An empty lot at the corner of Fourth Street and Second Avenue is the focus of a rezoning application to build a single-family home on the 65-foot wide lot currently designated for small apartment block or townhouses.--News photo Collin Gallant
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
Collin Gallant
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com
Twitter: CollinGallant
A new rezoning proposal asks city council to weigh two of its key priorities – expand the tax base in the long-term by supporting higher-density housing projects, or get construction rolling sooner on an empty lot near downtown.
Wednesday’s meeting of the municipal planning commission heard an application to allow a single home to be built on a empty corner lot at 214 Fourth St. SE.
It is currently zoned to medium-density residential to promote new four-plex, townhomes or apartment buildings near downtown, as is the entire block in a plan to bring greater population to the city centre.
It also sits across the street from low-density residential areas spelled out in plan to manage housing density in areas west of the city centre, and is meant to be a “transition” zone to protect the single-family character of most of the neighbourhood.
However, planning staff say that with a proposal before them to build a large single residence on the 60-foot-wide lot that has been vacant since 2016, the commission and council should make an exception to planning policy to hasten development.
“Essentially, the plan states that only a medium-density development can be built on the site,” said planning officer Erin Onoferychuk. “A home could be built there with little to no impact to surrounding properties.”
Staff say, ideally, developers would buy several adjacent properties, combine them and move forward with a multi-family project, but that can take years for properties to come up for sale.
The commission approved the matter unanimously, sending it to a public hearing at council in late April, but not before some discussion.
Member Ken Murdoch asked what the change would mean for the long-term prospects on the block
“By allowing this aren’t we sterilizing the rest of the block for new multi-family projects?” he asked. “Do it and you guarantee that the next two houses in will remain single-family residential.”
The entire side of the block is zoned for medium-density residential property and features three substantial apartment complexes along with five homes.
Across the street, the former Earl Kitchener School was rezoned in 2013 to allow the conversion, and later the playground was subdivided and one home was built on three city lots.
Commission chair Coun. Brian Varga told the News city council is committed to adding density, but infill development is positive.
“You have to have someone willing to buy properties and pay to do that sort of development, and sometimes it’s not the easiest thing to go into older areas and do that,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s feasible or the profit margins are there in this case.
“It’s already been six years since anything happened with that land, so it’s nice to see something happening.”
The change also asks council to go against some points in the Herald Redevelopment Plan, drafted six years ago in response to homeowner concerns that commercial and multi-family housing would encroach into residential areas west of downtown.
It concluded that multi-family housing should only be encouraged on the fringe of the greater city centre, or next to similar developments, and that zoning shouldn’t be swapped back and forth.
