Neighbourhood plan develops
Timberstone Park has moved a step closer to development, with the neighbourhood area structure plan for the proposed subdivision receiving unanimous support from Red Deer’s municipal planning commission on Monday.
The plan for the 119-acre parcel east of 30th Avenue and north of Hwy 11 is now scheduled to go to city council for first reading on March 10. A public hearing and subsequent readings would follow in about a month.
The project is being developed by Timberstone Park Developments, a subsidiary of Laebon Homes.
Laebon president Gord Bontje said if all goes well, home construction could begin by December of this year or January 2009.
The plan for Timberstone Park contemplates a minimum of 698 dwellings, including 262 multi-family units, 236 conventional detached homes, 116 narrow-lot houses and 82 condominium units.
Sharing the quarter section with Timberstone Park is the College Park subdivision, the Balmoral Bible Chapel and a pair of private acreages.
The commission heard that these areas are not slated for redevelopment, but if the church lands, one of the acreages and property designated for a social care facility are developed, the dwelling count could go as high as 792.
Pro-Fly driving range occupies land slated for development.
The plan includes a central park site with a soccer field, children’s play structures and a multi-purpose recreation pad.
Emily Damberger, a planner with Parkland Community Planning Services, said the city is in the process of negotiating a land swap with Laebon.
This would give the city a seven-acre stand of trees on the southwest corner of the property in exchange for seven acres in the proposed Timberlands subdivision to the north.
Other existing trees are to be preserved, including a 10-metre-wide strip along the eastern boundary of College Park.
Bontje pledged that his company would retain as many trees as possible.
“Trees are a developer’s best friend.”
Development of Timberstone Park is expected to begin with “The Timbers,” a bare land condominium near the southwest corner of the property.
Described as an “environmentally sustainable community,” it will consist of 82 single-family units separated by landscaped space.
Bontje told the commission these homes will be constructed to a Built Green gold environmental standard, with solar-powered street lights, stormwater bio-retention cells and higher-than-usual levels of vegetation among the features planned for The Timbers.
Contact Harley Richards at hrichards@reddeeradvocate.com
