WESTLOCK – The owners of a downtown home, which has been previously used for businesses ranging from a coffee shop, to an accounting office and even an antique store, are asking for a zoning change that would see it revert to residential-use only.
At their June 28 meeting, Town of Westlock councillors agreed to set an Aug. 9 public hearing date to debate Consolidated Land Use Bylaw 2015-02, Amendment Bylaw 2021-19 — at council’s July 12 meeting the date was changed to Aug. 16. The property, located at 10035 – 106th Street, is currently zoned downtown mixed use (DT-MU), which means it can be used for anything ranging from an eating and drinking establishment, to a liquor store or a funeral home — CAO Simone Wiley noted that DT-MU does allow for some residential development, like an apartment, while two-family residential is a discretionary use, but single-family residential is not permitted.
The owners of the property, Kerri’s Café and Bakery, are asking for it to be rezoned R2 medium-density residential, a classification that allows for a modular, row, single-family, two-family and stacked-row housing. The café moved from the location last year to its new home in the old United Church on Main Street.
Property co-owner Darren Kostiw stated in the rezoning application they intend to sell the house and have “several parties in negotiation” to purchase, but the current zoning doesn’t allow for its primary purpose to be a single-family home.
If the sale doesn’t go through, Kostiw said they’ll likely look at building a multi-family dwelling on the property instead — his e-mail goes on to say that there are a few other multi-family dwellings (apartments) next to that property so it would be an appropriate use.
“I think this makes sense. We did have all those discussions when we updated the (planning) documents and this is right on the edge as a transition, so to me a rezoning makes sense,” said Coun. Curtis Snell.
In her request for decision to council, director of development services Krystle Fedoretz noted the surrounding neighborhood is districted DT-MU and R-1 (low-density residential) —surrounding uses include single-family dwellings directly behind and across 101st Avenue from the property and a mix of commercial uses on the block.
And while the municipal development plan discourages redevelopment of sites within the downtown policy area for low-density residential purposes, it does allow for exceptions on a site-specific basis based on the current condition and surrounding context of the lot. In this case, Fedoretz continued, the subject property is located at the very edge of the policy area and is bordered by other low-density residential properties.
An R2 zoning on this particular lot would allow for a transitional property from the downtown policy area to the predominately low-density residential surrounding neighborhood — the lot has been historically used for residential purposes, it would not conflict with the surrounding uses, she said.
“Looking through our bylaws we did consider looking at the downtown transitional zoning as this parcel of land is bordered by R1 on one side and of course downtown mixed use on the other side,” she said. “So when we looked at our downtown transitional, that’s when we discovered our single-family and two-family dwellings weren’t an option and our R2 zoning, especially considering the featured uses, is actually our best use.”
