After a heated and lengthy public hearing, a dense development in South Riel is moving forward, which will see some of the smallest residential lots in the city.
City council during Tuesday night’s meeting approved many of the changes brought forward by developer Averton as it moves forward on its Midtown district. The project is aiming to develop 800 residential units, seniors housing and standalone commercial properties while achieving a density of more than 80 units per hectare.
The development would be the first of its kind in St. Albert.
While Averton didn’t get everything it wanted, the company’s president Paul Lanni said he was satisfied with the outcome.
“There was a lot of people who came out with their concerns last night,” he said on Wednesday. “I would suggest there’s probably people that didn’t come forward who were supportive. I think people do recognize the need for the diverse outcomes for housing in St. Albert. Overall, we’re satisfied because we do have a path towards starting construction of our first phase for 2019.”
The development is broken up into three areas named A, B and C.
Area A will be the first stage and is located closer to Riel Drive. Areas A and B will primarily be townhouses. Area C, which was planned to have stacked townhouses to achieve a 125 dwelling unit per residential hectare, didn’t receive support to be redistricted.
Area C was the most contentious part of the development, as evidenced by residents who attended the council meeting. The development calls for buildings between six and 12 storeys.
Among the changes approved by council: reducing the common amenity area from 1,000 square feet to 500; closing Riel Road to allow for the access point to be moved farther north; removing plans for a signalized intersection at Riel Road and Riel Drive; and redistricting area A and B.
The majority of these passed in a 6-1 vote with Coun. Sheena Hughes often the lone opposition with two exceptions. Coun. Ken MacKay joined her in voting against amending the Area Structure Plan and land use bylaw.
Hughes voiced several concerns with what Averton planned to do, especially in regards to reducing green space in the area.
“We’re looking at more people getting less space,” she said.
“We’re telling developers the new way of doing things in this city is you come to council, show them your plan, you give them very nice photos, you use the key buzz words and then you get the land use bylaw conformed to whatever you want. The land use bylaw doesn’t apply as long as you can use political pressure to get out of it.”
Hughes also accused Averton of knowing it couldn’t meet the 80 units per hectare requirement and would have to come to council for special consideration.
Lanni countered the intention when the land was purchased in 2007 was to follow what was already approved, which was 80 units per hectare. He said her description of the company’s intentions wasn’t fair.
“What my concern was with that original land use was that it was the most conducive towards community-oriented living because it was basically a layered cake of uses,” he said. “The original developer created individual parcels more conducive to a block of apartments here, a block of apartments there. We took the time to really carefully map out how we can achieve our already approved 80 units per hectare with an outcome that was more conducive to a healthy and vibrant community.”
Lanni added his company worked hard with city staff to develop the site.
Hughes’ accusations of political influencing sparked response from both councillors MacKay and Ray Watkins who told their elected colleague they were “a little offended”. MacKay said he relied on the information presented to him by administration to make his decision while Watkins drew on his years of experience as a developer.
“I’m hard-pressed to see how this one development is going to change the whole character of the City of St. Albert,” Watkins said. “We all know that planning is not precedent-setting. Each planning issue is dealt with on its own. Land use bylaws are an evolving document. They change constantly. There’s always needs to update them. They’re a living document.”
City planner Lyndsay Francis told council that high-density developments are traditionally located in downtown cores, which can be supported by transit. Suburban, on the other hand, relies on personal vehicles to get around.
She said the proposal doesn’t change the amount of density as it is still planned for 81 units per hectare, however, the density is being relocated. High density is now being completely shifted to area C while areas A and B will be medium density.
In order to keep the density targets for areas A and B, Francis said area C will have to pick up the slack to ensure the overall site density doesn’t decrease.
“This is because a decrease in density would require approval from the Edmonton Metropolitan Region Board (EMRB). Administration suggested the applicant apply to the EMRB to reduce the density, however, the applicant did not want to go through the EMRB approval process because it would add three months approval time.”
Approximately 2.24 hectares of land will be given to the city for municipal reserve and used as a park.
Francis also explained that on-street parking will be limited.
“There will only be on-street parking within ... the neighbourhood residential road, which will be a city-owned road,” she added. “Since they’re such small lots and driveway cuts, there’s not going to be room for on-street parking.”
Sidebar
The South Riel development by Averton required a number of changes for it to go forward.
Here’s a brief look at some of those changes and what the developer of what is being called the Midtown district plans to do.
The Edmonton Metropolitan Region Board is urging municipalities to focus on density. St. Albert’s goal, in general, is to achieve 40 units per hectare. The Averton development is looking to double that by having 80 units per hectare.• The project needed council to approve some areas to be redistricted to allow for different density targets. Areas A and B were approved and will be kept as medium density. Area C, which received a lot of negative feedback from residents, wasn’t approved as it proposed to be a high-density area.
• Averton needed the areas redistricted because of how it plans to meet its density targets. The plan, in order to meet those targets, is to spread it out across the site, with area C picking up much of the slack.
• The number of units for the Midtown site is 410 medium density units and 359 high-density units. This means area A will have to have an overall density of 40 units per hectare, area B 60 and area C 186.
• Area A will be allowed to have a maximum of four storeys, area B five storeys and area C a proposed range of six to 12 storeys.
