On an evening that saw Prince Rupert Council members need just eight minutes to work their way through their Agenda for the night, the topic of the request for a variance permit for the proposed Drake Crescent Townhomes development used up three and a half of them.
The Council discussion came following receipt of a Report from the Director of Development Services tha asked for approval of the Variance permit for the development.
The conversation began with a question from Councillor Adey as to whether there had been any public feedback towards the request; to which the Corporate Administrator Rosa Miller advised no comments had been received.
That probably should not be a surprise for Council, as it's not really clear how the public may have been aware of the opportunity to share some thoughts which was first relayed at the December 11th Council session.
From that introduction, there does not appear to have been any civic notices produced that advised that the topic was up for engagement from the public.
The city's notices page shows no call for contributions, nor does the City's Social media stream.
The topic was noted as having moved to statutory notification process as part of the city's own recap of the December council session, but there was no advisory as to how the public might take part in that process or when the deadline towards commentary would come to an end.
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| The area on Drake Crescent where the proposed town home Development will be built in Prince Rupert |
The site at the moment doesn't even have a sign to indicate that the proposed development is back in motion after having been idle for a number of years.
Beyond Mr. Adey's question, the main focus for the Council discussion towards the variance request was mainly on themes of parking.
Councillor Cunningham noting of the proponents plans towards making use of street parking for some of the residents of the new homes.
"My only concern with this, it's not a big one, but we're trading off on parking on street parking for the development. You know it's a slippery slope we're going to get into if we start doing that a lot, we already have parking problems, not particularly in that stretch. But you know with that many duplexes there, I don't know if it's going to be a problem or not. But I think it's something we should take a look at."
For Councillor Randhawa, the proximity to Charles Hays Secondary provided for a question on traffic flow, the councillor also noting of reduced buffers in place.
"My concern is the school times it's a really busy street that one ... and I was wondering if we need a traffic study for that development and also another question is will those trees be gone, there's not buffer left there"
The Mayor observed that there would still be a small grass buffer on the site, he then asked the City Manager for his thoughts on the traffic issue.
"I'm not aware that there has been a traffic study, but given the size of the project and the distance of the school, I would say that a traffic study would not be necessary, we would not be recommending a requirement for one"
Councillor Niesh offered up a historical look at the proposed development noting of a past traffic study conducted for the original proposal for the Drake Crescent area.
"I believe there was a traffic study done when we approved the rezoning application quite a few years ago and that was to approve eighty something on the site, so this is like half the size as what was originally looked at, so I wouldn't think that that would be an issue"
Mr. Niesh also had some notes on the parking theme on the night.
"It is hard to go with you know less parking, but this town a lot of people use transit, you know there is a lot of parking on site, although it might not be one for every unit ... a lot of the units will be covered so I don't have any issues with it.
And I don't see parking really becoming much of an issue along that stretch, being that you know across the way is an industrial area so you're not going to get that increased parking an you're not going to see houses built across the street, so I'm in favour of it."
From that, Council voted to approve the request for the variances related to setbacks and parking.
The Council discussion can be reviewed through their video archive of the Monday Meeting starting a the three minute mark.
For those that may want to learn more about what's planned for the site, the full report from Myfannwy Pope, the Director of Development Services is available as part of the Agenda from Monday evening starting on page 27.
The information provided in that report from December also includes background from the developer as well towards the project.
Further notes related to the Monday Council Session can be reviewed here.
A wider overview of housing themes in Prince Rupert can be accessed through our archive page.
Cross posted from the North Coast Review.
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