A Home for the Future

149 West First Street

The home of the future may be here now. An application was made to council on October 2, 2024 for the construction of a fourplex on the currently vacant lot at 149 First Avenue West. The fourplex will consist of 2 units fronting on First Avenue and 2 units "fronting" on the lane. The units will be approximately 800 square feet each and all will have 2 bedrooms.

A bit of background information may be of assistance. The town recently adopted Zoning Bylaw No. 900 to align itself with the Province's Bill 44. As you may recall, Bill 44 required local governments to update their zoning regulations to permit small scale multi-unit housing. As a result, the property is permitted to have four dwelling units. As stated by the applicant, this proposal for the site effectively demonstrates how four units can be designed to fit on a small lot.

The staff report to council noted that the development application also requested a variance permit to vary the interior lot line setbacks as the proposal did not meet the minimum requirements. However it was stated in the staff report that this was unnecessary as the minor variance could be authorized by way of the development permit. In addition, the report noted that in an upcoming housekeeping review of the Zoning Bylaw, staff intend to request council eliminate certain setback requirements on the basis that they are inconsistent with the Province's recommended zoning guidelines. The staff recommendation to council was that the Development Permit application be referred to the Advisory Planning Commission (the "APC") for comment on compatibility with the Town's Interim Residential Guidelines ("the Guidelines") as well as parking access and street frontages.

From the ensuing discussions by council and responses from staff, it seems that the proposed project fits current zoning (but for the minor variance), that staff did not flag any conflicts with the Guidelines and was in line with the Province's recommendations for infill development. At one point in the meeting it appeared that council was going to forgo the reference of the application to the APC and approve the issuance of a development permit for the project.

However prior to that happening, the discussion turned to parking. The applicant is proposing one parking space per unit, with 2 spaces accessed off First Avenue and two spaces accessed from the rear lane. Basically, the occupants of the First Avenue units would have a shared driveway off the street and park their vehicles in front of their units. The same situation would exist for the two rear units with the shared driveway being off the lane.

In the report to council staff stated that "allowing the driveways eliminates two parallel parking spaces on First Ave, so there is essentially no net increase in parking... (and) recommend eliminating the driveways on First Ave. which would require a (new) variance to the number of parking stalls but would increase livability and allow for front yard landscaping and a continuous sidewalk".

With respect to parking, it was discussed whether the proposed footprint of the building could be moved forward and all four of the parking spaces be located at the rear of the building, thus eliminating the need for a driveway on First Avenue and the loss of street parking. This raised the question of the number of trees that would have to be removed from the lane for access and parking. At the end of the discussion, the staff recommendation to refer the application to the APC to comment on the compatibility with the Guidelines and parking was amended to add that the APC also look at the site plan and the possibility of moving the building forward to provide parking for four cars at the rear.

A motion to that effect was passed with Mayor Westbroek and Councillors Vander Valk and Skipsey voting in favour. Councillors Harrison and Young voted against the motion. Presumably, they were in favour of issuing the Development Permit at the meeting without further review.

So back to the drawing board from what appeared to have been an almost issued development permit for badly needed housing. The home of the future may not be here yet.

J Noel

October 3 2024

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Meeting Agenda Documents This project starts at Page 60