By Sheldon Spackman

businesses coming

City council approves zoning swap to spur new development in Timberlands

Jul 21, 2020 | 11:00 AM

Red Deer city council has approved the rezoning of two sections of land in the Timberlands neighbourhood in a bid to incentivize further development in the area.

On Monday, council gave second and third readings to a pair of amendments that will see a multi-family residential parcel along 30 Avenue become commercial, and a commercial parcel east of the new fire hall become multi-family residential.

The rezoning applications to amend the Timberlands North Neighbourhood Area Structure Plan came from the City’s Land and Economic Development (LED) department in response to market demand.

Department officials say the amendments maintain a commercial and residential balance for the neighbourhood while offering flexibility for commercial options.

A site exception for the commercial parcel of land will also allow for ‘Motor Vehicle Service or Repair”, which City officials say is expected to result in the establishment of an OK Tire location.

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Local Dairy Queen owner Rob Hamill is also anticipated to open a new restaurant in the commercial parcel.

Councillor Vesna Higham says the lands have sat vacant for some time, noting that the rezoning will now pave the way for development.

“Although I personally cannot elevate economic development above all other priorities at any and all costs, whether if opportunity to facilitate economic growth in a balanced and measured approach,” said Higham. “I believe it behooves us to embrace it, or as we are all very aware, other business-friendly jurisdictions will be more than happy to accommodate and capitalize on it.”

Councillor Ken Johnston says approving the rezoning sends a strong signal to both the community and development sector.

“Red Deer is open for business,” said Johnston. “In fact, we always were open for business and this is an opportunity for us to very, very clearly, show that.”

Councillor Michael Dawe says exchanging the locations of the multi-family residential and commercial parcels of land in the neighbourhood simply makes logical sense.

“You have a high traffic corridor with 30 Avenue, we’ve done a number of improvements there to improve traffic flow and the circulation there,” he explained. “If I were looking to live in a higher-density residential subdivision, I probably wouldn’t want to be that close to such a high traffic intersection. So these are businesses that may be coming through that fit in well with that kind of high traffic, high visibility location and I think that these proposed amendments make perfect sense.”