Riddell, Vincent, Wellington & Brant

Lots of good ideas for former hospital site

MHBC will pull the ropes and even deal with some knot tying, but which way this boat sails will be determined by more factors than the wind.
MHBC Planning consultants of Kitchener have been hired by the Woodstock General Hospital (WGH) Trust to analyze everything from traffic flow to neighbourhood comments to infrastructure to environmental concerns in assisting the process of determining what is the best and highest use ("Optimal Use" is MHBC wording) for the former hospital site of 270 Riddell Street.
Not only does the city block of Riddell - Vincent - Wellington - Brant fall into focus, but so does the staff parking lot across the street from the hospital, also on Riddell.
Since the neighbours comments are paramount in the process -- and they should be -- the public meeting on April 17 was conducted at The Legion on Brant Street, which is just a short walk from the site in question.
One meeting room at The Legion was set up with a series of easels noting several possibilities of residential developments -- low, medium and high density. There were also many overhead photos to better depict what currently exists in about a 20-block circle.
Anything low density would/could comprise of either detached homes, semi-detached or townhouse condominiums. Medium density could be a 3- or 4-storey condo or apartment complex, while high density could be much taller and either a condominium apartment-style or rental building. There is certainly a component for green space and even one proposal which ponders a commercial building as a possibility.
The developers would certainly be encouraged to save as many trees as possible.
Questions from the audience were fielded after a slide show of ideas. The timeline was discussed as currently the hospital is having any hazardous materials (asbestos, etc) remediated (abatement) from the structure before the buildings themselves will be demolished. Both the WGH Trust and MHBC seemed adamant that the Vance Building with frontage on Wellington would also be removed to leave the entire city block of more than six acres open for redevelopment. The three buildings comprise about 160,000 sq ft according to the original posting searching for a consultant.
The parking lot across from the hospital is about 1.9 acres.
The slide show (it really wasn't a power point) was described by MHBC staffers and certainly concentrated on the idea that this consultation is early stages in a lengthy public process, which will include changing the zoning from its current institutional-type status. The goal is to create a concept, including hypothetical drawings of building and landscaping, that will work for everyone -- WGH Trust, city council, county council, the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB), the provincial government (The province has a ton of guidelines dealing with residential intensification), the neighbourhood, and developers. At the end of the day, you want a consistent cityscape, but construction costs must balance out. It is a tug-of-war.
Anyone with ideas can email Carol Wiebe of MHBC at cwiebe@mhbcplan.com or locally WGH vice president Perry Lang at plang@wgh.on.ca. Mr Lang can be reached via mail at: 310 Juliana Drive, Woodstock, N4V 0A4.
As Woodstock city council member Paul Plant smartly pointed out, the possibility of this WGH Trust losing money on this venture does exist. By the time the old hospital, which dates back in some sections to 1895, is converted into open land, will the Trust be able to recoup all its demolishing costs / investment by selling the property to one or more developers for any accountable profit.
The Building The Vision campaign raised over $25 million by local citizens. That would be one of many reasons why the hospital trust committee would now give back to the neighbourhood by listening and learning, and then properly planning the future of what the public info night ad called: former Woodstock hospital lands.
The new hospital opened its doors this past November and is about 350,000 sq ft. (The 178 beds is an increase of about 60 from previous hospital.) The Woodstock Sentinel-Review -- with most of the pieces penned by Heather Rivers -- published a 46-page insert around that time. The new facility will serve the Woodstock area for the next 100+ years.
At the same time, as the old hospital will be reduced to rubble later this year, it will be interesting to see what grows on that site. I would expect it to be completely residential, and would further expect that everything on those two properties will be owned either as freehold or condominium (and not a landlord owning a building and collecting rent from tenants).
I personally like the idea, especially with our aging society, which is of course is also living longer, that we build more condo apartments. Woodstock has zero condominium apartments with under-ground parking. It's worth repeating: Zero!
A lifetime of equity can be an investment after a couple sells the home it raised a family in, and not simply pay rent and hope their other investments, savings and pensions permit the lifestyle and security deserved.
　Mark Schadenberg
Sales Representative
Royal LePage Triland
(519) 537-1553
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