Cart before horse

Developer takes down homes on Harley Street in Charlottetown before council gives the go-ahead

A Charlottetown developer had five homes demolished on Harley Street without city council’s approval.

At its public meeting on Monday night, council voted in favour of going to a public meeting over the developer’s proposal to rezone the properties from low density residential to medium density residential.

The properties in question are 10, 12, 14 and 16 Harley St.

The end goal here is to put up another apartment building.

The problem is, proper procedure is to ask council for the green light to demolish homes first.

“In this case, the developer forged ahead without council approval and did demolish some homes with the intent of putting a fairly large complex on that property,’’ said Coun. Greg Rivard, chairman of the city’s planning committee.

A property owner can knock one home o put up something similar, but anytime someone wants to knock multiple homes down to put up something bigger, that has to go through council first.

Alex Forbes, manager of planning for the city, said it was premature on the developer’s part considering that he is assuming council will green-light the development.

Rivard added that not only is the developer assuming his project will get the go-ahead but is taking down assets by demolishing the homes.

The project, if it goes ahead, it is expected to be similar to the apartment buildings that replaced the Idlewheels Trailer Park a few years ago.