Land-use change on semi-detached homes build in Bonnyville going to public hearing

Whether the Town will change the land-use in a certain area of Bonnyville to allow a developer to build semi-detached homes will go to a public hearing. 

A developer is interested in building eight properties on the east end of town, near Shaw Estates, at 3603, 3605, 3607, 3609, 3611, 3613, 3615, and 3617 on 53 Avenue. 

Their semi-detached homes idea does not mesh with the current of R2 – Single Family Small Lot Residential District and would need to be changed to R3 – Medium Density Residential District in order to start construction. 

At Tuesday night’s council meeting, council gave first reading. 

That means it’ll move to a mandatory public hearing, allowing residents’ feedback on the potential change, before council could do second and third reading. 

Part of the issue of why it’s up for council consideration is because they want to maximize space on the lots, as asked by councillor Phil Kushnir. 

“The homes they want to build are single level. There’s no basements, so they wanted to maximize the floor space that they can achieve on the lot without any setbacks,” said Joe Kopala, director of Planning, in response at the council meeting. 

“By going to an R3 zone where they can do the semi-detached with the party wall on the property line, they don’t lose that five feet on that one side of the lot.”

Response

The Town did send out notices to neighbours at these properties and thus far have received one letter. 

The respondent, whose name was redacted in the council package, said this change would have a detrimental impact on the neighbourhood.

They say that area is already congested with parking on narrow streets, and only one way in or out of the neighbourhood, and are concerned with their property value. 

“I strongly urge you to reconsider the proposed bylaw change. This amendment is simply not the right fit for this neighbourhood,” the letter said. 

Kopala added that there would be back lanes.

Mayor Elisa Brosseau was cool to the idea.

“We have an Area Development Plan that clearly lays out our long-term vision. And I think just in my perspective, if we’re going to start to rezoning and contravening what we’ve already approved, it’s not something that I personally would like to see us do,” she told council.

The Town has made a point by incentivizing new homes with kickbacks for developers, included in this year’s budget.

It was clarified that this does not affect the zoning of the entire area. And each decision would be made case-by-case.

The public hearing would happen at the next council meeting on Tuesday, August 26. The Town typically cancels the second regular meeting of July and first regular meeting of August.