OLDS — A developer has expressed interest in turning a piece of property on 46th Avenue (Highway 2A) at 47th Street in Olds into a combination commercial and residential development.
Planning staff’s understanding is that the developer is considering having commercial property on the bottom floor with residential property on the upper floor.
However, currently, “mixed use at grade” such as that is not allowed in that area, so a request has been received to rezone the area to allow it.
On July 10, council gave first reading to a bylaw to allow that change.
Council also set Aug. 28 at 1 p.m. as the date and time for a public hearing on the matter. Second and third reading of the bylaw is also scheduled for that date.
The property in question is shaped like a triangle with the top lopped off.
In a request for decision on the matter, municipal planner Kyle Sloan wrote that the district in which the lot sits is “specific to highway commercial parcels that are adjacent to residential areas, so existing allowable uses are intended to reduce impacts to nearby residences.
“For this reason, administration supports adding “mixed use, commercial at grade” as a permitted use.
“Further, administration also supports adding this use as a discretionary use in the CH district in order to improve the town’s flexibility in working with developers who have increasingly been inquiring about this type of development on a number of highway commercial parcels.”
