Edmonton city council OKs 23-storey tower for small lot in Oliver

Edmonton city council has approved a controversial project for a small lot in Oliver after hours of discussion at a public hearing on Monday.

Councillors Sarah Hamilton, Scott McKeen and Ben Henderson voted against the proposal, and in line with city administration's recommendation to reject the project.

Opponents said the 23-storey tower was too much density for the two single-family home lot on 99th Avenue and 111th Street. Many councillors were struggling with the final decision.

Coun. Scott McKeen said there were are a lot of reasons to like the project, but added that the area is very different from other parts of Oliver and downtown.

"This is a huge ask for us to stray from our plans and our planning principles," McKeen said.

It's a downscale version of the 30-storey tower Westrick Pacific Corporation had proposed in 2017, which council rejected.

Richard Bernstein with Vancouver-based Chris Dikeakos Architects is working with Westrick and was at Edmonton city hall Monday to re-pitch the revised project.

He described the design as slim and elegant — that's how one architect described the downscaled design of a tower proposed for the mature neighbourhood of Grandin in Edmonton's Oliver district.

"We feel this is an appropriately-scaled development," Bernstein said. "It's much more neighbourly."

The tower, called "The View" would be on a 16,000 square foot lot.

It would contain 178 suites, a mix of one-bedroom and two bedroom suites, with about a dozen three and four-bedroom apartments.

David Sanche, a director with developer Westrich, said the company has worked hard to build a 'sensitive building."

"It's a unique design," he told media Monday. "We believe it fits in really well, we believe it's good for the city.

Developers increased the distance between the proposed tower and a residential building to the south called the Madison. The tower would sit 10.5 metres away as opposed to the original five metres.

The revised pitch includes the company buying part of the lane off 111th Street.

'We're not against development'

The proposal is not going over well with some residents in the area, including Randi Mewhort, who lives in the Madison, the building to the south.

Mewhort said closing the lane would cut off vehicles' access to the buildings. Traffic in the 99th Avenue and 111th Street area is already congested, residents noted.

Mewhort said the proposed tower would loom over her northwest apartment and block the sky.

"We're not against development, what we're against is bad design and poor choices in development," she said. "This is really an overdevelopment of a small site."

The developers lauded the transit-oriented location, at 200 metres away from the Grandin LRT station.

Sanche said the companies worked with the community league to adjust the design so it fits in with the neighbourhood.

"That's where we've worked with Oliver, tirelessly for the past year," he said.

Lisa Brown, president of the Oliver Community League, said the league is taking a "neutral" position on the development.

"We just want to give some recognition that they've reduced the height of the tower, they've increased the east and south set backs."

As a residential neighbourhood, it's important tower is farther back from the street, she said.

"We're seeing a lot of sites coming up for re-zoning," Brown said. "So it's really important for us as a community league to work with developers and see positive changes come through."

Westrich said other towers, like the 43-storey Encore on 102nd Avenue and 103th Avenue are higher than 23-storeys on a similar-sized lot.

'The missing middle'

City administration does not support the proposed bylaw. Sustainable Development branch noted the bylaw would allow a high-rise on a small site, which doesn't agree with the city's plan for infill.

The current policy only allows row housing and low-rise apartments up to four storeys.

Staff said they would likely support a similar project on Jasper Avenue.

Coun. Scott McKeen said the site was giving some council members 'palpitations."

McKeen noted that mature neighbourhoods need the missing middle infill — row housing and townhouses — and a large tower would likely drive up real-estate values and deter other developers from building this type of infill.

Westrich has a sales centre ready to open in October, with the goal of starting to build the View in 2019.

@natashariebe