Council to deal with bylaw amendment requests

By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on December 7, 2024.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

City council will be dealing with several public hearings on Tuesday afternoon regarding proposed redevelopment projects in south Lethbridge.
One project involves a request to rezone properties at 404 and 408 123 St. S. to Direct Control to allow for their consolidation and the development of 12 dwelling units to appear as four townhouses with secondary suites and a fourplex.
A report to be presented to council by community planner Kurt Fisher says Direct Control would allow for the unique development that otherwise wouldn’t meet the requirements of a conventional residential land use district.
Both properties presently have a single detached dwelling and the applicant Kyle Wurzer wants to better utilize them in a way that would increase the diversity of housing choice in the neighbourhood.
The report to council says the properties are situated on the periphery of the London Road Neighbourhood and are within walking distance to downtown. They are situated in a mixed-use area of the London Road Area Redevelopment Plan with the area acting as a transition between the public and institutional uses of the Civic Centre block to the west and the residential nature of the neighbourhood to the east.
At a July open house, property owners had concerns about the impacts of street parking with the report saying the applicant explained there will be as much off-street parking as possible.
Council will also consider Bylaw 6460, an amendment to the LRARP regarding the vacant properties at 524, 528 and 532 13 St. S. on which a developer wants to build a structure with as many as 47 apartments and two commercial units or 49 apartments with no commercial units.
The applicant, Scott Varga of Sumus, wants to construct a building up to six stories in height and has applied to have the redevelopment plan amended for this specific site. Presently, the LRARP allows buildings only 2.5 storeys in height.
And council will also address Bylaw 6462, a Land Use Bylaw amendment for properties located at 537, 539 and 543 13 St. S. for the purpose of developing these into a six-storey apartment building with 47 apartments and two commercial units or 49 apartments.
The applicant is also Scott Varga of Sumus.
A report to council says this site has been vacant since previously existing homes were demolished in 2022 by a previous owner.
The parcels are situated in the Victorial Park neighbourhood and are zoned Direct Control.
The report to council says in the past several years multiple potential developers have discussed with the City rezoning the parcels but no formal applications have been made.
“While the predominant built form in the remainder of this block is low-rise residential, this may be too limiting to make the economics of redeveloping the site work. In short, new infill low-density homes are typically relatively
high in price, and there simply may not be a market for such homes at the intersection of two busy arterial roads such as this location,” says the report.
The report says that like other older neighbourhoods, Victoria Park’s population has likely fallen over the past several decades because household sizes have shrunk due to many factors.
The report notes adding more homes into centralized, accessible areas such as this “leads to increased walkability and reduced traffic impacts when compared to adding the same number of homes into neighbourhoods on the edge of the city” due to several factors.
Those include that people living in a central, walkable location have a greater number of travel options available to them and even when residents choose to drive, those driving distances and times are shorter, meaning less road congestion and pollution.
The report also says adding more homes would add “more eyes on the street,” increasing real and perceived safety. Commercial units at the site would also provide convenience for residents, the report adds.

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