OLDS — A landowner is looking to create a mix of commercial and residential development on a property at 4609 52nd St., just west of 46th Avenue (Highway 2A) between 52nd St. and 54th St.
That requires a change to the town’s land use bylaw, so a public hearing on the matter has been set for Oct. 15 at 1 p.m. in town council chambers, council decided earlier this month.
Municipal land use planner Kyle Sloan noted that the area where the property lies already allows a mix of residential and commercial uses.
However, the property is currently zoned R2 for general residential use. The landowner has applied to have it rezoned to Highway Commercial A CHA, to facilitate the proposed development
Sloan said the landowner plans to redevelop the property to contain commercial additions as well as residential additions in phases.
He noted it already contains a secondary suite approved earlier.
The planning department’s proposed solution is to change the bylaw to accommodate the development but also to make it a discretionary use, which means each development would have to come to town council for approval.
Coun. James Cummings noted the situation is very similar to one earlier when the land use bylaw was changed to enable development in the former Stevens Jewellers building in Uptowne.
“Very identical, just a different area of town, right,” Cummings asked.
“That’s correct,” Sloan said. “In order to accommodate that redevelopment, we added mixed-use development within the C1 district and this being CHA was not affected by that, so we’re back with a different land use district doing a very similar thing, yes.”
