Difficult-to-develop property could become apartment building
Council proceeds on applications for apartments on Blackmarsh Road and new cul-de-sac on Bay Bulls Road
Housing, or the lack thereof for many, has been a hot topic across the country for some time now, and was the subject of multiple items in the City of St. John’s committee of the whole meeting on Tuesday, April 23.
Council voted on two housing-related motions, including a proposed 24-unit apartment building at 113 Blackmarsh Rd.
The proposal comes from 89272 NL Inc., a Mount Pearl company with Glenn Mercer listed as the sole director, which is asking the city to consider redesignating the property from commercial to residential and rezoning it from the Industrial Commercial Zone to the Apartment 2 Zone.
APARTMENT PROPOSAL
The plan is to build a fourlevel apartment building with six units per floor. Each unit will range from 522 square feet to 650 square feet, with one bedroom.
Envision St. John’s Development Regulations requires a Land Use Report (LUR) for all applications to amend the municipal plan and development regulations, such as this one.
During the LUR process, the applicant must consult neighbouring residents and property owners before submitting the report, which Coun. Maggie Burton said would give neighbours a chance to express concerns and learn of potential issues.
Coun. Ron Ellsworth commended the proponent on the application, saying it’s a difficult property to develop.
Coun. Jamie Korab echoed Ellsworth’s comments, saying he’s spoken to a number of people over the years about the property and that he understands there’s been a lot of back and forth with staff to get it to this stage.
Now that council has voted to consider the amendment, public consultation in the form of a commissioner’s public hearing would be held if the applicant submits a satisfactory LUR.
NEW CUL-DE-SAC ON BAY BULLS ROAD?
Council also voted to proceed with an application to rezone land at 121-125 Bay Bulls Rd. from the Open Space zone to the Residential 1 zone to accommodate a new cul-de-sac with 10 houses.
Currently, the three properties each have an existing home and the applicant is proposing to demolish the building at 123 Bay Bulls Road and reconfigure the lots to develop the land at the rear as a cul de sac.
The rear of the properties is zoned Open Space in the St. John’s Municipal Plan and are designated Public Open Space under the St. John’s Urban Region Regional Plan, so an amendment to the Regional Plan and Municipal Plan would be required.
NOT PUBLIC LAND
Burton, who brought forward the motion, said while the land is zoned Open Space, it is not public land.
“It is privately owned land at the rear of existing dwellings,” she said. “The land does not contain any recognized floodplains or wetlands. The land does increase in elevation toward Silverton Street, and the grading will be further evaluated at the development approval stage, should the rezoning proceed.”
Burton said the Public Open Space designation is applied to certain areas that should be preserved solely for public use, such as Signal Hill Park, Pippy Park, Butterpot and Cochrane Pond provincial parks, and Cape Spear. Request sent to proceed Council voted that the city send a request to the minister of Municipal and Provincial Affairs to amend the St. John’s Urban Region Regional Plan to change the property from the Public Open Space designation to the Urban Development designation.
If they get the go-ahead on that, the amendment will be carried out alongside the city’s Municipal Plan amendment.
Since a Municipal Plan amendment would be required, if the rezoning proceeds, a public hearing would be held and a LUR would also be required, as do all rezonings in the city. This would require consultation with the neighbourhood before submitting the report.