Owen Sound council has signed off on a proposal to transform the old Grey County courthouse and jail in an event venue.
City council approved changing its official plan and zoning during a meeting on Oct. 23 for the properties at 1235 and 1259 3rd Avenue East, green-lighting the proposal.
The old jail and courthouse properties are on 3rd Avenue East near the fire hall. They’ve sat vacant for nearly a decade.
The proponent, Nick Ainis of FC Entertainment and Hospitality Inc., aims to turn the properties into an entertainment venue, available for weddings and other special events.
Senior Planner Jacklyn Iezzi says, “the proposed development is adaptively reusing existing, vacant, under utilized heritage buildings that are located within an existing built up area and have access to full municipal services, transit, parks, and amenities.”
Some concerns raised by residents were also addressed, including noise, traffic and parking at the properties associated with the proposed development.
Iezzi says the jail yard walls are expected to meet the requirements for a noise barrier, and as an additional measure, staff are also proposing a fence be installed along the north lot line to assist in noise reduction.
A traffic impact study was prepared and shows there is capacity on the road to accommodate usage during development as well as anticipated traffic growth.
For parking, Iezzi says a strategy was put together and found 180 parking stalls would support this type of facility based on the proposed growth for the area.
“The development can achieve 115 off street parking stalls,” says Iezzi. “A total of 40 stalls can be accommodated on-site, including 36 within a rear yard parking area and four within the front yard reserved for business incubator use.”
Staff say once the facility is up an running, they anticipate they will hear from residents if there are any concerns surrounding parking and they will bring a report back to council where an amendment could be considered.
Mayor Ian Boddy says one of the priorities of council was preserving the historic nature of the building and it be protected, as it made Owen Sound the seat of Grey County.
“Over the years, we had several presentations at different times from different people that we were never comfortable with that they were going to protect the historic nature and the architectural nature of the building,” says Boddy. “We have never had a better application come forward than this one that recognizes the historic nature of it and Mr. Ainis has build a resume of buildings in Toronto that recognize heritage buildings and has developed the ability to work with these to give us more confidence and I am very confident with this proposal. I don’t think in 100 years if we waited we will not get a better proposal than this.”
