WESTLOCK — Town of Westlock councillors have passed a land use bylaw amendment and rezoned a property to allow for row housing development in the town’s east end.
At a special council meeting July 15, councillors heard about the proposed rezoning changes from administration to Consolidated Land Use Bylaw 2022-12, Amendment Bylaw 2024-08, that would rezone the property at 10403 103 Street, from an R-2-medium density to R-3-high density residential district to facilitate the development of row housing.
Councillors passed the bylaw amendment by a vote of 4 to 1, with Coun. Abby Keyes against, and councillors Randy Wold, Curtis Snell and David Truckey, and mayor Jon Kramer voting for the rezoning. Coun. Murtaza Jamaly and Coun. Laura Morie were absent.
Kramer voted no on second hearing of the bylaw with Keyes, but after asking a clarification question changed his vote for third reading.
Prior to the public hearing, director of planning and development, Danielle Pougher shared details of the rezoning changes and explained how the proposed re-districting would allow more units to be developed on the property than is currently permitted.
“There’s two key differences between the two districts. The R-2 District has a maximum height of 2.5 stories which is about 39.4 feet tall, and the R-3 District allows for buildings up to four stories tall or 52.5 feet in comparision,” said Pougher, also noting the property was previously rezoned to its current land use designation in 2016 and prior to that was previously designated as R-1 – low density residential district.
In addition, the R-2 District has a density maximum of 50 units per hectare, while R-3 District’s density maximum is 80 units per hectare.
“This would amount to a maximum of five units allowed to be developed by the property at its current zoning and if the property were to be rezoned R-3 it would allow for eight units on the property,” she added.
Following an emotionally charged public hearing, councillors debated and discussed second and third reading and spoke about need for housing, as mayor Kramer said “knowing that our community in fact does need a whole lot more R-2 and R-3 (districts) to meet the housing needs, to meet the employment demands in our community. Our debate tonight though is around this one property and this one decision to make,” said Kramer.
