St. Albert city council, as a whole, did the right thing Monday night by resisting the temptation to place undue restrictions on Amacon’s Grandin Mall redevelopment project.
A motion was brought forward by Coun. Sheena Hughes to reduce the maximum building height on the site from 25 storeys to 20. She said building heights in other mid-sized Alberta cities are shorter, and allowing 25-storey buildings to go up downtown would result in the loss of St. Albert’s small-town feel. She even pulled out a picture of New York City’s Empire State Building to drive home her point. She had Coun. Bob Russell and Coun. Cam MacKay convinced, but the rest of council seemed to agree with a member of the project’s design team who said reducing the tower height by five storeys would hardly be discernable to the naked eye. Hughes’ motion failed in a 4-3 vote.
Hughes also challenged Amacon’s request to reduce the number of commercial parking stalls. Amacon requested a 10 per cent variance, which equates to about 133 parking stalls. Hughes wanted the loss of stalls to be no greater than 50. Amacon is playing by the rules, as a city planner explained to council.
Passing Hughes’ motion would have made parking requirements more restrictive for Amacon than any other developer as the land-use bylaw allows for a 25-per-cent variance at the discretion of the development officer. Again, Hughes had Russell and MacKay convinced, but her motion again failed 4-3. As was pointed out, it’s not up to Amacon to solve the city’s downtown parking woes.
