Malloy Landing subdivision overlay plan passes first reading

Posted on November 14, 2024 by Sunny South News

By Nikki Jamieson
Sunny South News

An LUB amendment for an overlay plan regulating multi-family units in the Malloy Landing subdivision will have a public hearing in the coming weeks.

During their regular Oct. 28 meeting, Coaldale town council reviewed a proposed land use bylaw amendment that would allow for an overlay plan.

Land Use Bylaw Amendment 903-P-10-24 would allow for an overlay plan, that would allow for an alternative regulation of a multi-family development specifically limited to the boundaries of the NW Area Structure Plan, which was established by Land Use Bylaw Amendment 872-P-05-23 and subsequent amendments.

The developer of the Malloy Landing subdivision, SHIFT Real Estate, will soon be starting to develop the first phase of the multi-family portion the subdivision. Before they begin, however, they have requested that alternative regulations for development that are more in line with expectations from major multifamily builders in the region then what is in the town’s Residential Multifamily R2 zoning be approved. These rules would online apply for the development in Malloy Landing, similar to the unique regulations within the commercial (C1) zoned properties located in downtown Coaldale.

“Within the commercial district, we have rules and regulations that govern businesses, how much parking businesses need to have, how they need to be set back from the roads and so on. Within that district, there’s what’s known as the downtown overlay, which means, which provides for a map that shows (areas) within that overall, and within those areas, the rules are a little bit different,” said Cam Mills, director of investment and growth for the town. “Doing it this way allows us to do a pocket within the new development, to address the needs of this development, without changing the regulations throughout town.”

Mills said the request is due to the LUB, and the R-2 zoning as a result, largely being “out of date” in terms of the demand for multi-family housing, which has increased within recent years. 

This bylaw would not rezone the lands in question, and Shift would need to apply to do that, which Mills said they are moving forward to do, but first wish for the zoning to to reflect the needs.

Noting he was “perplexed”, by it, Coun. Bill Chapman asked if it would not be better to rezone it to Direct Control. Mills said that the overlay plan would be included in the ASP bylaw, and would create a set of regulations that would only be applied to the boundaries of the ASP, allowing the town to see this type of construction happen without creating the narrower lots throughout the rest of town.

Council unanimously passed first reading of Land Use Bylaw Amendment 903-P-10-24 – Establishment of Malloy Landing Residential R2 Overlay Plan.