The second phase of Leland Town Center includes plans for a hotel, big-box retailer, apartment complex, and more. (Port City Daily photo/Courtesy Leland Town Center LLC)

LELAND A major commercial development is underway at Leland Town Center. Planning work has begun on phase two of the project, set to include a 10,300-square-foot hotel, at least one big-box commercial store, restaurants, and a 13-building apartment complex.

Phase one of Leland Town Center is still underway, with visible frontage on Highway 17. Chik-fil-A notably opened in December and construction of a 9,450-square-foot, multi-tenant commercial building continues this month, set to include Starbucks, Firehouse Subs, AT&T, and Heartland Dental.

Related: Leland announces Wrightsville Beach Brewerys second location planned in Brunswick Forest

Behind phase one south of Gateway Boulevard, even bigger plans are in store.

Site plans for phase two show nearly 200,000 square feet of new projects are planned on the 67-acre parcel. An apartment complex comprised of 13 multi-family buildings totaling 312 units will be situated toward the southeast portion of the site, near the West Gate Drive and Tradeway Drive roundabout.

Behind Ocean Gate Plaza, phase two of Leland Town Center will also include a 127,000 square foot commercial building comprised of eight tenants.

Five restaurants are planned, three of which would be free-standing. A 30,000-square-foot, free-standing commercial building is also shown on site plans could this spot eventually be filled with a long-awaited home improvement retailer? In total, 15 multi-tenant commercial buildings are planned.

Palmer Williams, developer of C&S Commercial properties, said the project is still in the early planning stages.

Phase two has not yet been submitted to the Town of Leland for review. Earlier this month, C&S Commercial Properties submitted a pre-construction notification seeking environmental approval.

Check out the site plan for phase two of Leland Town Center below:

20200060 Ver 1_PCN Form Submission_20200109 (1)-12 by Johanna Ferebee Still on Scribd

Send tips and comments to Johanna Ferebee Still at johanna@localvoicemedia.com

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Hotel, 312 apartment units, 15 commercial buildings planned for second phase of Leland Town Center - Port City Daily

An 18-story apartment building in Brumunddal, Norway, is not only the worlds tallest timber building, its also the worlds tallest carbon dioxide sink. The building's timber structure, including elevator shafts, are made entirely from cross-laminated timber with columns made from glued-laminated timber. The same materials will be used for a massive 500,000 square-foot timber office complex on the waterfront of Newark, New Jersey. In Sweden, a new development in Stockholm will see31 timber towers rise 25 to 35 stories from the waterfront to house 3,000 apartments and 30 shops and restaurants.

Wood, or more specifically cross-laminated timber (CLT), is the hot new building material due to its high strength-to-weight ratio, precise prefabrication in a factory and ease and speed of assembly on building sites. Designers also say timber buildings can be a powerful tool in the struggle to reduce global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

Double benefits for climate protection

Trees absorb CO2 from the atmosphere as they grow and will release it if the tree decays or is burned. However, if the wood is used in a building that CO2 could be locked away for many decades, or even hundreds of years, said Galina Churkina of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Such timber buildings are carbon sinks a place that keeps CO2 from getting into the air. A second benefit from using wood as a building material is that it reduces the amount of cement and steel production, both of which are large CO2 emitters.

This matters because an enormous number of new buildings will be built as there will be 2.3 billion more people living in urban areas by 2050, according to UN estimates. If these future buildings are made of concrete and steel they may use up 20 percent of our remaining carbon budget to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius, according to a study by Churkina and colleagues published Jan. 27 in the journal Nature.

However, if most of these new buildings are made from wood they could store close to 700 million tons of CO2 every year. In addition, this would reduce cumulative emissions from steel and cement manufacturing by half.

We need to keep CO2 on the land and out of the air. Building timber cities can help, Churkina said in an interview.

CLT is an engineered wood product that is sometimes called mass timber. Its prefabricated using several layers of kiln-dried lumber, laid flat-wise and glued together in alternating layers which makes it far stronger while being light. Not only is CLT a better insulator, it is more fire resistant rather than burning, it chars.

Keeping climate change under2 degrees Celsius means there can be no CO2 emissions by 2050 without ways to remove it. We cant get rid of most of the CO2 from concrete and steel production, she said. That makes reducing the need for such materials and finding ways to remove CO2 from the air extremely important.

A five-story residential building structured in laminated timber can store up to 180 kilograms (396 pounds) of carbon per square meter, according to the study. Thats three times more than trees in a similar sized area of forest would naturally store. So that 500,000 square-foot timber office complex in Newark, N.J., may end up being a permanent storage site for around 8.4 million kilograms (18.5 million pounds) of CO2.

Impressive as this might be, the worlds forests store thousands of times more CO2 than buildings are ever likely to. Existing forests must be protected to avoid dangerous climate change, a coalition of forest scientists warned in a statement. The worlds forests contain more carbon than exploitable oil, gas and coal deposits, they note.

Our planets future climate is inextricably tied to the future of its forests, the scientists wrote.

How to prevent timber cities from increasing deforestation

Protecting forests from unsustainable logging and a wide range of other threats is thus key if timber use was to be substantially increased, agrees Churkinas co-author, Christopher Reyer of Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany.

Our vision for sustainable forest management and governance could indeed improve the situation for forests worldwide as they are valued more, said Reyer in a statement.

The study used complex simulation modeling to determine that there is enough wood resources available with plantations and the cultivation of fast-growing bamboo by small-scale landowners to construct 90 percent of future buildings out of timber.

Deforestation is almost entirely driven by clearing land for agriculture and for fuel, said Mark Wishnie, global forestry and wood products director at the Nature Conservancy. Very little deforestation globally is for wood products like building material or furniture, according to data from Global Forest Watch, Wishnie said.

Done right, building future cities out of timber has the potential to cut CO2 emissions and create more forests, he said in an interview.

Doing it right means managing forests on a landscape scale to ensure they continue to provide habitat for a diversity of species and maintain and clean water flows, among other ecological functions. To make a significant impact on the climate, timber construction will be needed to be done on a mass scale and there is the potential for large impacts on existing forests, he said.

Research into the potential impacts of a shift to timber cities is ongoing so that safeguards and appropriate policies can be put in place to protect forests and encourage the use of timber. These are beautiful buildings with wide open spaces that are wonderful to live or work in.

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Building timber cities to protect the climate - The Hill

The 2.2-acre site, at 8400 Delmar Boulevard, had been owned since 2018 by a company affiliated with AKG Development. LuxLiving acquired the property last month. The office building currently contains the Global Village Language Center, while small business Craft Central is located in a building on the parking lot.

Plans call for a five-story Element by Westin Hotel, according to University City planning documents, though the developer says negotiations with hotel brands arent final yet. The four-story luxury apartment building would be mostly one-bedroom and studio apartments, with about 29 two-bedroom apartments out of 160 total units. The developer would also add a restaurant space to the building.

University City Planning Director Cliff Cross said the University City Council is expected to take up the rezoning matter at its Feb. 24 meeting. Approval of the final plan could come as soon as this summer. Construction is expected to take 18 to 24 months after that.

LuxLiving, led by Victor Alston and Sidarth Chakraverty, has been busy in recent years. It is finishing up leasing on its new Bordeaux apartments, a 48-unit rehab of an old mop factory in Lafayette Square, and it expects to complete construction of its 150-unit Chelsea apartments on Pershing Avenue in the Skinker-DeBaliviere neighborhood later this year. It recently proposed another 150-unit building in that neighborhood.

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LuxLiving plans another apartment project, this one in University City - STLtoday.com

Not all the development activity is going on in Buffalo. There are plenty of new projects in the suburbs that could have a big impact on the region in the coming years.

The biggest and most long-term projects would create big retail, office and residential complexes in spaces that now are struggling as suburban malls. Others would expand manufacturing capabilities and help build the region's tourism base.

Here's a look at several projects worth watching in 2020:

In 2020, the owners of the Eastern Hills Mall will take the first steps toward the $250 million town center proposed for the Clarence site.

Uniland Development Co. and Mountain Development, with the Gensler architecture firm, in December unveiled their plan for boutique-style retail mixed in with restaurants, recreational space, housing, offices and hotels.

This year the companies will try to secure tenants and financing. Construction on the initial phase of retail and public green space would begin as soon as 2021, with the full project taking 20 years to complete.

Town and business leaders trying to reach agreement on a long-debated proposal to reshape a large section of central Amherst face a deadline to act this year.

Amherst officials and the owners of the former Westwood Country Club have informally agreed to a swap of public and private property. The plan would preserve the country club as parkland and a theater, see a medical building and hotel constructed near the towns Northtown Center and perhaps add additional sports venues and housing in the area.

The parties remain divided over land values and other stumbling blocks. Construction is unlikely to begin this year, but the town and developers face a July deadline to reach agreement or the state approval of the land swap expires.

Lancaster's West Main Street project, more than a half-century in the making, is now on the brink of building a walkable downtown with creekside park, bike lanes and old-time village center.

Villagers can expect to see road construction extending West Main to Aurora Street beginning in 2020. The $2.5 million project will convert West Main into a two-lane boulevard that in coming years will be lined with 48 upscale apartments and up to 20 retail spaces.

The road is the catalyst to restore the historic street grid, said developer Tommy Sweeney, who expects to spend at least $8 million on the project.

The developer plans to use a phased approach to add 12 building blocks along the new street.

"As you go downhill, the entrance level for each building will be aligned with the roadway. Phase One will consist of four buildings with first-floor retail and upper-floor apartments. The one- and two-bedroom apartments will run from $1,100 to $1,300 a month. Were also looking to set up charging stations for electrical cars, said Sweeney.

Mayor William Schroeder expected to starting the bidding process for road construction early next year.

He advised patience.

Were not going to get another chance to do this, so it has to be done right. Everyone is antsy, and it is progressing as planned. Unfortunately, it takes a lot of time," said Schroeder.

Rosina Foods $58 million investment in its new plant on Clinton Street in West Seneca is just the first phase of a plan to keep the local company making frozen meatballs, sausage and toppings in Western New York.

The expansion of Rosina's footprint in West Seneca is before the Planning Board, with construction on the 100,000-square-foot plant expected to start this year.

If the new factory was not built, Rosina said it would have to shut down its Cheektowaga processing line, which is no longer competitive, and shift that work to a Chicago company.

Orchard Park

A new medical building is expected to be the first phase of a major multi-use development in Orchard Park. Orchard Park town planners are hoping to see detailed plans of Ellicott Developments development of more than 70 acres on vacant land west of North Buffalo Road and south of Webster Road.

Buffalo Medical Group wants to build a companion to its office building at North Buffalo Road and Holland Drive. It would be located behind the existing building.

Its a fairly substantial project, said Planning Coordinator Remy Orffeo.

Long range plans call for a three-story hotel, other medical facilities, single family homes and retail space.

The growth of entertainment and lodging options will continue in downtown Niagara Falls in 2020.

Rupal Hospitality's plans to reopen the former Niagara Club, 24 Buffalo Ave., as a banquet and entertainment facility will be completed this year, company president Nirel Patel said.

The project, whose costs have grown from $3 million to $4.5 million, will begin with the opening of a Spot Coffee location in the building by "mid-spring," Patel said. The rest of the project should be open late in the year, featuring several entertainment lounges with varying themes and a rooftop lounge affording views of the upper Niagara River rapids just across the street.

Rupal owns the Courtyard by Marriott hotel a few blocks to the east. "Having a banquet facility within walking distance of the falls is an integral part of our hospitality portfolio," Patel said.

Also on the drawing board for this year is a $22.5 million plan from Merani Hotel Group to erect two five-story buildings at 402-430 Buffalo Ave. One building will be an 83-room Holiday Inn Express, while the other will house 36 market-rate apartments and two ground-floor commercial spaces, to be filled by a Tim Hortons and a Circle K convenience store.

Michael Marsch, vice president of operations for Merani, said construction will start this year, but the buildings probably won't open until 2021.

When the Holiday Inn Express opens, it will be Merani's fourth downtown Niagara Falls hotel, along with the Holiday Inn, DoubleTree and Four Points by Sheraton.

"We're diversifying our portfolio a little bit," Marsch said. "We don't own any apartment buildings, or any retail space except for the restaurants we have. We're definitely filling a need in regard to market-rate housing in the downtown area. There isn't any."

In Lockport, the renovation of the old Tuscarora Club into a banquet venue and a 17-room boutique hotel will begin this year with asbestos removal, funded in part by a $300,000 brownfield grant from Niagara County, according to city planning and development director Brian M. Smith.

"We hope to have the banquet facility open by mid-2020," owner Dominick Ciliberto said.

The $2.5 million project involves installation of a new elevator to reach the hotel rooms on the second and third floors of the 109-year-old former social club. Some of those rooms could be available by the end of the year, Ciliberto said.

"We're able to get a certificate of occupancy for individual rooms as long as that whole area has been remodeled," Ciliberto said.

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Projects to watch in suburban Erie and Niagara counties - Buffalo News

The new owner of a vacant lot on Linwood Avenue is proceeding with the prior owner's plans for a new three-story apartment building but now he wants to ezpand the lower unit, so he has his own place to live.

That means Joseph Carubba has a scheduled collision with the Buffalo Planning Board first.

Carubba bought the quarter-acre site at 295 Linwood from Jesse Hawker last year, along with the architectural drawings that had been approved last August by the city's Planning Board, Preservation Board and Zoning Board of Appeals.

That proposal called for a 7,802-square-foot structure, with two one-bedroom and three two-bedroom apartments. The building's facade would feature white brick and fiber-cement panel, with a green preweathered copper roof and red stone base. A new driveway under one side of the 34-foot-tall building would lead to a paved rear area containing an eight-car garage.

Hawker already demolished a deteriorated former duplex on the site, before Carubba bought the land and plans.

Now the former owner of Carubba Collision wants to pursue Hawker's plan, but with a one-story addition in the rear of the first-floor apartment, for a master bedroom suite and an attached garage. That's where he plans to live.

[Related: Linwood Avenue apartment proposal suffers setback, over setback]

Carubba, of Carubba & Company Development, intends to construct the building in accordance with the prior design plans, using the previously approved exterior windows, roofing, wall panels, brick, trim work and other elements, according to a letter to city Planning Director Nadine Marrero from architect John A. Lydon. The addition will use the same materials and finishes, he wrote.

The attached garage will mean he won't have to go outside to enter his unit. Carubba is also proposing to create an enclosed walkway at the south end of the property, where an open path was originally included.

Lydon added that they believe the addition, because it will be identical in appearance to the original approved building, should be considered a minor change that does not need a new public hearing before the full board, particularly since it's in back and not visible from the street. However, the board first has to rule on that question on Monday.

Last June, Carubba sold his well-known business, with 18 stores, to Illinois-based Gerber Collision and Glass, which is part of Boyd Group, a publicly traded company based in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

The Planning Board will also hold a new public hearing on the revised $24 million plan for the Lawrence, a 129-unit market-rate apartment building that Symphony Management LLC wants to construct on the edge of the Fruit Belt, across Michigan Avenue from Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The firm led by Timothy LeBoeuf originally proposed a five-story building with 131 units and 74 spaces of enclosed parking at 983-997 Michigan and 228-250 Maple St. But strident opposition from the neighborhood and activists throughout the city forced the developer to go back to the drawing board.

In the new version, Symphony reduced the height by one floor and 11 feet, while adding more glass and putting more of the parking underground. Plans by Stieglitz Snyder Architecture now call for a four-story building 44 feet high, fronting on both Michigan and Maple, and connected by a structural link in the middle. The 44,150-square-foot building would include a 78-space garage on the ground level and a mixture of 31 studio, 52 one-bedroom and 42 two-bedroom apartments on the four floors above.

The first floor would still have a fitness center and an office for the building manager, along with 29 apartments. Two lobbies one along Michigan and the other on Maple, can be accessed from the ground level. There are also 28 bicycle spaces and a storage room in the basement.

The design uses utility bricks, glass stairwells, balconies, "simulated entrances," and "vertical" features to break up the facade's mass and appearance, particularly along Maple within the historic residential neighborhood. And the developer plans to secure about 60 additional off-site parking spaces within 500 feet of the project, according to a transportation demand management study included with the application.

"The applicants believe that the significant changes in the proposed design are responsive to public concerns about the scale of the project and mitigate potential impacts to the greatest extent practicable," attorney Marc Romanowski wrote in a letter to the Planning and Zoning boards.

The planned use is allowed by the Green Code, but the project will require variances for building height, lot width and coverage, and side and rear setbacks. However, Romanowski argued that the requests will not constitute "an undesirable change" and will not harm the "physical or environmental conditions" in the Fruit Belt. And they're needed to make the project feasible and viable, given the need for density because of the soaring land values near the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.

"The project is on a challenging site to say the least," Romanowski wrote, citing the irregular shape of the 1.013-acre property, with part of it fronting Michigan and the other fronting Maple, with different requirements on each street. "The applicants have gone to great lengths to redesign the project to minimize adverse impacts on the character of the neighborhood."

If approved, construction would take about 20 months, according to the application.

New rendering of the Lawrence, a proposed apartment complex on Michigan Avenue and Maple Street on the edge of the Fruit Belt. (Image courtesy of the Symphony Property Management)

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Former Carubba Collision owner takes over Linwood Avenue apartment project - Buffalo News

SAINT JOHN The mixed-income apartment complex that will replace the demolished Jelly Bean buildings at the corner of Wellington Row and Union Street is still being built, though construction will be starting a little later than previously forecast.

Construction on the complex, dubbed The Wellington, was expected to start by this spring at the latest. Now, its expected to begin by the fall.

In terms of the schedule, were hoping to break ground as early as fall of this year, said Narinder Singh, general manager of Saint John Non Profit Housing. Theres still a lot of Is we have to dot and Ts we have to cross in order to get there.

The complex, designed by Saint John-based firm Acre Architects, would set a new environmental and design standard for buildings being constructed in Saint Johns uptown core. It will comply with the Passive House Standards, which has rigorous environmental standards for energy efficiency.

The Passive House Standard is a design approach developed in Germany and Sweden in the 1990s to deliver large reductions in the energy used for heating and cooling buildings.

Some of its key features include a compact building shape, high levels of insulation in exterior walls, roofs, and under foundations. It will also have high-performance windows to minimize air leaks and electric car charging stations.

But Singh said since the project is so complex, some changes have had to be made since the initial design stages, hence the later construction start.

This project is a little bit more complex than your typical build because its quite innovative, he said. Its a building thats meeting Passive House Standards for environmental friendliness. Its going to be extremely energy efficient, so theres a lot of design issues related to that in a building this size to make that happen.

The overall urban design of the building is quite similar to the original renderings. It will be a six-storey building with 47 units, a mix of both subsidized and market-rate units. The ground floor will also have two commercial spaces, one ideal for a food-service business.

Some of the changes that have been made since the project has progressed from the early design stage include the placement of the windows and the decision to build it with mass timber, as opposed to stick-frame wood.

This is where the innovation and wood and the environment is really going. So [it will have] wood columns, wood floor slabs, said Stephen Kopp, partner at Acre Architects. What that allows us to do is interior in the units, if youre to look up in your living room, youd actually see exposed wood planks which are the structure.

Youre economizing, but also allowing that biophilic design and feeling of natural materials around you to be present. That also allows for quicker construction and its a light build too.

Another big change thats been made is all the units will meet universal design standards, so as tenants grow older, they can stay in their homes longer.

Its not for seniors by any means, said Kopp. The location should cater to a lot of people who want to live in the uptown. The thing about universal is they are convertible and if you do stay long-term in your spot, theyre ready for the challenges of aging.

Singh says recently announced development projects, like the complex being built on the old Gothic Arches site, are great for city and show that uptown is growing both physically and culturally. But he says the Wellington project play a slightly different role.

Our project is important because its mixed-income, said Singh. So not only are we providing housing for people of means at the market level, but were also providing housing for people who have lower incomes who have always lived in this area that would be pushed out as a result of the resurgence and gentrification thats happening in the south end.

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Construction Date Pushed Back For Apartment Complex To Replace 'Jelly Bean' Buildings - Huddle Today

The shows curators, Nicholas Dagen Bloom, a scholar and advocate of public housing, and Matthias Altwicker, a Brooklyn architect, document the various ways midcentury public housing reformers replaced slum tenements mostly with far less dense forms of urbanism. All those high-rise slab buildings and H-, Y- and T-shaped housing complexes were designed to provide tenants with more light, air and open space. They were about replacing slum tenements with quasi-suburban developments. The same approach defined middle-class projects like Co-op City in the Bronx. Low density was the point of building towers in the park.

So while the notorious Lower East Side tenements described by Jacob Riis in How the Other Half Lives packed in some 1,100 people per acre, leaving only 13 percent of the tenement blocks as open space, Queensbridge Houses in Queens, from 1939 one of the largest public housing complexes in North America was built for 245 people per acre. Three-quarters of the site remained open space.

Public housing was designed to take people out of the city, Mr. Freemark said, but denser urban neighborhoods are where people with choice have almost always preferred to live.

He cited Chicago, where the densest neighborhoods are mostly on the wealthier North Side. In New York, the largely well-to-do Upper West Side is one of the densest neighborhoods in the city; underserved East New York, in Brooklyn, is one of the least dense. Few buildings in New York are more densely populated than London Terrace, in Chelsea. Designed around the same time as Tudor City, its a 22-story behemoth with some 1,600 apartments. To build it, Henry Mandel, Frenchs rival, demolished rowhouses along West 23rd Street between Ninth and 10th Avenues.

While Mandel imagined working-class tenants occupying London Terrace, over the years John OHara, Nicole Kidman and Debbie Harry moved into the building. In 2013, the television producer David Chase bought Susan Sontags penthouse at London Terrace for $9.65 million.

London Terrace was built to house 931 people per acre. Its nearly four times as densely populated as Queensbridge, 18 times as dense as Co-op City, closer to the density of city centers in Paris and Barcelona.

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Everything You Think You Know About Housing Is Probably Wrong - The New York Times

In the nearly six months since a four-storey apartment was evacuated in Fort Saskatchewan, the condos president is hopeful owners can repair the building, and its lawyer said that repair could take up to seven months and cost millions of dollars.

This has been a very long and difficult time for us. Those in the evacuated building are still paying their mortgages, taxes, and condo fees as well as rent on another place to live, said George Cook, president of the Riverview Estates Condominium Board, at a news conference Monday.

Cook and five members of the board represent 87 condo owners, including 44 families who were forced to evacuate the complex at 9930 100 Ave. after the city of Fort Saskatchewan declared it structurally unsafe on Aug. 2.

A neighbouring apartment does not carry the same risk but, as members of the same Riverview Estates corporation, its unit owners could also be responsible for bearing the cost of repairs.

As the magnitude of the repairs has continued to unfold, to say that we are in shock is an understatement. The extent of the repairs and effect of the financial burden is heartbreaking. Many are worried that people may lose their homes or investments over this crisis, said Cook.

Riverview Estates is planning an information meeting in March after what Cook described as an onerous and complicated process, including working with engineers and a cost consultant, to come up with cost-effective solutions, Cook said. He thanked everyone who had a hand in helping, including the Red Cross, which was able to provide temporary hotel stays and food for those who needed it, he said.

This could have happened to anybody, said Hugh Willis, lawyer for the condo corporation. If owners approve a rebuild, it could be completed in five to seven months, Willis said.

The buildings problems are primarily in the crawl space under the first floor, said Willis.

In August, he said those problems appeared to be related to flaws in the buildings construction.

An inspection report by the citys safety codes officer in July 2002, obtained by Postmedia through an access to information request, notes that the crawl space foundation has been backfilled, but at that point, no poly or poly cover had been installed yet. In March 2003, another report said there was minor touch-up and clean-up work to do, but the apartment, built by Nova Construction Ltd., was ready for occupancy.

When residents first started complaining about spongy floors last summer, structural engineers were brought in to inspect and the citys safety codes officer issued an evacuation order.

The engineering company behind the condominium complex, Jacobsen Hage Engineering, had its engineering permit cancelled just one year after the condos were built.

lijohnson@postmedia.com

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Owners hopeful evacuated condo can be repaired, but it could cost millions - Edmonton Journal

Fire safety of apartments is one of the many legacy issues to be faced by government and it cannot be long-fingered until there is a tragedy, writes Eamon O'Boyle of Chartered Fire Engineers and Event Safety Consultants

It is essential that high-risk buildings be identified, and the initial focus should be on buildings where people sleep overnight. These include apartments, hotels, hospitals, dormitories and student accommodation blocks.

Fire safety of apartments is one of the many legacy issues to be faced by government and it cannot be long-fingered until there is a tragedy, writes Eamon OBoyle of Chartered Fire Engineers and Event Safety Consultants.

The British government recently announced that it intends to fund the replacement of unsafe aluminium cladding on all high-rise apartments. In the context of the Grenfell fire tragedy the then prime minister Theresa May said that it was of paramount importance that everybody is able to feel and be safe in their homes.

This surprise announcement will resonate with the many residents of apartments and other buildings in Ireland that were not built according to fire safety regulations and standards during the years of the Celtic Tiger.

It is interesting that much attention has been focused on apartments, but these were not the only category of building constructed during the boom.

The statutory position in respect of fire safety in apartment buildings in Ireland has been found to be deficient and has been the subject of a great deal of media commentary over the past number of years.

The statutory imperatives are included in two enactments, the Fire Services Acts 1981 and 2003 and the Building Control Act 1990 -2014.

The Fire Services Act 1981 and 2003 require owners/occupiers of premises to ensure that their premises achieve and maintain an adequate standard of fire safety in order to safeguard occupants.

This is achieved by ensuring that adequate escape routes, emergency lighting, protection against fire spread, fire detection and alarm systems, furnishings and fittings, fire safety management and training of occupants are provided.

The Building Control Acts 1990-2014 are centred on the following principal areas:1.) Building Regulations (Building Standards) (Part B of the Second Schedule addresses Fire Safety)2.) Building Control Regulation and Administration of Fire Safety Certificates3.) Powers of Enforcement and Inspection

The building regulations require that buildings are safe in the event of fire. The aims of the fire safety element of the building regulations are to provide: Means of Escape (Regulation B1): Internal Spread of Fire (Linings) (Regulation B2): Internal Spread of Fire (Structure) (Regulation B3): External Fire Spread (Regulation B4 Facilities for Fire Services (Regulation B5)

Responsibility for compliance with fire safety requirements in all buildings are matters for: The owner The designer The builder

Each has different responsibilities, but it is essential they each discharge their responsibility fully to ensure the highest level of fire safety within dwellings.

Where a dwelling is occupied by a person other than the owner, the occupier has a duty of care to ensure they act responsibly in relation to fire safety arrangements.

In 2014, the Building Control System was revised. The overall objective is to achieve better building construction, in compliance with building regulations. This is achieved through: Identification of specific roles and responsibilities Statutory certification inspection plans Lodgment of compliance documents with building control authorities.

Breeches of either act carry criminal sanctions but also involve implications in respect of title necessary for property transfer purposes.

The enforcement of both enactments has attracted much negative commentary with a few high-profile cases being litigated in the highest courts.

Priory Hall has illustrated the inherent fire risks of many apartment blocks. In many cases fire safety certificates were not complied with and the inherent faults were not apparent to residents.

While Priory Hall has since been made safe it is not known how many other apartments throughout the country are still dangerous.

The absence of reliable data on the extent of the problem is a key issue to be faced. Based upon a review of planning applications received in respect of apartments between 2005 and 2008, this would suggest that up to 6,000 apartments were constructed nationally.

It is reasonable to expect that 75% will still have legacy issues and not be fully compliant with fire safety regulations and standards based on our experience.

It is essential that high-risk buildings be identified, and the initial focus should be on buildings where people sleep overnight. These include apartments, hotels, hospitals, dormitories and student accommodation blocks.

It is estimated that the typical cost of remedial work per apartment would be in the region of 15,000. Based on these estimates and of work already completed the cost could be in the region of 100 million.

It is worth noting that NAMA spent 100 million on bringing properties for which it had responsibility up to standard.

It worth noting that the response to date has been to change the regime of regulation for the future but it does not address the evidence of widespread non-compliance with fire safety regulations.

Indeed, there has been little or no debate or proposals on the structuring or financing of the necessary remediation.

Local authorities have the power to order building owners to carry out a fire risk assessment and report the inspection findings with an action plan to repair faults.

The most common faults are in relation to fire stopping which prevents smoke from moving from one apartment unit to another.

Fire stopping is hidden in wall cavities and partitions and its absence can only be detected by professional inspection.

The retro-fitting of fire stopping measures can be done by professional and competent builders within a short period once the extent to the risk is identified.

This work must be undertaken under professional supervision. The subsequent issuance of compliance reports will allow owners to feel safe and add to the national housing stock that can be bought and sold based on need without a cloud hanging over its safety.

Fire safety of apartments is one of the many legacy issues to be faced by government and it cannot be long-fingered until there is a tragedy.

The direct intervention of government, as in the case of pyrite, may be the only workable solution. Initially, an action plan to quantify the scale of the problem must now be undertaken. Work must then begin to rectify faults based on assessment of risk and priority.

Author:Eamon OBoyle, director, Eamon OBoyle & Associates, Chartered Fire Engineers and Event Safety Consultants.

Fire safety of apartments is one of the many legacy issues to be faced by government and it cannot be long-fingered until there is a tragedy, writes Eamon O'Boyle of Chartered Fire Engineers and Event Safety Consultants.The British government recently announced that it intends to fund the replacement of...

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Fire regulations and legacy issues from the Celtic Tiger years - Engineers Journal

A housing developer has submitted a planning applicationwith Warwick District Council to turn to the old Earl Clarendon pub building in Kenilworth into four apartments.

Leamington-based home development company, Esprit Homes Construction Ltd., bought the pub building last year for 383,500.

The development company has applied to change the use of the property from a public house at 127 Warwick Road to four apartments at the same location.

People can submit comments about the pending planning application through the Warwick District Council planning portal online.

Statements of support have been submitted by two companies on behalf of the Leamington developers.

Esprit Homes Construction hired Hub Transport Planning Ltd to provide access and transport advice for the proposed residential development.

The proposal to convert the former pub building into provide four residential apartments includes two two-bedroom and two one-bedroom dwellings.

The site is located on the eastern side of the A452 Warwick Road, approximately 350m south of Kenilworth town centre.

The proposed apartment scheme will provide six dedicated parking spaces to the rear of the building for the four apartments, all of which will be provided with an electric charging point.

The Hub Transport Planning report said the average car ownership for the Kenilworth area is 1.39 cars per household, and based on that average, the required parking level for the development would be 5.56 spaces (1.39 x 4 apartments).

The developers also instructed Cerda Planning Limited to prepare a planning statement to support the change of use application.

The Cerda Planning report said the Earl Clarendon public house ceased trading in February 2019.

The supporting planning report also said a development of eight apartments located at nearby 131 Warwick Road was granted planning permission in March 2018.

The access to the apartments would be through the existing private access drive between numbers 131 and 135 Warwick Road and through the rear car park of the existing apartment building.

Access to apartment number 1 would be from the rear of the building with pedestrian access to apartments, 2, 3 and 4 from the central courtyard and garden of the existing apartment block.

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Plans to turn old Kenilworth pub building into apartments go to Warwick District Council - Kenilworth Weekly News