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Red Deer council approves Capstone site exception

A proposed development in Capstone has been given the thumbs up from Red Deer council, despite it not fitting into the city’s original vision of the neighbourhood.
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Red Deer council has approved a site exception for a proposed strip mall in the Capstone neighbourhood. (Contributed image)

A proposed development in Capstone has been given the thumbs up from Red Deer council, despite it not fitting into the city’s original vision of the neighbourhood.

The majority of Red Deer council accepted a site exception for a proposed one-storey strip mall development at 5441 45 St. in a 6-2 vote during Monday’s regular meeting.

East Lincoln Properties Corp. will develop and manage the property. Tanya Kure, the company’s director of property development, said the hope is to begin construction next summer.

“We are definitely proceeding with working towards a development permit,” said Kure.

“We’re taking the feedback we received Monday (from council) and seeing if there are any tweaks we want to incorporate into the design, then we’ll work towards finalizing that design.”

This would be the first new building added to the neighbourhood since 2016. The land at 5441 45 St. has been vacant since 2008.

Capstone was envisioned to be a walkable riverfront community, with no buildings under two storeys.

The proposed L-shaped single-storey structure, which would sit between Enterprise Rent-A-Car and Trouble Monk, did not meet the Capstone land-use district regulations, which the Development Authority could not change.

Due to this, the applicant asked council to consider the following site exceptions:

  • Reduce height requirement on the site from 2 storeys to 1 storey
  • Build a structure where the building does not run the length of the lot frontage
  • Build a structure where the building does not abut the entire edge zone
  • Allow more than 40 per cent of the frontage to be surface parking

Coun. Kraymer Barnstable said sometimes people can get locked into a vision they have for something.

“We could be stuck 20, 30 years from now saying, ‘This is our vision,’ but we still have empty spaces,” Barnstable said, adding he feels the addition of a one-story building on the outside of Capstone doesn’t change the vision too much.

“We have someone who’s ready to go. When I look at a map of Capstone, this isn’t going right next to the river.

“This is an opportunity for us to say yes and start getting some businesses interested.”

Coun. Lawrence Lee said he would not be supporting the site exception because a one-storey strip mall would not fit in with the city’s vision.

“This is a jewel in terms of our only riverfront property that we can expand on,” Lee said.

“We cannot promote and market a development that goes against what our overall vision of the area is.”

Coun. Cindy Jeffries said with a hospital expansion and future construction jobs, the area could be very popular with young professionals.

But “I really am holding out for a little bit more and hoping that we can dream a little bit bigger,” Jeffries said.

Coun. Bruce Buruma said he sees the project as a “strong opportunity” for the Capstone neighbourhood.

“It is a sign we are wanting to see development in there and it appears to be an attractive development,” Buruma said, adding based on renderings of the strip mall, it would blend in well with existing buildings.

Coun. Victor Doerksen said council needs to act since nothing has been built in the neighbourhood since 2016.

“In view of where the location is, it’s not in the middle of the development, it’s along a street with similar structures already. I’m going to speak in favour of this application,” said Doerksen.

Coun. Dianne Wytnjes hesitantly voted in favour of the site exception.

“I might regret it, but I hope I won’t. I hope with the developer we can spur future development in the Capstone area,” she said.

In November, administration will bring council an amended Capstone vision, said Mayor Ken Johnston.

“That will cause council to look at Capstone in a broader sense,” he said.

“I think council landed in a good place. I gave my own vote to the development. I thought it achieved the balance in retaining the Capstone vision, but also allowing a private market development to come into that site.”

Coun. Michael Dawe did not weigh in on the discussion but voted to approve the site exception. Coun. Vesna Higham was not present during Monday’s council meeting.



sean.mcintosh@reddeeradvocate.com

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30368938_web1_220913-RDA-capstone_4
Red Deer council has approved a site exception for a proposed strip mall in the Capstone neighbourhood. (Contributed image)


Sean McIntosh

About the Author: Sean McIntosh

Sean joined the Red Deer Advocate team in the summer of 2017. Originally from Ontario, he worked in a small town of 2,000 in Saskatchewan for seven months before coming to Central Alberta.
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