Proposed 48-unit development at 14194 Tecumseh Road East

Latest · 29 September 2026

Council asks for a report on surplus school sites

At its 29 September meeting, Council received a resident's letter asking the Town to study how surplus school and institutional sites inside established neighbourhoods should be redeveloped (Communications, item 1). Councillor James Dorner brought the item forward, and Council carried a motion moved by Deputy Mayor Joe Bachetti and seconded by Councillor Brian Houston directing staff to report on how the Official Plan addresses the redevelopment of surplus institutional sites.

Why it matters beyond this one site

Three neighbourhood schools have closed in Tecumseh in fourteen years: Victoria (2012), St. Gregory's (2014) and D.M. Eagle (2024). Two went to developers.
Six elementary schools still sit inside established neighbourhoods. Planning staff told Council there are about a dozen school sites in all.
Each one is a large, open parcel backing onto houses. How the first conversions are handled sets the pattern for the rest.

What it does and does not do

ExpectedSpring 2027Staff report to Council's policy meeting.
Not includedNo pauseThe direction does not stop an application being filed or processed. Once a complete application is filed, the Planning Act gives Council a fixed period to decide before the owner can appeal to the Ontario Land Tribunal.

The resolution number and exact wording will appear in the 29 September minutes, expected with the 20 October agenda.

At a glance

What is to be proposed

Site area

±3.06 acres

About 1.24 ha. Former D.M. Eagle Public School

Units proposed

Four buildings, twelve units each. Reported as condominiums

Height shown

11.5 m

Three storeys. The R3 zone would allow 14.0 m

Current zoning

Institutional

No housing of any kind permitted

Requested

R3 + OPA

Rezoning plus an Official Plan amendment, which the County of Essex must also approve

Parking shown

104

60 required under the new by-law. Includes 13 tandem spaces

Figures from the applicant's display boards at the 1 September open house, read from photographs. Unit type and prices as reported by AM800, 28 August 2026.

Where residents actually get a say

There are three places a development like this can be decided, and they are not equal. Which of them ever happens depends on what Council writes into the rezoning.

Rezoning - Council

After the application is filed

Public meeting required
Written notice only to owners within 120 m, plus a sign on the site
You may speak; written comments to the Clerk go on the record and staff must respond to them
Sets what is permitted: use, height, density, parking, setbacks
Since 2024, residents cannot appeal the decision

Minor variance - Committee of Adjustment

Only if a later proposal breaks the by-law

Public hearing required
Written notice to owners within 60 m
You may attend and speak
Since 2022, residents cannot appeal the decision
If nothing needs a variance, this step never happens

Site plan control - staff

Always, at the end

No public meeting required under the Planning Act
No notice required to anyone
Only the applicant may appeal
Covers landscaping, lighting, drainage, waste, walkways, exterior design
Cannot touch use, height, density, parking or lot area

So the answer to “what if it needs no variances?”

A variance is what triggers a public hearing. If a future proposal complies with the by-law, no variance is needed. There is no hearing, no notice, and nothing for residents to attend. It goes straight to site plan control, which under Ontario’s own guidance “cannot be used to regulate matters that are covered by zoning by-laws such as minimum or maximum parking requirements, minimum lot area, or height and density.”

So what actually holds this to three storeys?

Only the zoning. The R3 zone allows 14.0 m, which is room for a fourth storey. Height is a zoning matter under the Planning Act, site plan control is expressly barred from regulating it, and a site plan agreement cannot cap it either. If three storeys is not written into the zoning, nothing holds it to three storeys.

That does not mean reopening the Town’s zoning by-law. It means the short, site-specific by-law Council will pass for this one property, a document that does not exist yet, and whose wording is the entire subject of the meetings ahead.

It is the Town’s ordinary practice, not an unusual ask. Tecumseh’s site-specific R3 zones have long carried caps written into them: under the former by-laws, R3-2 was limited to 118 units in two buildings; R3-3 to 96 units; R3-4 to 60 units; R3-13 to a maximum height of 65 feet; and R3-11 set separate storey limits for each wing of the building and prohibited balconies and windows on two named elevations.

The new by-law makes the point stronger. Since 15 September, any R3 zone next to R1 or R2 homes must respect a 45° angular plane from the rear and side lot lines and keep a 4.5 m planting strip along them. Anything less has to be written into the site-specific by-law as a named exception, in public, before Council votes.

The current standards

What the by-law requires, and what the plan shows

On 15 September 2026 Council adopted Tecumseh's new town-wide Zoning By-law 2026-050 and repealed the 1994 St. Clair Beach by-law. An application filed from now on is measured against the new by-law. The plan shown at the 1 September open house carries dimensions, and those are used below.

Zoning By-law 2026-050, R3 zone (apartment dwellings), against the 1 September site plan
Requirement	The standard	What the plan shows	Status
Residential use	Not permitted in the Institutional zone or the Community Facility designation	48 dwelling units	Rezoning + OPA required
Angular plane, north line	45° from the rear lot line where R3 abuts R1 (the Pentilly Road homes): height may not exceed distance from the line (Table 7-6)	11.5 m buildings about 7.6 to 8.4 m (25 to 27.5 ft) from the line, with balconies on the north face	Exceeds by roughly 10-13 ft
Planting strip, east line	4.5 m of soft landscaping along a side or rear lot line abutting a Residential zone; parking may not sit in it (Table 7-8; s. 6.2.2.4)	10 ft (3.05 m) to the parking row, garage block and both refuse enclosures	Short by about 5 ft
Accessory buildings	Lesser of 10% of lot area or 100 m² in total; 4.5 m high (s. 4.1)	13-car garage about 2,600 sq ft (≈242 m²), two refuse enclosures and an amenity building; heights shown as "XX m"	About 2,600 sq ft vs 1,076 cap
Maximum height	14.0 m (Table 7-6)	11.5 m, three storeys	Needs a number in the by-law
Angular plane, east line	45° from the interior side lot line	Main buildings about 12.7 m (41.7 ft) from the line; garage height not stated	Buildings clear; garage unknown
Parking	1.25 spaces per unit → 60 spaces (Table 6-1); 24 bicycle spaces; 12 EV-ready	104 claimed, including 13 tandem spaces in front of the garage doors; bicycle and EV spaces not shown	Car count complies
Front yard	9.0 m (Table 7-6)	30.3 ft (9.2 m)	Complies, narrowly

The applicant's own site data table measured the plan against the repealed 1994 by-law (96 parking spaces, a rear yard equal to building height). The new by-law is looser on parking and density and stricter at the edges shared with existing homes. Dimensions are read from photographs of the display boards; confirm them against the plans filed with the application.

What we still don’t know

Questions the application should answer

The open house answered some questions (height, setbacks, parking count). These are still open. Written questions to the Town Clerk become part of the record; comments to the developer's consultant do not.

Will the site-specific by-law fix the height at three storeys and 11.5 m, or leave the R3 maximum of 14.0 m?
How will the north buildings meet the 45° angular plane, or will relief from it be requested?
How will a full 4.5 m planted strip be provided along the east line, where the parking, garage and refuse enclosures now sit 3 m from the fence?
What are the heights of the garage and amenity building, shown as "XX m" on the boards?
Will a shadow study cover afternoon and evening sun on the neighbouring rear yards in spring, summer and fall?
Are balconies proposed on the faces that look into neighbouring yards?
How are the 13 tandem spaces counted, and where are the barrier-free, bicycle and EV-ready spaces?
The boards show 45.4 m and 60.5 m from the fire route to building entrances. Do these meet the Building Code's fire-access limits?
What fence, lighting levels at the lot lines, and waste collection route and hours are proposed?
Which studies has the Town listed as required for a complete application under Official Plan s. 10.20?
Will a holding (H) symbol keep the zoning from being used until a site plan agreement is registered?

Anything left to site plan control is settled later, with no meeting and no notice.

Timeline

What has happened, and what is next

Done9 April 2026 The Greater Essex County District School Board sold the property to The Fairway Collection Inc. for $2,500,000.
Done1 September 2026 Developer's open house, hosted by Dillon Consulting. A dimensioned site plan was shown for the first time. The comment period to the consultant closed 15 September.
Done15 September 2026 Council adopted Zoning By-law 2026-050. St. Clair Beach homes are zoned R1, detached houses only; the angular plane and planting strip became town rules.
Done22 September 2026 The applicant's consultant confirmed in writing that the application will include all technical reports the Town requires. Which studies that means is set by the Town.
Done29 September 2026 Council directed a staff report on the redevelopment of surplus institutional sites, due spring 2027.
Upcoming20 & 26 October 2026 Last regular Council meeting of this term, then the municipal election.
Not yetApplication filed Official Plan and zoning amendments filed, then deemed complete, then notice, a statutory public meeting, a staff recommendation and a Council vote. The County of Essex approves the Official Plan amendment.

Who is behind it

The owner, and the same team's last Tecumseh building

The registered owner is The Fairway Collection Inc., an Ontario corporation incorporated on 24 March 2026, sixteen days before it bought the property. Its officers and directors are principals of two established local builders, Fortis Group, a Tecumseh general contractor, and The Bungalow Group, a Windsor-Essex home builder. Its registered office is Fortis Group's head office on Advance Boulevard in Tecumseh. The application is being prepared by Dillon Consulting Limited.

The two companies' earlier Tecumseh project is The Urban Suites at 11957 Tecumseh Road, marketed under both names. It is a useful comparison, and the differences matter more than the similarities.

The Urban Suites compared with 14194 Tecumseh Road East
	The Urban Suites, 11957 Tecumseh Rd	14194 Tecumseh Rd E
Road (Official Plan Schedule E-1)	Commercial Main Street, the Town's planned east-west commercial spine	Minor Arterial, a through-traffic road also lined with detached homes
Official Plan designation	Main Street Mixed Use, where higher-density housing behind and above commercial is encouraged	Community Facility. Housing needs an Official Plan amendment
Built form	One 3-storey building, 32 rental units, opened 2021	Four 3-storey buildings, 48 units
Next to houses?	Commercial lots sit between the building and the Shawnee Road homes; the 2017 zoning requires a 42 m rear yard	Neighbouring rear yards abut the site directly on the east and north
Fence Council accepted	1.5 m vinyl privacy fence where the parking lot meets house rear yards	Not yet proposed
Parking actually used	Town staff count, September 2024: 36 of 48 spaces at peak, about 1.13 cars per unit	104 spaces proposed, most of the surface parking along the east line

Stay informed

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