An empty lot at the corner of Fourth Street and Second Avenue has been rezoned to accommodate a single-family home on the 65-foot wide.--NEWS FILE PHOTO
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A local couple can build a single-family home on a lot near downtown once slated for higher density housing after council unanimously approved a zoning change Monday.
Citing council’s goal of spurring infill development to build the tax base, members voted 9-0 in favour of the change, with some councillors suggesting zoning in the entire city should be studied and potentially loosened.
That would mean reopening a five-year plan that was said to balance preservation of the area east of downtown while promoting a longstanding goal of building population in the city centre.
“I wonder if it’s time to revisit that plan,” said Coun. Julie Friesen, referring to the Herald Area, which council has dealt with a handful of times since 2016 and generally voted against its recommendations.
Coun. Phil Turnbull said moving construction ahead faster should be the goal, rather than waiting for more valuable projects to materialize.
“No plan is carved in stone,” he said, adding he expected the project to add to the neighbourhood. “We have to be flexible and adapt … We need to do infill and absolutely need to build our tax base.”
Coun. Jim Turner asked staff why such a change, requested at the MPC in early April, took so long to be approved.
The vacant lot in question sits at the corner of Fourth Street and Second Avenue, on a whole block zoned as medium density residential. However, it is the last on the block that already has several apartments to be so zoned.
It has been on the market for several years advertised as build-to-suit opportunity by a Medicine Hat homebuilder which stated in application that there was no market interest for multi-family projects.
The 60-by-150 foot lot was across from the former Earl Kitchener School, which became a single residence in 2014. Several years later the school playground, originally zoned medium density was rezoned so one house could be built on a triple-wide lot, against guidelines in the Herald plan.
The Herald Redevelopment Plan was launched in order to assuage homeowners west of downtown nervous about encroachment of commercial projects, but aimed to balance protections with the city’s long-standing goal to boost population.
Eventually planners proposed that set zoning should stay in place and higher density building take place on the fringe of the core moving outward.
Coun. Robert Dumanowski supported the specific change, but said planning documents lay out best use of land and should be considered significant.
“Otherwise the plan holds no weight,” he said. “So many times we hear the argument (for changes) ‘Well it’ll be better than what’s there now,’ I don’t believe that’s how a redevelopment plan should work.”
Coun. Kris Samraj also said rezoning hearings gave neighbouring property owners a voice in the process, but council is often going against set guidelines.
“The land-use bylaw need flexibility,” he said. “I think in many cases there’s a misalignment between what we think (initially in planning documents) and what the market will bear.”
Mayor Ted Clugston argued the lot was simply too small for multi-family construction – though documents show it exceeds minimum requirements – and that adjoining land acquisition would take too long.
