The developer in the Braeside land swap is speaking out and said he would never do anything that is harmful to the community he lives in.
Victor Nikolic lives in one of the three houses along Sturgeon Road that he wants to remove and then redevelop the area into a condominium. He said his development will bring many positives to the area.
"I think it is a positive thing. If it was that bad of a thing I wouldn't have went this way," Nikolic said.
Nikolic is working on the project with consultant Greg MacKenzie and the plans they propose would rezone the land located at 53, 55 and 57 Sturgeon Rd., changing the designation from a low-density to medium-density residential area. They are also proposing a land swap with the city, exchanging a parcel of wooded, low-lying land near the Sturgeon River with a portion of a street front park.
The units are planned to be between 900 and 1,200 square feet.
Nikolic is a long-time resident of the community and wants to help provide housing diversity to the area so older people don't have to age out of their big homes and the community they live in. If the condos are constructed he wants to live in one of the units.
MacKenzie said the development helps meet the density targets set by the city and the region.
"It aligns with all the policies that respond to demographic change and the need for housing diversity in the city and in the neighbourhood. It's a quality development that will provide more diverse housing," MacKenzie said.
The proposed development is four storeys tall from the lowest point by Red Willow Trail and three storeys tall from the roadway. The new zoning regulations say that it must be only 13 metres tall from the lowest point and the building will reach that height designation. It will have 80 units with around 120 parking stalls both above and below ground.
The condos would be within walking area to downtown and to amenities across the river in Inglewood.
The duo said that they have heard complaints some residents have brought forward during their open houses and have addressed many of them.
Residents are concerned that the park is being taken from them but the swap still leaves 80 per cent of the park intact and MacKenzie said it removes a relatively unused sloped area. Some residents are concerned that the condos will bring more crime to the area, but MacKenzie contacted the RCMP and they said that the development could help reduce crime with more eyes on the river valley.
Other residents have also spoken out against the swap and don't want to see the developer take streetfront parkland in exchange for wooded land along the trail.
MacKenzie had a tree assessment done of the properties and said that the older trees that would be preserved in the land swap have much more value than the trees and groomed parkland that would be traded.
Other complaints have been around the appraised value of land parcels being swapped. MacKenzie said that it is possible that Nikolic would have to pay the difference between the two pieces of land if council decides that it is appropriate when they see the project.
Land swaps between developers and the city of St. Albert have happened before. The city engineering department said there was a land swap involved with the purchase of the King of Kings site and there was one in Grandin a few years ago.
Nikolic said that the development would help add value back into that area. They will reroute and repave the Red Willow walking trail at the developer's expense as well as clean up the area in the proposed land swap along the trail and potentially provide some park benches. He said it would also be built sustainably with a LEED certification, which is an independent green building certification program.
If the swap is not approved, but the rezoning is, the development duo still has plans to go ahead with the project with a different design in the available space.
The issue will come to council for a vote in November. So far no formal decisions have been made by the city on the project.
