council did not make a decision on the property, as the public meeting served only to hear from residents. A decision on the zone change will be made at a later council meeting.