Site too steep for staff
An expansion planned for a housing development in North Clifton won't be moving ahead.
Council sided with staff on Monday, turning down plans that would have added housing lots onto part of a hill that's steeper than city guidelines allow.
The proposal was to add 13 lots instead of 5 already planned into that part of the first phase.
But some of the newly proposed lots were to be built on slopes of up to 45% – city policy doesn't allow construction on slopes higher than 30%.
That means developers would have also had to build fill slopes of up to 19 metres in height.
Councillor Luke Stack says developments like this haven't had huge public support in the past.
"They really disapproved of extensive fill like this. We've also had staff advice that, as we start getting into these very steep areas, we're setting a precedent we shouldn't be setting," he said.
"I didn't support another request recently to also do a hillside like this. So to be consistent, I just don't think it's in the best interest to not support staff."
Councillor Tracy Gray says there's still room in the plans for expanding the number of lots, just not by this many.
"There is an opportunity to be able to add some more lots in this area on the edges – the fill is very minor. We're talking one metre, two metres, three metres," she said.
"It's unfortunate this (plan) is all together like this, because I could support some of it, so that you could fit some more lots in where the fill isn't as great."
Mayor Colin Basran says hearing from the developer directly helped, but that his decision came down to not wanting to start a trend.
"Just because it can be techinically done, should it be done? That's where I couldn't support it, as while it may techincally be sound, I just don't think it's something that we should be doing, because it's not consistent with our guidelines," he said.
"I appreciate the risk being taken, but this is the risk of the development community when we are looking at developing outside of our urban core."
Council unanimously voted against the development expansion, that will still have 42 homes built off of Clifton Road North.
