The head of development for South Riel is looking to resolve any concerns with the project ahead of an important public hearing that could be one of the final hurdles for the company to overcome.
Paul Lanni, president of Averton, sat down with the Gazette on Monday to explain the Midtown development following an April 3 article that highlighted concerns from Coun. Sheena Hughes and administration over proposed changes to the project. Those changes will be coming back to council on April 23 for a second and third reading, as well as a public hearing.
Lanni said his company continues to work closely with the city.
“We are working collaboratively to ensure that for every challenge that has been identified, there’s a response,” he said.
“In our opinion, speaking as Averton, those challenges are not insurmountable. In many ways, the challenges have been addressed. (They) ultimately go back to one thing, which is are we going to be able to hit our density?”
The Midtown development is one that, once completed, should diversify the city’s housing options. The project spreads over approximately 45 acres and includes lands west of the CN railway and Heritage Lakes, south of Levasseur Road, east of Riel Drive and north of LeClair Way. The area is designated for a mixed-use community, which would allow for the development of 800 residential units, seniors housing and commercial properties. Midtown is expected to achieve a density of more than 80 units per hectare.
If all goes according to plan, construction could start this year and last for several years.
Lanni said the project would be the first of its kind in St. Albert, and the 80-plus unit per hectare density is at least double the mandated density of 40 units per hectare, an amount set by the Edmonton Metropolitan Region Board.
The April 23 council meeting will be the culmination of years of planning and delays. Averton, along with another builder, first bought the land for this project in 2012 and is now the sole owner. However, development of Midtown was delayed due to Project 9, St. Albert's sanitary sewer upgrade.
Averton's vision for the land evolved over the years, leading to its request for a series of changes to the proposed project. if the changes are approved, development could start this year.
The proposed changes first came to council April 1, with Invistec Consulting submitting the revisions on behalf of South Riel Developments.
One aims to close a former planned access to the Midtown site. The developer also wants the city to create a specific land use district, Midtown (MT) District, for this development, which would allow condominiums to go up on the site and would include various housing types, reduced lot sizes and reduced parking regulations. The city also needs to pass bylaws to incorporate those changes in the South Riel area structure plan – which would reconfigure roads, redesign the size, shape and/or location of parks and redistribute density at that site – and to amend the land use bylaw.
A city report on the changes, authored by Lyndsay Francis with the city’s planning and development department, noted the proposal “represents a significant shift from the existing built form within St. Albert and the Edmonton Metropolitan Region.”
The report noted city staff incorporated regulatory changes to address conflicts with the implementation, but added “administration is not certain of the full impacts the proposed regulations may have on the built environment due to reduced evaluation time, lack of similar product within the region, and the applicant providing vague information.”
The report also pointed to parking as a concern, noting private streets in the development are narrow and may have driveway cuts that won’t allow for on-street parking other than on the neighbourhood residential road. The city’s engineering department also raised concerns about the future operation of the intersection where the development connects to Riel Drive, which would now align with the Enjoy Centre instead of the original plan to have it align with Bellevue Village.
Lanni said to a certain degree, some of the concerns raised in the report were redundant.
“We are working through how we can make sure that there are checks and balances through the process to make sure we ultimately deliver on what we say we’re going to deliver,” he said. “(The city) did identify a few for sure. We do feel we have responded and with the city, we have had more collaborative conversations on how we will address those concerns.”
Lanni added Midtown will appeal to a wide variety of demographic groups, including empty nesters, young families and first-time home buyers, and aims to fill in the "missing middle" of St. Albert's higher-density real estate market.
The public hearings on April 23 are often scheduled to start at 5 p.m. The next city council meeting will be on a Tuesday because of Easter Monday.
