The Town of Canmore is applying to the Court of Queen’s Bench to throw out an application for judicial review of a council bylaw approval to rezone land in the Peaks of Grassi subdivision.
Council approved the Peaks Landing development earlier this year through a rezoning bylaw that changed the four acres of land from urban reserve to residential. The bylaw essentially paved the way for three lots along Lawrence Grassi Ridge to be subdivided into 18 lots and eventual development of five single-family detached units, eight duplex units and 14 townhouse units – seven of which are proposed to be perpetually affordable housing.
The development proposal has not been without controversy in the community. Residents in the subdivision opposed the rezoning application and as a result of council approval, sought the judicial review into the decision.
Peaks resident Mark Gruman filed the judicial review application with the Court of Queen’s Bench and was granted an interim injunction in April. The injunction is temporarily in place, preventing the property owners from moving forward on the development until a hearing could be held this past Tuesday (June 21).
That hearing, said Canmore’s general manager of municipal infrastructure Michael Fark, was postponed to July 21. The purpose of the hearing was to determine if an injunction would be granted by the courts until a full judicial review could be heard by a judge in January 2017. The concern of those who oppose the development is that without an injunction, the property owners would proceed with obtaining a development permit and begin construction before a judicial review could be heard.
Fark said the June 21 scheduled hearing did not allow enough time for Gruman, who is a Calgary-based lawyer, and the municipality’s counsel to make full arguments in the matter.
In the meantime, Fark said the Town’s legal counsel, Michael Aasen with McLellan Ross, has made an application to have the judicial review dismissed entirely and that will also be heard by the judge on July 21.
“The Town has brought a cross-application to have it dismissed,” he said. “That is one reason for the time delay; to hear both applications there was not sufficient time to argue both.”
Three Peaks residents – Lawrence Hill, Pierre Doyon and Dan Madlung – own the land in question. They acquired the four acres from Three Sisters Mountain Village, which approached a number of local developers with the land for sale two years ago.
The owners previously applied for rezoning in 2015 and were denied by council – that proposed bylaw included two perpetually affordable housing units. There was strong opposition to the development in the neighbourhood and throughout the community as inappropriate because it was felt the subdivision has reached build-out as set out by a 1998 settlement agreement between the Town of Canmore and Three Sisters Mountain Village at that time, which limited the number of units permitted in the subdivision.
On the other hand, there was also broad support expressed in the community for infill developments that provide a net community benefit through Canmore’s own perpetually affordable housing program administered through Canmore Community Housing Corporation. The second rezoning application for the land included seven PAH units as part of it, and councillors who voted in favour of the rezoning referenced the community benefit.
