Port House gets approval from council
Eight-storey, 158-unit apartment building coming to Charlottetown
After three years in development, the Port House project in Charlottetown has final approval from city council.
The eight-storey, 158-unit apartment building first came to the city as a six-storey structure in 2021. It was approved by the city, but a challenge at the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission (IRAC) held the project up. By the time IRAC made its decision, siding with the proponent, the original plans was no longer financially viable, developer Tim Banks told Saltwire last year.
Now, city council has voted 9-0 to greenlight what will be one of P.E.I.’S tallest buildings. It would be built in what is currently a parking lot behind the Polyclinic on the corner of Prince and Grafton streets.
The three-page resolution listed several conditions, including a development agreement, a maximum height of 88 feet and an angled step back for the top two storeys.
Some of the details were approved in 2021 when the project was first before council and were simply restated in the updated resolution.
“This is about as long as the time it took to get to this point,” Mayor Philip Brown said after hearing the resolution.
PRE-EMPTING IRAC
After the vote, Coun. Mitchell Tweel thanked the developers for their patience during a lengthy process that included multiple applications.
“There’s been a lot of discussions, a lot of philosophical differences. Been to IRAC; there’s been frustrations with the length of time that IRAC takes to hear such an appeal, and I know there’s a lot that goes into assessing an appeal.”
Tweel hopes the process of using a site-specific exemption to the city’s zoning bylaw and an amendment to a section of the official plan will help prevent further appeals.
These tools allow the city to go outside its normal rules after taking the project to a public meeting and, in this case, a design review. The process results in dozens of pages of planning documents with arguments for why the project is needed and how it follows the spirit of the city’s strategic documents, if not the letter.
“I really believe if it is appealed to IRAC, it will be able to address all of the issues that the planning board and now council have had the opportunity to read in the report,” Tweel said.
The planning department report from March 20 says the project maintains the intent and purpose of the bylaw and official plan.
“The proposed development and the positive impacts it would have on the downtown from a housing supply and economic perspective have been found to be supportive of the wider public interest. The development has also been found to be overall consistent with good planning principles from a community benefit and impacts perspective.”