Rezoning proposal defeated for downtown north

Times Reporter  

 

A request to rezone a portion of downtown north from R1 -single detached dwelling district- to R3, an apartment district, had community members questioning the proposal. 

The property, lot 29-31 block 17, plan 5894P, is located within the downtown overlay district. Corey Fehr of Abe Fehr Contracting was on hand to discuss the proposal. 

Fehr stated that they would be looking at building a two-storey, 12-unit condo building with 18 parking spaces. Fehr said it would be similar to a two-storey structure, except that it is sunk two feet into the ground, it would put the building overall at the same height as similarly sized bi-level structure, and two feet lower than a similarly sized two-storey structure. 

Concerns were raised in letters to the town regarding parking, traffic, dust control, privacy and water pressure. Brain Code, who lives on the block for which the proposal is being made, said he wanted to see the rezoning application switched from R3 to R2X, which is a mixed medium density attached housing district. Under permitted uses an R2X designation would allow 20 units or less in an attached dwellings/Duplex housing style. 

The problem with R3, said Code, is that there is a discretionary use, which could allow for an apartment of more than 30 units. He doesn’t think an R3 designation is appropriate, and said downtown north is going through a nice transition right now of going from smaller, older homes to row house units.  

“The development could have more people live in it than live on the entire block right now, the scale is completely out of proportion to the rest of the block which is entirely small, one-storey homes, there’s one other two-storey home on the block,” said Code.

Betty Ann Fountain, development officer for the Town of Strathmore, said attached housing could mean common walls, or houses that are stacked where there is common floor area and common walls. The Fehr’s proposal is classified as attached housing. 

In her closing statements to council Fountain said, “When Planning and Development receives an application for rezoning we consider a number of factors during the review of the application. We look at adjacent uses, the size of the site, access, parking and a number of other requirements under the Land Use Bylaw for this district. 

“The common themes and the concerns noted by the adjacent landowners are traffic, parking and back alley access. The site is approximately 18,589 square feet and could accommodate up to 12 units with 18 parking spaces and approximately 22 trees and 32 shrubs.”

Councillor Pat Fule was worried about setting a precedent in the rest of the neighbourhood if they choose R3 and he thinks that the proposal would fit more into an R2X. 

Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Linda Nelson stressed that the size of the site is also something to be looked at. You could not take an R1 site right beside the property being discussed and make it an R3 because it would not conform to the bylaw and meet the requirements. The proposed building does meet the R2X but it also meets the R3. The motion to rezone the area to an R3 district was defeated at second reading. 

Because the R2X is a different land use designation, the developer and the town have to start over. The proposed rezoning will need to be advertised again for a period of two weeks, and another public hearing will need to be held before it can be changed to R2X, if it passes all three readings.