Sarnia council has unanimously approved the rezoning for a new residential development behind Landmark Village on L'Heritage Drive.
The decision on Monday clears the way for Steeves and Rozema to buy the remaining land needed from the Dante Club to build 74 rental townhouses on seven acres.
Councillor Terry Burrell wondered if the area could handle the extra traffic.
"To me, the real problem in this area is L'Heritage comes out onto Lambton Mall Road, the exit faces an exit from Lambton Mall with traffic coming out of there and the difficulty to me is trying to turn left," said Burrell. "There is sort of an escape I guess where you can drive north, through the existing facilities, and get a right turn only onto Exmouth Street, but I'm not sure how well that addresses that problem."
Staff said a traffic light would not be feasible because it's too close to the Exmouth Street intersection.
Anthony Gubbels of LDS Consultants noted Sarnia's fire and police services have signed off on the application.
"We've done several of these projects in other municipal jurisdictions and our experience has been that the traffic volume generated by these projects is extremely low," said Gubbels. "There's the occasional trip to the grocery store, but or the most part residents are staying local. There's a lot of pedestrian movement within the project, usually out their back patio doors, visiting neighbours, either down the continuous block or across the backyard."
Council hopes traffic concerns can be addressed in the site plan, which it wants to review when ready.
When asked by Mayor Mike Bradley about the affordability of the townhouses, Steeves and Rozema CEO John Scotland said they will be competitively priced, but should be relatively affordable.
