An application for proposed zoning changes supporting multiple-family dwellings on a portion of the Salmon Arm SmartCentres property is going to city council.
Received at the Aug. 6 development and planning services committee, along with comments by SmartCentres' development senior director Brent Savard, the application seeks to amend the city's zoning bylaw to accommodate the development of "residential multiple family dwelling (apartment) buildings" in the comprehensive development zone 8 (CD8) at 2991 9th Ave. SW, and "address related on-site parking, height and setback requirements."
SmartCentres' vision for the property is laid out in a proposal letter from Savard. A concept plan for the unpaved area east of the Winners/Dollarama lot includes two six-storey buildings with 130 residential units in one and 95 in the other. The buildings would include a mix of one- and two-bedroom units.
"The purpose of the text amendments is to position the property to allow residential development to occur when the market and financial conditions improve," reads Savard's letter. "The intent is to phase the municipal approvals process, with the initial step being the zoning text amendments, followed by development permits for one or more residential buildings."
Future plans also include two new commercial buildings, each about 5,000 square feet, beside Winners at the northeast end of the parking lot.
To accommodate the proposed residential development, the applicant seeks to increase the allowable maximum building height for the principal building from 12 metres (39.4 feet) to 19 m (62.3 ft).The applicant also wishes to reduce the minimum parking requirement for off-street parking from 1.25 spaces per dwelling to .82. SmartCentres is also asking to reduce the minimum setbacks for the principal and accessory buildings (apartments), and a reduction to the minimum parcel size or site area from 2 ha to .202 ha.
Coun. Sylvia Lindgren asked Savard if Smartcentres would retain ownership of the property and develop it, or if the property would be sold to someone who might do something similar to what's been proposed. Savard said at this time no decision has been made.
"Our preference is always to retain the properties and develop them and manage them ourselves," said Savard."We may look for a partner to help develop… but the intent is for us to develop."
Referring to the conceptual site plan, Coun. Tim Lavery asked where kids would play.
"In and around the site there are trail networks that are available to be used by the general public, but in terms of this site itself and the concept, there are some general areas that we could look at amenity space but we haven't designed anything or placed anything on the property," said Savard.
Lindgren later asked about access to, and parking for the development. Savard said two more accesses would be added onto 9th. As for parking, he said there would be some designated spots that would wrap around the residential buildings, "but generally speaking you could essentially park anywhere you want on the property from a residential point of view and from a retail point of view."
"We see this as more than manageable considering the amount of excess parking we actually have on the property and so we just envision residents and customers alike parking anywhere on the property and, secondly to that, the peak hours for retail are completely different from the peak hours for residential. Retail will generally occur midday whereas residential will occur later in the evening and early in the morning."
Continuing on the topic of parking, Mayor Alan Harrison asked about the impact of the 5,000-square foot retail building by Winners.
"The idea here is we don't want to completely eliminate the concept of commercial on the property, we just want to redistribute it in a different matter where we're creating more of a mixed use community… the intent is to utilize some of the existing parking that is in front of the Winners location today…," said Savard, saying the study was conducted over Christmas and peak utilization. Of 200 parking stalls, he said roughly 67 per cent were being used.
"So that basically tells us we have more than enough parking to accommodate for the residential development as well as for the additional two buildings that are there."
Should the application proceed to council, prior to final reading staff required a traffic impact analysis (TIA) from the applicant. Savard said one had already been completed and submitted to the city.
"Basically what it determined in comparison to the commercial versus the commercial and residential, we would actually have a decrease in the number of vehicles coming to the site," said Savard. "That reduction is roughly 200 vehicle trips. And that again is having different periods of peak hours where commercial is occurring midday versus residential occurring at night and in the morning."
Asked if the units would be rental or fee simple, Savard said this has not yet been determined, but the preference would be to do rental.
Harrison later confirmed with staff there would be no public hearing for the application after first reading before sharing his closing comments. He stressed there is no proposed change in land use, and that protection of Hobbs Creek continues to be in place. He said what's being asked is to allow residential development to occur on the property without commercial underneath.
Referring to the currently ongoing official community plan review, "generally what people are saying is we are in favour of densification, we understand we need to go up and not out, but they're also quite specific about where that densification should occur, especially high density densificaiton."
"Part of the concern is because we live on a hill that those tall buildings will change the nature of our city and especially block site lines – so we have to be fairly selective. This site is very appealing for that reason," said Harrison, adding high density residential development at the SmartCentres site would not negatively impact other residents. "So the philosophy piece there and the area that's selected I think certainly meets what many of our residents understand and that we understand here."
Harrison shared his appreciation of council's questions "because, if we do agree to change that zone to allow this, we want to make sure that the quality of life for those people that live there is the best it can be…"
With Couns. Kevin Flynn and David Gonella absent, the committee voted unanimously in support of the application proceeding to council.
