Some residents of West Hillhurst are raising concerns about a proposed development on Calgary’s 19th Street, specifically around snow removal, parking and waste container issues.
Living in West Hillhurst, Anila Samji used to seeing older homes torn down to make way for new development but she’s not sold on the latest one.
“Densification is totally fine by me. My biggest concern was the parking,” Samji said.
The proposed development on 19th Street between 3rd and 4th avenues would see four houses replaced by 18 townhouse units and 18 secondary suites.
It required changing the zoning of the site to something called Housing – Grade Oriented (H-GO).
City administration says the proposal represents an appropriate density increase and allows for development that is compatible with the character of the existing neighbourhood and that the land-use amendment would allow for an efficient use of land and existing infrastructure.
A petition has been signed by more than 800 people opposed to the plan. Some are saying there isn’t enough parking on the street to accommodate 36 units.
“I don’t feel like the citizens are being heard,” said Samji, who has been expressing her concerns to the city for months.
She said she’d be OK with 15 unites but not 18 plus 18 secondary suites.
The developer says the proposed land-use change and development vision will realize new and much-needed rental housing options in West Hillhurst.
The West Hillhurst Planning Committee doesn’t support the project as proposed.
“I believe the proposed development does not meet the city land-use bylaw nor does it follow the municipal development plan or the local area plan,” said Deborah Kowbel, who is member of the planning committee.
Kowbel says basement suites should be part of the density calculation.
“Currently it’s not but it will be and should be part of the calculations. Therefore, this development is like a high-rise apartment,” Kowbel said.
Councillor Terry Wong has met with the developer and is hopeful a deal can be reached by altering the plans.
“We can reconfigure it accordingly to make it more palatable to the communities around the area and hopefully less imposing on the streets,” Wong said.
According to the city, in the R-CG district, the density maximum is 75 dwelling units per hectare plus secondary suites because secondary suites don’t count towards the unit density of a development. But the 75 dwelling units/ha maximum from the R-CG District doesn’t apply to parcels designated with the H-GO District.
The H-GO District does not include specific density limits in units per hectare.
Instead, the H-GO District has a metric called Floor Area Ratio which governs how large a building can be in relation to the total area of the parcel in question.
The city says not counting secondary suites, the proposed permit has a density of 90 dwelling units/ha and that based on the application received, the H-GO District allows for the number of units proposed.
The land-use redesignation application will be presented to city council for decision on July 16.
Members of the public can register to speak at the public hearing meeting of city council on Tuesday.
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