Twenty-five lakeside villas will line Sylvan Lake as town council approved the development at the Monday night meeting.
Al Laplante, one of the Sylvan Lake Habour partners behind the development, said he is excited to being work on the second phase of the development in downtown Sylvan Lake at 5220 Lakeshore Drive.
“It’s going to finish it off,” said Laplante. “It’s going to look stunningly beautiful.”
Construction will start soon with sales on the townhomes starting about a month from now.
The project took some time to develop as a proposal made earlier in March had a request to relax the required number of parking spots by 11.
Town council denied that request and asked the developer to increase the number of parking spots.
Each villa will have two parking spots in its garage and one more in the driveway. Under the approved proposal there are 91 surface parking spots, 14 of which are for commercial users. This leaves 77 for marina users. There are a total of 174 boat slips in the marina component.
Sylvan Lake’s current land-use bylaw requires one parking spot per slip. But the developer was granted shared parking considerations as residential units will be assigned boat slips, foregoing the need for additional parking spots.
Town council approved a relaxed parking requirement, choosing to instead require one parking spot for every two boat slips, allowing the development to occur.
Sylvan Lake Mayor Sean McIntyre said downtown parking is something council will have to address in the long term.
“There are still concerns with long-term parking issues in downtown,” said McIntyre. “Especially in regards to trucks and trailers.”
In the 2014 budget town council set aside $650,000 to address parking in downtown. The money is earmarked and not dedicated to a project yet.
McIntyre said the development fits in with the vision the town has for downtown, a mix of uses including housing and commercial development.
“It checks off a few boxes for us,” said McIntyre. “We are seeing that residential development downtown, but it’s not so intense that it’s going to adversely affect the area.”
mcrawford@www.reddeeradvocate.com