New residential building proposed for Bealby Road
By Timothy Schafer
A new 17-unit residential building is being considered for the East end of the city.
A developer is proposing a new residential building for a vacant corner of Bealby Road and Government Street on a property that is currently zoned high density residential.
The new proposal is for a 17-unit residential building consisting exclusively of two-bedroom condos ranging from 904 to 1,250 sq. ft. each.
A developing development
This is the fourth development permit for the property since it was first rezoned from low-density residential to a high-density residential zone in 1996.
One year later McJane Developments, who is still the land owner today, obtained a development permit to construct a 15-unit residential building.
After the first development permit lapsed three years later city council of the day voted to renew the development permit. Having still not been constructed, the city reissued the development permit in January 2006.
Last May the applicant applied for a new development permit.
— Source: City of Nelson
Five variances were requested for the property, but council passed third reading on only four of them.
The variances comprise five things, including reducing the front lot line setback on Government Street — from 4.5 metes to 1.5 m.
“Siting the building closer to the front lot line means a greater setback from the only immediately adjacent neighbouring properties, which are the Fairview Court strata lots to the south,” read a city staff report. “The front setback area is also the flattest and lowest portion of the property.”
One variance asks to reduce the exterior lot line set back on Bealby road by the same amount, from 4.5 m. to 1.5 m.
The west lot line is over 5 metres from the existing curb, thus, despite the relaxation, the building would still be at least 6.5 metres set back from the road.
The developer has also has for a variance to permit waste and recycling storage facilities to be sited in the front yard.
As well, council passed the first three readings on the variance to reduce the parking requirement from 24 spaces to 22 spaces, on the “condition that the developer create five new street parking spaces on Bealby Road, in front of the development.
The parking requirement for this development was originally 27 spaces: 1.5 spaces per unit, plus 0.1 visitor spaces per unit. The Off-Street Parking and Landscape Bylaw allows for the requirement to be reduced by three stalls if the developer enters into a long-term agreement with a car-sharing organization.
However, council voted against the variance to increase the maximum permitted height of the buildings from 13 m. to 13.7 m. for the purpose of ornamental features.
“The applicants are requesting a height variance in order to add an ornamental feature to the roof of the building, consisting of parapets on the loft roofs,” said a city staff report.
The parapets would altogether cover 2,458 sq. ft. of surface area, or 28 per cent of the surface area of the roof. According to a letter from the architect the feature was “important to the look of the building” and did not believe that neighbours’ views will be affected.
However, staff’s analysis is that the “building with parapets would encroach into the neighbours’ backyard, ground-level view by between one and two metres, depending on where one is standing on the lots to the south.”
The immediately adjacent properties to the development are single-detached homes and a six-unit strata development.
Although development of the site will have an impact on the neighbourhood, noted city planner Alex Thumm in his report, “none of the variances requested contribute to increasing any negative impacts on the neighbourhood.”
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