Winnipeg council told ‘You want housing, I want to give you housing’

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Winnipeg’s city council got an offer it may not be able to refuse when two leading Winnipeg developers asked for amendments to proposed new zoning rules to include some properties that have room for new housing.

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The Special Meeting of Council on Tuesday was for a public hearing for a bylaw to rezone the “Malls and Corridors” that the city seeks to qualify for federal Housing Accelerator Fund monies.

It was the first time in history that all council members were seated to preside over a public hearing. The session, which was called for 9.30 a.m., was adjourned after midnight and will resume during the monthly council session on Thursday.

Representatives of Shindico and Terracon Developments each made pitches for their lands to be eligible to build new housing.

Justin Zarnowski, who oversees legal affairs for Shindico, was short and to the point.

“We’re excited to apply these policies and procedures to our Polo Park development,” he said. “There’s a couple of sites of ours that we would really like to see have the options for Malls and Corridors that weren’t included as part of the plan.”

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The first property is on Taylor Avenue in River Heights, which has a call centre building they expect will be vacated. Shindico wants to build out the area as a campus.

The other, on Reenders Drive behind Kildonan Place mall, hasn’t attracted the big box retail originally forecast due to changing market conditions.

Zarnowski said Shindico would “like to see some residential densification” at the site, called Shops of Kildonan Mile. That woud bolster the existing retailers and services in the area, which falls in the ward of Coun. Russ Wyatt (Transcona).

Wyatt thought multi-family residential was already permitted on the Reenders’ land but Zarnowski clarified that height restrictions on the land currently prevent it.

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After a dinner break, Matt Glavin of Terracon, who waited more than 10 hours to speak, quipped to laughter in the chamber, “Well I feel I was in the doctor’s office waiting… now I get to tell you all my symptoms.”

The company typically offers light industrial commercial and office space. Their Tuxedo Business Park borders on Kenaston Boulevard under an MMU (mixed industrial use) designation, which offers flexibility under the umbrella of “Employment Lands” to allow “commercial/retail, residential, and personal service development that is supportive of the primary employment uses in Business Park areas.”

Glavin told councillors that clause is a prime opportunity for Terracon to add needed residential units and create a mixed-use environment to their property.

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Citing precedents in Coquitlam, Edmonton and Texas, he requested the Property Development Overlay (PDO) under consideration be amended to include the 30-acre frontage of the business park and allow for a “complete community” to be established.

“This is a very interesting concept,” Coun. Ross Eadie (Mynarski) said.

Eadie was concerned about whether chemicals or similar materials are manufactured in the park and would be in the proximity of new residential tenants.

“There’s very little assembly of products,” Glavin said, explaining there was nothing being produced that would create a hazard.

Coun. Markus Chambers (St. Norbert-Seine River) asked about large trucks interacting with the residential area, but Glavin assured him that because of the park layout, it would be “extremely minimal and strategically located.”

Glavin described a vision of a “worker-type village” with some residential high-rises, retail on the main floor and the creation of a long-discussed daycare centre.

“There’s an abundance of opportunities and possibilities by introducing this residential,” Chambers said.

Glavin told the councillors, “Whatever the PDO permits, we would go to the maximum. You want housing, I want to give you housing.”

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