Olds College was granted an 18-metre break on setback requirements when its development permit to build a 450-unit student residence was approved at a municipal planning commission meeting on Dec. 19.
Olds College was granted an 18-metre break on setback requirements when its development permit to build a 450-unit student residence was approved at a municipal planning commission meeting on Dec. 19.
Under the town’s land use bylaw, buildings in the college area must have minimum setbacks of 20 metres from the front, rear and sides of the property line. The plan for the residence that was submitted to the development department showed only a two-metre setback from the west property line.
In addition, at three separate points along the west wall of the proposed building, staircases jut out from the building making the setbacks at those locations only 1.45 metres from the property line, which is shared with the Olds Aquatic Centre.
"We brought this solely (to the commission) for that two-metre setback," said Scott Chant, interim director of operations for the town.
Werner Fischer, the town’s manager of planning, said because of the close proximity of the residences’ electrical and mechanical rooms to the property line shared with the aquatic centre, a utility right-of-way plan would need to also be completed by Olds College.
The development permit is subject to a list of eight conditions including a utility right-of-way plan and utility right-of-way agreement with the town, to the satisfaction of the manager of planning.
No one from Shunda Construction, the firm building the residences, nor Olds College, was present at the MPC meeting to speak to the development permit application.
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