Eight single-family home lots on Somerset Way could be rezoned for multi-family housing development five years after city officials considered consolidating parcels to help market land that has remained stubbornly unsold.--News Photo Collin Gallant
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
Eight vacant house lots that have lingered in the city-led Southlands community could be rezoned for larger multi-family projects, the municipal planning commission heard on Wednesday.
That comes five years after the city’s land department suggested downgrading requirements to allow single-family homes to be built on subdivided lots in an effort to sell off the final parcels in the community drawn up in 2006.
A new application from the city’s land department suggests interest for townhomes, four-plexes or apartments is rising however, and potential for a sale could be near.
The area, on the 100 block of Somerset Way, is appropriate for higher-density housing units, said city planning officials at Wednesday’s meeting of the MPC. The housing style and ability to add more units on the eight lots, comprising about one acre, is in line with a newly adopted philosophy to create higher-density urban villages at strategic points.
“The site has never been developed and there is interest in a multi-family project there,” said Brad Irwin, a planning officer with the city. “It would support multi-family development on the site.”
Seven members of the MPC voted to forward the re-zoning application to city council, where a public hearing is required.
Commission chair Coun. Darren Hirsch asked about potential parking conflicts at the site, which is adjacent to single-family homes, but has large apartment and condo developments in the area.
The land could host on-site parking, said Irwin, but that would be dealt with when specific projects apply for development permits.
The sites, which back on to the beginning portion of S. Boundary Road near a regional commercial complex off Strachan Road, were originally designed to accommodate duplex construction. That is a permitted use in low-density zones.
In 2017, the land department told committees the sites were ones of few remaining in the subdivision that had not been sold in the previous 11 years since the community had been drawn up and serviced.
According to a new application, the city’s land department would remarket the sites to multi-family developers and consider consolidating some lots or subdividing others to meet configurations.
“These details will be determined when a more conclusive development proposal for the site is submitted,” the application reads.
Irwin said consolidation of the subdivision would be at the expense of the developer.
In other business on Wednesday, the MPC also forwarded a plan to rezone portions of land near Industrial Avenue to open space for zoning that would be left undeveloped.
Lots at 840 and 844 Industrial Ave. sit between Medalta Historic Clay District site and Seven Persons Creek and are currently zoned for mixed-use development as called for in the 2011 River Flats Redevelopment plan. If approved, portions would become a public utility zone and an environmental reserve with a “no planting” buffer of five metres to maintain the integrity of berm foundation.
Hearing delayed
A proposal to rezone land near Kipling Street toward building an affordable housing complex has been delayed by two weeks after procedural problems were uncovered from a meeting earlier this month.
On March 8 the commission heard a plan to change zoning from community service to medium-density residential at 1482 Fifth Ave. SE, 378/380 Kipling St. and a portion of undeveloped road. That would allow the green space to become a low-cost rental site.
However, MPC public member Theo Weigel had recused himself from the vote since he also sits on the board of the Medicine Hat Community Housing Society, but his absence left too few members to conduct an official vote under the MPC’s rules regarding quorum.
The MHCHS would receive the city-owned land and servicing as a donation toward the multi-partner project that has already received federal funding.
All other business from the March 8 meeting is considered in order. Related hearings are being scheduled by city council in April.
