Chiles family disappointed with rezoning defeat by city council

A rezoning application was voted down by Red Deer city council Tuesday night on first reading, leaving the applicant very unsatisfied.

Chiles Development Corp. was looking for the rezoning of a six-acre property within the North of 11A Major Area Structure Plan.

Currently zoned for industrial use, the company’s hope was to turn it into country residential lots, but City staff say a number of factors working against the proposal make it not feasible.

“Essentially we felt that land, based on the application, was just not suitable for [residential] development. It would create an isolated residential area for six [one-acre] lots that is removed from any other residential area,” says Orlando Toews, Senior Planner for The City of Red Deer.

“Not only is it isolated, but it’s surrounded by industrial uses and a rail line running next to it. Those surrounding uses can have a negative impact on residential use and in turn the residential use has sort of a negative effect on the industrial where you get people living there that complain about the noise from the shop down the street, or trucks coming and going, so it’s incompatible in those ways.”

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As it relates to the rail line, the City says CN Rail has indicated they are not in favour of the proposal.

There’s also the issue of terrain with the City stating the escarpment in the area would need to be studied further. The Chiles’ argue the topography is favourable with it creating a separation between the subject property and nearby industrial uses.

As for the proximity of the sewage treatment facility, the subject property is outside the 300m setback. However, the property is within a 300m setback from a nearby privately utilized landfill.

The Chiles’ provided a letter to rdnewsNOW from Parkland GEO outlining observations from an initial site inspection in August 2016. It states the reclaimed gravel pit should not be considered a landfill, but Toews says the City disagrees with that assessment.

Norman Chiles had planned on presenting that letter and plenty of other material to city council had they passed first reading and taken the matter to a public hearing.

“We were really disappointed because we were unable to respond to questions asked by city councillors due to protocol,” says Chiles. “We had prepared documentation showing the subject property was not a landfill, the subject property was not within a 300m setback of the sewer plant, the CN line is only a spur line with one train daily to the CGTX plant for repairs to train cars.”

Mayor Tara Veer says these types of decisions are the most difficult for city council to make.

“Ultimately, council decided not to [approve] on the understanding that those areas have gone to public hearing in a number of respects. Over the last decade, the city, at great expense to the taxpayer, has been working to resolve longstanding historic challenges in areas of development adjacent to escarpment where there are servicing challenges,” she says.

Veer added, “So while the landowner has the right to develop those lands, it will need to be with the zoning that reflects some of the development constraints in the area such as the rail line being next to heavy industrial area, being adjacent to a former landfill and the escarpment. There is some development potential there.”