There’s an application to St. John’s city council to turn the old Needs convenience location at 93-95 Merrymeeting Rd. into three townhouses.
Back in February, the city approved an application to put a laundromat on the site but the property owner withdrew the application after it was approved.
Discussion of the townhouse proposal at Wednesday’s Committee of the Whole meeting at city hall touched on whether council has authority to restrict designs of developments that meet zoning requirements.
The current zoning allows for townhouses, but because the development is within 15 metres of the intersection it requires an amendment to reduce sight-line requirements — that’s why the application came to Committee of the Whole for council’s approval.
Coun. Maggie Burton, development lead, said she’s received concerns about the appearance of the homes because they are three storeys high with a garage at the front of the lower level.
She said she supports developments that increase density in the city, but the scale and context of the street is different from the proposal.
Coun. Dave Lane also said many of the homes in that part of Merrymeeting Road are short.
City planner Ken O’Brien said the proposed height is acceptable in the zone, and Coun. Jamie Korab said there’s examples of other similar-style homes nearby.
Burton recommended sending the application to the Built Heritage Experts Panel (BHEP). Even though Merrymeeting Road is not a heritage area, she said the BHEP is the only design-related advisory panel.
Lane said the panel could consider a setback which would make the taller structures seem less intrusive, but Mayor Danny Breen said that information could also come from city staff.
Breen asked if council is going to send everything to the BHEP, and wondered what council would do if such a development were proposed in other parts of town.
City solicitor Cheryl Mullett said council has to be careful mandating or changing designs if it doesn’t have the authority to do so, and added it would be prudent to have city legal authorities look into it.
Burton moved city staff’s recommendation that the proposed text amendment to allow an authorized officer of the city (in this case, a traffic engineer) to set a reduced sight line be considered, and that the application be advertised for public review and comment. The application would then be referred to a regular meeting of council for consideration of adoption.
Further to council’s recommendation, Burton added to her motion that additional information from planning on the scale and location be provided to council for consideration prior to final approval.
Councillors Jamie Korab, Deanne Stapleton and Mayor Danny Breen voted against the motion, so it passed. Coun. Debbie Hanlon and Deputy Mayor Sheilagh O’Leary were absent, and all others voted in favour of the motion.
While the text amendment was prompted by the townhouse application, it will apply to all areas outside of downtown, if adopted at a future regular meeting of council.
After the vote, Breen said if people want to increase population density, then they have to deal with the issues that come with density.
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