A zoning amendment to accommodate the construction of two six-storey residential buildings on the Salmon Arm SmartCentre's property received three readings from city council.
Salmon Arm Shopping Centres Ltd. and Calloway REIT (SmartCentres) seeks to amend the current comprehensive development zoning (CD8) for their property at 2991 9th Ave. SW to accommodate the development of residential multiple family dwelling buildings. A concept plan for the site shows The company's concept plan for the site, located east of the Winners/Dollarama stores and west of the McDonald's now under construction, includes two six-storey buildings with 130 residential units in one and 95 in the other.
Previously, additional commercial spaces had been mapped out for this part of the property. The current zoning supports residential with ground-level commercial use. The proposed buildings would include a mix of one- and two-bedroom units, without ground-level commercial.
A letter from SmartCentres accompanying the application explained the purpose of the zoning amendment is to "position the property to allow residential development to occur when the market and financial conditions improve. The intent is to phase the municipal approvals process, with the initial step being the zoning text amendments, followed by development permits for one or more residential buildings."
SmartCentres is also looking to add two new commercial buildings, each about 5,000 square feet, west of the residential buildings.
Prior to council voting unanimously in support of three readings at its Aug. 26 meeting, senior planner Melinda Smyrl explained a traffic impact assessment, a condition for final approval, has already been completed and reviewed by staff, as has a parking analysis to support the reduction of parking stalls per dwelling unit.
"That analysis details a surplus of available parking stalls which would accommodate the potential maximum residential occupancy with 0.82 stalls per unit," said Smyrl. "With access to transit in the area and active transportation routes, staff are supportive of this rationale."
Couns. Tim Lavery and Sylvia Lindgren supported the amendment, but noted if they are still on council when a development permit application comes forward, they would be looking for how recreational and greenspace needs are accommodated.
Coun. Kevin Flynn suggested the city will be seeing more similar applications seeking housing instead of ground-level commercial, and hoped this is being discussed in the current review of the city's official community plan.
"I do believe we don’t need as much commercial as we are getting by making it have to happen on the first floor and most of the stuff that’s happened so far has not filled, so the market isn’t demanding the commercial," said Flynn. "I’ve talked to a couple of developers who are looking at our community for purpose-built housing and they are putting amenities on the first floor instead… but it’s considered commercial because they’ve got meeting spaces and things like that. But I do think part of our OCP review, this mixed use was the big thing five years ago, 10 years ago, now it’s housing that’s needed…"
Mayor Alan Harrison supported the amendment for a number of reasons.
"One, we need housing," said Harrison. "Two, the location for six storey buildings down there is probably quite good because it’s not in front of anyone else, and so the owners of the property feel like that would augment the commercial down there and I think that they’re probably right."
Regarding parking, Harrison agreed what's proposed might only impact shoppers, though "it looks to me like the study, what it indicates, is there’s a lot of open parking there now and those residents who move there would have lots of space to park their cars."
