Confusion regarding Lakewood Meadows

Miriam Ostermann
Times Associate Editor

 

After some door-knocking and petitioning efforts, spearheaded by two Hillcrest community members, approximately 20 residents living on Hillcrest Blvd showed up to the Sept. 2 Strathmore town council meeting. They were pleased with town council’s decision to oppose zoning changes to an 11-acre parcel to R2X Medium Density Attached Housing District.
Town council was perplexed and frustrated during the council meeting when administration presented them with two items: amend the Lakewood Meadows Area Structure Plan (ASP) to include the 11-acre parcel, and change the land use designation from Agriculture General District to R2X Medium Density.
When the Area Structure Plan was adopted in 2012, it excluded the parcel on the northeast corner on the south side of Range Rd. 244, because the owner at the time did not want to participate in the process. As a result, the parcel was left without an ASP. Under the Municipal Development Plan (MDP), all lands recently annexed into the town are required to be supported by an ASP prior to any development.
When the land was sold, the new owner showed interest in subdividing and developing the land, and council was asked to include the parcel in the surrounding ASP.
However, council was also asked to consider re-designation for the area, a situation 28 out of the 33 neighbouring residences took issue with.
“At the end of the day it wasn’t just ‘you’re wrecking my view.’ There were a whole lot of things and I think council touched on a lot of our concerns,” said Caroline Mongrain-Schappert, who, together with her neighbour Jeff Worne, began the door knocking and petition process.
“I was quite shocked that the town council didn’t know more about the proposed bylaws. They seemed a bit confused. That shocked me because I sent in eight pages of questions.”
The developer proposed to build townhouses on the parcel that could house a maximum of 20 units based on the current water and sewage capacity. The R2X re-designation would allow for a height of 12 meters and allow for a variety of housing styles. The adoption of the bylaw, Bylaw 15-13, would permit consideration of a subdivision application for Lakewood Meadows.
“As staff have indicated this application conforms to the MDP, both in map and in policy,” said Pat Maloney, who represented the developer.
“The residential development goal of the Municipal Development Plan is to create complete communities, which offer a range of housing to suit the variety of needs of the current and future community as the town of Strathmore continues to grow. In this case, we are looking at R2X which allows for attached housing.”
However, when Mongrain-Schappert received the town notification informing adjacent landowners of the proposed bylaws, she began educating herself, sent in questions to town administration, and started collecting signatures.
“There’s a lot of questions about seepage, there’s wildlife, there’s wetlands, there’s all kinds of issues that were a little bit vague,” she said.
“Some of us didn’t live there when the current ASP went through … when it was proposed in 2011 and signed in 2012. I don’t think people at that time understood fully the current development they’re doing now, and so people are really angry that they didn’t ask more questions back then.”
Mongrain-Schappert said most people in her neighbourhood were worried about more buildings being constructed in the area, rise in crime, increase in traffic, property value decline, preservation of mature trees on the property, road widening, and seepage.
Maloney did address some of the concerns, mentioning a biophysical impact assessment, traffic impact assessment update, geotechnical investigation and a Phase 1 environmental site assessment. She said there was good access to major roadways and the town wetland assessment failed to identify any wetlands. During an open house, only six residents were present and voiced concerns to the devaluation of adjacent properties. Residential development had always been planned for the area. She also informed council that they should try and keep as many trees as possible, after Councillor Brad Walls inquired about the issue that was of concern to him.
In the end, council decided to approve Bylaw 15-02 to amend the Lakewood Meadows Area Structure Plan, with Councillor Bob Sobol absent and Councillor Brad Walls and Councillor Steve Grajczyk opposed. Council then defeated Bylaw 15-13 land use amendment.