A vacant lot on Fifth Street on the Southeast Hill may be rezoned back to allow a single-family home construction several years after a developer successfully applied to build a four-plex.--News Photo Collin Gallant
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
A Southeast Hill house lot, rezoned two years ago in order to build a four-plex, could be rezoned back to the lower density designation, the municipal planning commission heard Wednesday.
The lot at 29 Fifth St. SE is vacant after the previous home was torn down and rezoned in 2021 as a local development company proposed a four-unit condo on the site near the intersection with Division Avenue.
That area, including largely commercial mixed-use zoning, including a Safeway grocery store and the Moose Recreation Centre, is part of an area set aside in high-level city planning documents for intensification.
The 2021 decision by council rested largely on a long-term strategy that replacing lower-density housing with more units on the same plot was good for the tax base and required in the city’s central area. The four-plex was also seen as a transition between businesses and detached home on the block, though three neighbours formally objected.
This week, the MPC heard the lot has sat vacant since the decision, and now a new owner was requesting the zoning change.
Planning manager Robert Sissons said the LD-R zone does not limit the lot to a detached single-family house, but a variety of housing styles could be built, including duplexes, secondary or backyard suites.
What is actually planned for the site will not be known until a development permit is received.
Previous owner, Gas City Ventures, confirmed to the News it no longer owns the property.
It was approved and will be the subject of a public hearing and decision at council in May.
The planning department supports the change back using several of the same arguments used to support the higher-density zoning in the summer of 2021.
At that point, zoning changed from low-density residential to medium-density residential in an area that has a large amount of mixed-use zoning.
That allows both commercial and residential development. The neighbourhood is within the Herald Development Plan, which gives weight to preserving single-detached homes, but is also one of several “urban transects” as laid out in the city’s municipal development plan.
Such areas, typically along major road networks with commercial already in place, are set aside for increased focus redevelopment.
The current proposal to reduce density requirements also “aligns with the policies of the MDP,” according a planning department summary, as well as council’s strategic priority of maximizing “infill and brownfield development and revitalization of existing areas.”
At the June 2021 hearing, the rationale from the planning office was that higher-density housing units aligned with an overall goal of intensifying development in existing neighbourhoods and urban transect areas.
City council approved the change on the site, which is slightly smaller than a minimum requirement for a medium-density lot, citing a need to spur construction activity with a proposal that would “encourage minor increases” in use, according to planners, while considering the character of the street.
