The final phase of Ryders Ridge subdivision is proceeding after planning documents were amended and bylaws unanimously passed at Monday night’s council meeting.
The Land Use Bylaw and South Area Structure Plan were changed to allow subdivision of the property to move forward. A subdivision application has already been submitted to the town.
This phase will include 693 residential units with approximately 20 per cent of those multi-family units and 80 per cent single family homes, said Tim Schmidt, the town’s director of planning and development. The will be a variety of housing from single family to duplex, townhouses and row houses.
A section of the area was designated for a social care facility. Schmidt explained the town’s rules require that property be available for sale for a year before anything different would be allowed there.
A park area was pulled from the documents after Councillor Laverne Asselstine raised concern about what would be developed there.
He questioned whether ‘public facility’ was the proper classification for protecting the trees and suggested ‘environmental open space’ might be a tighter designation.
“I suggest that piece of property should be preserved in the condition it’s in now,” said Asselstine.
Councillor Sean McIntyre stated that “with intensification of people who are going to want to use it we need to be creative how we preserve it and ensure we still have an asset to residents on both sides.
If there’s no parking, no maintenance it could be an unsightly area for trouble in the future. I do want to preserve the land but I don’t want to create a space for people doing something we don’t want them doing.”
As a result of the removal, that section will be back before council at a future date with more information from staff and it will have to go through the process of a public hearing allowing residents to comment on what might happen to the forested area.
Randy Sieben, general manager of Lamont Land, the subdivision developer, said “we have no predetermined notion of what that park space will look like, we were asked to dedicate it (to the town).”
He added that it joins a similarly zoned park area in The Vista in Ryders Ridge subdivision being developed by Melcor immediately to the south, to create a large park area.
He added there are “no immediate plans to remove any trees to that property”.
Concerns from Regal Court residents that an R2 (medium density residential) district was adjacent to their R1 (low density residential) district were negated by Mayor Susan Samson who said their area is “nicely buffered” by a public facility district.
“Anybody living on Regal Court would not be able to see anybody in the R2 area.”