OLDS — A land use bylaw amendment passed by town council allows developers to provide cash in-lieu rather than all the parking stalls required, not only in the commercial district, but now also elsewhere in the Uptowne and East Olds area redevelopment (ARP) areas.
Council passed that amending bylaw at its Sept. 23 meeting during which a public hearing on the proposal was slated to be held. However, no members of the public attended that hearing so it was closed down.
“The rationale behind this (bylaw change) is that in the oldest parts of town, a development takes up a larger portion of the relatively small lots (where 100 per cent site coverage is even possible),” a town request for decision (RFD) said.
Besides, it added, “there are several publicly-owned parking lots in the vicinity that can accommodate the parking demand that is not met on private parcels.”
The RFD noted that recently, town council has approved developments in East Olds that have qualified for the cash-in-lieu option because they were within the C1 district.
However, it was also noted that there are similar developable parcels in the same areas that would not be allowed to do this because they are in other zoning districts.
Thus, the bylaw amendment changed the wording so that it applied not only to the C1 district but to all parcels of property within the Uptowne and East Olds area ARP areas.
Town staff stressed that each request for cash-in-lieu will still come before council for approval on a case-by-case basis.
“If such a request is refused, the developer would still be required to provide all parking spaces outlined, as a condition of a development permit approval,” the RFD said.
The bylaw received first reading on Aug. 26.
Notice of the public hearing was advertised on the Town of Olds' website and in the Sept. 3 and 10 issues of the Albertan.
“No correspondence, either for or against, has been received regarding the proposed bylaw amendment,” the RFD said.
No council members asked any questions after development officer Kyle Sloan presented the case for the change.
