A rather simple housekeeping item sparked a debate about visitor parking and residential density in St. Albert’s soon-to-be lakeside neighbourhood.
Council approved two amendments to the residential districts portion of the land use bylaw on Monday.
The changes were proposed in advance of the full review currently being undertaken by Stantec, which will be presented to council in the winter. They were needed before Sarasota Realty could begin construction of its Jensen Lakes townhomes.
The approved amendments allow for increased building height for townhomes zoned medium density residential (R3), clarify site density for R3 townhomes and reverse a 2013 decision to disallow garages as residential parking spaces.
In St. Albert, every home requires two on-site parking spots. A clause was added to the land use bylaw in 2013 because of concerns that garages were not being used for the purpose of parking a vehicle – many were being built too small to fit a vehicle.
The development community asked for the clause to be removed, as it complicated the design of higher density homes.
Some townhomes were being denied building permits despite having a big enough garage to accommodate a vehicle, as well as a driveway, said Sue Monson, chair of the Urban Development Institute St. Albert committee.
Administration proposed “useable garage space” that would measure a minimum of 5.8 metres in depth and three metres in length for a single vehicle garage; a minimum of 5.8 metres in depth and 5.8 metres in width for double car garages; and 11.6 metres in depth and three metres in width for tandem garages.
“This is a relatively small but important change for our industry,” said Monson.
Council was told by developers present at the public hearing that these dimensions were concurrent with industry standard.
Gary Acheson, founder of Sarasota Realty, told council the amendment could help lower unit prices and increase density.
“Without the ability to use the garage as a parking space, we’d have to use external land, which would reduce density for the area,” he said.
But Coun. Sheena Hughes and Coun. Cam MacKay expressed concerns over the proposed minimum garage dimensions saying they would not fit the current best selling vehicle in Alberta – the Ford F-150.
A Ford F series truck measures 6.17 metres in length. Given that the minimum setback is six metres for residential neighbourhoods, driveways also don’t accommodate the popular pickup.
Concerned over narrow streets and a lack of visitor parking in Jensen Lakes, Hughes tried to increase the dimensions of one of the two required parking spaces (either the garage or the driveway) to 6.5 metres in depth.
“Whether it’s the first owner or the second or the third, we should be prepared to accept the fact that someone in this house’s lifespan will have somebody who owns a truck at some point living in this location,” said Hughes.
Council left it up to the developers to build bigger (councillors were told this was often the case) and consumers to either buy vehicles that fit their garage/driveways or homes to accommodate their cars, defeating Hughes’ motion 6-1.
Senior planner Lenore Mitchell told council she did not support Hughes’ amendments.
Hughes also proposed motions to increase the depth of tandem garages to 12.3 metres and to require visitor parking. She pulled them when it became clear that council was not supportive, but not without warning that the changes to the parking clause would cause headaches for residents, as trucks would line the narrow streets of the new neighbourhood.
“This is not your typical neighbourhood we’re building anymore. I don’t know if we’ve realized what we’re doing with this level of density and the parking problems we’re going to be creating here,” said Hughes. “If they don’t fit in the garage and they don’t fit in the driveway and there’s no visitor parking, where are you supposed to put those trucks?”
The proposed parking changes were passed after receiving unanimous third reading.
Monson was surprised at the length and scope of the debate, saying it was a relatively straightforward item, which provided a compromise between the developers and the planning department’s needs.
Changes to the building heights and density in the R3 zones were also approved unanimously.
Without the change building heights for townhomes in the Jensen Lakes area (R3) would have been limited to between 11 metres and 11.5 metres. Now the multifamily units can be built to a height of 13 metres.
This will allow for different designs said Michelle Fogolin, new home specialist with Sarasota, rather than simply building stacked townhomes.
Site density for R3 townhomes will be the same as those zoned R3A (also medium density residential): a minimum of 35 units per hectare and a maximum of 94 units per hectare.
