328 & 330 Mill St | 20fl | Proposed

[tomh009]

Reducing setbacks squeeze any street furniture or plantings into the sidewalk, reducing space for pedestrians (this include utility poles, boxes, bike racks etc.  Removing setbacks also eliminates the options for street facing patios or casual gathering space that don't cover sidewalks and/or parking spots.

The change to the front yard setback is minimal, only 0.5m, so that would not enable any patios or gathering space. The big difference is the requested setback reduction in the back.

From the planning report:

 A reduction in the minimum front yard setback from 1.5 metres to 1.0 metre.
 A reduction in the minimum rear yard setback from 14 metres to 1.0 metre.
 A reduction to the minimum ground floor façade width as a percent of the width of the abutting street line from 50% to 29.9%.