Kingsville narrowly approves higher building limits

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Kingsville narrowly approved increased building heights for two areas outside the downtown core Monday night. 

Councillors voted 4-3 to amend the town’s official plan, which was approved by the province in December, to increase building heights to six storeys from four. 

Five delegations spoke against the changes and one spoke in favour. Those who supported the increased building heights along both sides of Main Street (County Road 20) in the area around the closed Kingsville District High School, known as Main Street Neighbourhood, and east of Wigle Avenue, known as Main Street Gateway East, said it was necessary to comply with provincial direction.

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Those who opposed the higher height limits said new planning policies are not aimed at small towns with no transportation, they voiced concerns about whether infrastructure could handle faster growth and they wanted to preserve Kingsville’s small-town character.  

Facing criticism that the town was amending its official plan, which governs local development, so soon after the province approved it, Mayor Dennis Rogers said there has been a lot of new direction since it was approved by the town. 

Changes to provincial legislation, a new Essex County Official Plan and a Planning Policy Statement issued by the provincial government have resulted in more pressure to intensify development where walkable services exist to address Ontario’s housing crisis. 

“This isn’t a knee-jerk reaction by council and by administration,” Rogers said. “… This is something we made a decision (on) over a year ago, and it’s been a learning process … over the year.” 

At the centre of that learning process was the Esther Jasperson Campbell House at 183 Main St. After the town rejected a three-story condominium on the property, with proposed destruction of the house that is on the town’s heritage register, the developer won a decision at the Ontario Land Tribunal – which adjudicates municipal land matters – allowing a three-story building but permission to demolish the house was denied. The developer then sought to build a six-storey condominium. The town approved the development, soon to be built as Chelsea on Main by Brotto Development Corp. The house is now being moved several metres forward. 

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That deal avoided another costly OLT Hearing, which town planners felt Kingsville would likely lose, that had already cost a total of $73,000 plus many hours of staff time. 

The town’s planners had recommended six stories for the Main Street Neighbourhood and Gateway East, but council had restricted building heights to four stories in the official plan. Downtown limits remain at three storeys, while the remainder of the town has six-storey limits. 

Since town planners supported six storeys, the town went looking externally for support to bolster its case at the OLT but none could be found, said Rogers. 

The province’s push to build more housing is changing the development landscape, he said. 

“It is frustrating at times when we are handcuffed, but this is the environment that we’re in. 

“I will not support gambling with taxpayer dollars on a fight that’s been proven to fail.” 

Councillors were told by staff that lower building limits met with strong pushback from developers, who say the taller buildings make construction more cost efficient, with some saying they would continue to fight the town on low height limits.

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Rogers and councillors Sheri Lowrie, Thomas Neufeld and Larry Patterson supported the decision to increase the building heights in the two areas. 

Deputy mayor Kimberly DeYong, and councillors Debby Jarvis-Chausse and Tony Gaffan voted against it. 

DeYong said there are few east-west roads running through Kingsville and she has always sought restrictions on development pressure along the busy road. 

“The province is imposing its will in our small town because it has a thought of how it wants things to go,” she said. 

Towns have “settlement areas” where most people live and most development is located. Outside of settlement areas towns are not obligated to provide municipal services. Kingsville was not permitted to expand its settlement area so it’s not possible to put higher-density development on the fringes of town, she said. 

The divide on the issue in Kingsville was apparent in Gaffan’s impassioned address to those who wrote emails and posted social media content with objectionable comments.  

“I was very disappointed with many, many letters from grown adults saying very disrespectful things about developers,” he said. “We’re grown adults, our parents, our kids and our grandkids are watching what they see on social media, and they, luckily enough, do not see the emails that we receive. 

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“It’s very disheartening when I listen to people in my barber shop, or grown adults, or even young men and women. … I can’t believe that they would talk like that on social media.” 

Lowrie agreed, saying some of the comments “I feel border on slander.” 

“Kingsville is in a turning point, and we’re a growing community in a growing region, and we have to decide whether we embrace that growth or resist it and risk being left behind,” she said. 

Neufeld said the town is appealing to seniors to come to Kingsville, so condominiums are needed. “Not that long ago our own active committee went to a retirement trade show in the GTA to attract seniors to Kingsville – come retire in Kingsville,” he said. “And here we are in 2025, they have come. And they kept coming. They told their friends how awesome Kingsville is.” 

The actual increase in height of the buildings will only be about eight metres, Gaffan said.

“That’s the distance that we’re arguing about tonight. It’s so minor in the world that we live in today. These are First World problems that we are arguing and crying about.”

According to Royal LePage, about 30 per cent of residences in Kingsville were built before 1960, with most of the rest built in the 1960s and 1990s. About 85 per cent of the housing market consists of single detached homes. Houseful.ca says the median list price of homes in Kingsville was $814,846 in January. 

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Delegations who appealed to council to reject the changes included residents Brenda Gagnier, Gail Stiffler, Anne Marie Lemire, Joanne Rivard and Tamara Stomp. 

Resident Ed Cornies spoke in favour. 

Stiffler urged councillors to consider a balance of development to include affordable housing and to preserve the “small-town culture.” 

“How will this misguided amendment further this urgent need?” she asked. 

Lemire argued that provincial policy changes are aimed at municipalities with public transportation, which Kingsville does not have, and that economic and environmental conditions have not changed since the province approved the town’s official plan in December. 

“In other words, there is no real justification for reconsidering our official plan at this time,” she said. 

Rivard asked council to prioritize alternative solutions, such as infill and mixed-use development, to address housing.  

Stomp, who recently announced she is seeking the provincial Liberal nomination in Essex County, told councillors residents want to preserve Kingsville’s small-town feel. 

“No one is living here if they want to live in a city,” she said. “I request that you not be so shy to champion our small historical town.” 

Gagnier said the official plan is a strong document. 

“If we put in the bylaw, got (it) in the official plan, got it approved by Essex County Council, we were in a much stronger position on an appeal at the OLT,” she said.  “It’s been too soon to test those appeal waters on any change of height.” 

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