Council unanimously approved creation of a direct control district in the Bow Valley Trail area to allow for a five-storey rental apartment building on Monday (March 21).
The decision came after a public hearing held at the beginning of March at which neighbouring residents raised a number of concerns regarding the proposed change of use.
Development planner Patrick Sorfleet went through the direct control district’s regulations as well as concerns raised.
One of the biggest changes from what is permitted in the Bow Valley Trail district is that the building is proposed to be 100 per cent residential. In the surrounding district, only 50 per cent residential is permitted.
“The substantive change to this district is to allow 100 per cent of the district to be residential,” Sorfleet told council.
Other major departures from what is regularly in the Land Use Bylaw for developments in the area is a considerable reduction in parking requirements, reduced architectural and urban design requirements and an increased maximum height.
The site is located on Old Canmore Road behind the Coast Hotel – both properties are owned by Canmore resident Michael Hannan. The proposed development is for a building that would be entirely rental housing, but that is something that cannot be guaranteed in rezoning, Sorfleet said.
He said council is also not able to restrict rental rates in the building, but they are proposed to be at market rates.
In order to keep the building as rental, something council has identified as being needed in the community, it needs to be tied to a reduced parking requirement. Sorfleet said by reducing the amount of parking required, for the owner to turn around and condominiumize the building would be far more difficult as they would have to provide the additional parking on site.
Councillor Joanna McCallum noted that if the property owner wanted to subdivide and sell the building as condos, they would have to return to council to do so because there is no room on the lot for more parking.
“The more full the site is for parking, the harder it is to accommodate parking,” she said. “This is the best way to incentivize rental.”
There were concerns at the public hearing about parking along Kananaskis Way, but Sorfleet said all developments must provide parking on site.
“Existing developments have no right over parking on the street,” he said.
Sorfleet also said there are no property rights over views, as there were concerns that the height of the building at five storeys, or 21 metres, would affect those.
McCallum said knowing the building has less parking may translate into attracting tenants with fewer cars. With the regional transit stop nearby, local transit set to start in fall and that it’s within walking distance of downtown – she said the development is well suited to those who do not own a vehicle.
“I do firmly believe people with two to three cars will choose somewhere else to live,” she said. “The way we build things changes behaviours.”
Council unanimously supported second and third reading for the bylaw. Mayor John Borrowman said the project addresses a need in the community that has been hard to meet – housing availability. The mayor pointed to the Mining the Future vision for the community created a decade ago that set out housing in all segments of the community as a priority.
“For 10 years, housing availability and affordability have been identified as problems to address and we have had very little success in the intervening years,” he said. “While this is not the same as perpetually affordable housing, it increases dramatically the availability of rental units.”
The new apartment building is permitted to allow 90 units, which Borrowman said would increase the number of rental units available throughout the community.
The overarching impact to the community of the rezoning was supported by Coun. Sean Krausert, who said the town is in desperate need of more rental housing. Krausert said greater supply can translate into greater affordability, both of which are a top priority.
“I am hoping that between the efforts of Canmore Community Housing Corporation and others, within a few years the needle will have moved on accessibility of housing in Canmore,” he said.
