At its regular meeting earlier this week, Lacombe City council gave first reading to an amendment of Land Use Bylaw 300 which would re-designate a small parcel of land at 4902 Beardsley Ave. from medium density residential (R4) to maximum density multiunit residential (R6).
Jennifer Kirchner, planner for the City of Lacombe, said that the application for the re-designation was received from Bemoco Land Surveying Ltd. on behalf of the property owner in order to develop a higher density residential building.
However, as the parcel of land is quite small, Kirchner added that based on rough calculations done by the planning department, any residential building built on it would likely contain less than 12 units.
“It would be a very small apartment building, it would not be a very large scale development,” said Kirchner.
Councillor Peter Bouwsema agreed that the parcel of land was quite small for any R6 development and expressed his confusion as to why anyone would try to develop it as such.
“I’m trying to understand why they would even consider doing this. It is so small, it just seems a waste of time.”
Kirchner said that rezoning the property would also shift the zone from discretionary use to a permitted use. She added that she believed this may have been the developer’s rationale behind the application.
Councillor Grant Harder stated his concerns about how any R6 development would be on the smaller parcel while its parent parcel remained R4. He added that, with the maximum height of the building being four storeys and being able to contain 12 units at the absolute most it may not be a very desirable option.
Council voted 6-1 in favour of giving first reading to the amendment with Harder voting against. A public hearing has been set for Feb. 24 at 6:30 p.m. in Council Chambers.