Approximately 30 people attended an informal public open house on Wednesday to hear about a proposed development in the heart of Walkerville.
The open house was held at Willistead Manor and showed design concepts for a new townhome that would feature a total of 24 dwelling units. The townhome would be constructed on Devonshire Court - on the corner of Devonshire and Kildare Road.
This has been a controversial lot over the last few years after a proposed four-storey, 23 unit apartment building was approved by the city in 2022 and was shovel ready for development. However, the applicant didn't move forward and instead sold the land at the end of 2024.
Now, Agbaba Holdings owns the land, and is looking to construct a two-storey townhome. Each townhome dwelling will have two additional dwelling units (ADU) - one located in the main dwelling upstairs, and one ADU in a detached two-storey structure at the rear of the lot.
While there was some concern from the residents who live near this development such as parking, and space, many voiced their appreciation for a two-storey development opposed to four-storey, as well as thanked the developer for keeping the Walkerville look to the new townhome.
Antonio Buttice lives across the street from the proposed development and says the design is nice.
"Certainly looks like a better option than the monstrosity that they were planning on building. Four-storey's, 50 foot high, 160 foot wall right on the city lot line."
He says he's happy the design has the Walkerville look to it.
"It looks like they've certainly taken that into account, the stone, the brick, the stucco, the timbers, that's what we were looking for certainly with anything that was going to be built on this property."
Buttice says this is still not the ideal option residents wanted.
"Initially that was zoned for three individual homes. So we've gone from three individual homes, to the extreme of the condo - the four-storey condo - to this. So, we'll have to see how it all pans out."
Marko Agbaba, President of Agbaba Holdings, says the height was cut but they wanted to keep the amount of units.
"We have eight townhouses here effectively, so we're going to do the two ADUs per, so that's going to bring you up to 24 units total, which is about the exact same as what was previously approved with the four-storey."
He says there will be landscaping between the townhouses and the rear ADU.
"We were allowed to build a 20-foot by 172-foot courtyard. That is the prized possession of this development. It's going to be amazing. It's going to be a private courtyard, you can do down there and walk, sit, have a BBQ and everything, so that's probably the part that I'm most excited about with this development."
Agbaba says he loves Walkerville and wanted to keep the look with this development.
"I am here all the time, I spend every weekend in Walkerville. The architecture is my favourite. Albert Kahn, one of the best architects to ever live, is the one who designed Walkerville, so I wanted to knock it out of the park with this design."
This development has not yet gone to a city committee or city council for approval, as Agbaba wanted to hear from residents first before moving forward.
Access to all the units will be from the existing alley off Kildare. That is where 16 parking spots will also be available for residents living in the townhome.