CAMBRIDGE — What used to be the Preston Springs Hotel is now being proposed for 753 residential units in the form of three residential towers
ranging from 22-26 storeys tall.
The Hotel was demolished in December 2020, along with two single-detached dwellings, and the 1.15-hectare site has since sat vacant,
awaiting development.
The site is 102 Fountain Street South and 199 Abraham Street, located on the west side of Fountain Street.
Developer Haastown Holdings has retained GSP Group Inc., which has applied to rezone the entire site and re-designate a portion of the subject lands for the proposed development, which would offer residential and commercial use.
The developer has requested three towers of 22, 24, and 26 storeys in the proposal.
A 5-storey enclosed parking podium and one level of underground parking along with 420 square metres of ground-floor commercial space
varying between each tower is also proposed.
Haastown Holdings has submitted applications for zoning and Official Plan amendments to the city.
The report states the site is zoned ‘Institutional’ and ‘Multiple Residential’ (N3RM3).
“The Site is designated as ‘Community Core Area,’ ‘Preston Towne Centre,’
and ‘Low/Medium Residential’ in the City of Cambridge Official Plan,” as stated in the report for the development proposal.
The rezoning application requests to rezone the subject lands to a
‘Commercial and Multiple Residential Zone’ (C1RM1) and add site-specific
provisions to permit a decrease in the required parking, increase
density, building height, and setbacks.
In the application, the developer proposes to keep the land designation
‘Community Core Area,’ apply it to the entirety of the site and add a site-specific policy to reflect height and density increase requests.
The current allowed density in the RM1 zone across the 1.15-hectare site
is 287 units per hectare. The proposed development requests 753 units,
equivalent to 654 units per hectare.
The proposed site-specific policy requests the allowance of increased density for the site.
No current maximum building height regulations exist in Cambridge Zoning By-law in the Preston Towne Centre.
Details for the requested decrease in parking requirements, setbacks, and building height are described below.:
A request to decrease the parking requirement for apartments of 1.0 space per dwelling unit for residents and 0.25 for visitors to 1.0 space per dwelling unit for both residents and visitors.
A parking reduction of 25% for non-residential use has also been requested. The development proposes 682 parking spaces, whereas 767 spaces are required.
The requested setbacks include the side yards and the front yard. The setback for the front yard of the site is required to be 4.5m to provide room for pedestrians.
As a covered colonnade is proposed and would be approximately 5.0m deep, the developer is requesting that the colonnade work as a substitute for pedestrian use.
It is intended that the colonnade would provide protection from cars and weather conditions, as it is covered and enclosed. Also, the report states the colonnade would create ‘an urban feature across the frontage of the buildings.’
Based on the proposed tower heights, the side yard setbacks from the
development are required to be 12.0m. The developer is proposing yard
setbacks of 2.7m for the north side yard and 1.2m for the south side yard.
As the report states, the reason for the reduced setbacks is “As all of the
parking for the Proposed Development is structured internally to the building, it is necessary to maximize the building envelope.”
The development proposal also requests a restricted 89.2m, 82.7m, and 76.4m maximum tower heights, equivalent to 26, 24, and 22 storeys, as stated in the report.
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