Expanded townhouse cluster proposed for New Pennywell Road
Councillor says proposal change from owners will make approval process longer
St. John’s council heard an application in its committee of the whole meeting on March 13 from Nidus Development Inc. to consider rezoning 188 New Pennywell Rd. to allow a townhouse cluster development.
This isn’t the first time the proposal was before council, and when it was last presented, in July 2022, it initially involved a much smaller parcel of land.
At that time, council voted to consider a rezoning from the Residential 1 zone to the Residential 2 Cluster zone and approved the terms of reference for a land use report (LUR).
DRAFT REPORT SUBMITTED
According to the decision note in the council agenda, Nidus Development, which also owns the former Brookfield Ice Cream plant on Lemarchant Road and Urban Market 1919, submitted a draft land use report.
It is currently being reviewed by city staff, with some revisions required before it proceeds to public consultation.
The revised proposal also includes land in the rural zone as well as in Residential 1. A municipal plan amendment is required to redesignate land in the rural district to the residential district.
‘DRAG OUT THE PROCESS’
Coun. Ron Ellsworth said he wants to make sure the proponent understands this change is “now going to drag out the process, at his request, not our request.
“I’m saying this because I’m getting a little bit tired of hearing that we’re the ones causing all the problems in development, and all of these development issues we’re causing, when we’re doing our best with the regulations we have,” Ellsworth said.
“Now the proponent is adding a second zoning in here which does not meet the requirements of what he’s trying to accomplish, and therefore it has to go through a rezoning process, which is an elongated process considering what he was looking at initially.”
NEXT STEPS
The initial application proposed four townhouse clusters that would include between 10 and 13 single-level units each, for a total of 40 to 52 townhouses.
Council voted to consider the rezoning, and the application will be presented at a regular council meeting in the near future. Once the land use report is reviewed and is deemed satisfactory, public consultation will be conducted through a public notice and a required public hearing.