Council approves rezoning near proposed new growth area

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Fredericton city council has approved a rezoning to pave the way for a new housing and mixed-use development in a neighbourhood city staff recently identified as a potential growth area.

Council voted unanimously to rezone two vacant parcels on Stately Court, a cul-de-sac off Alison Boulevard, from commercial corridor Zone 2 (COR-2) to multi-residential Zone 2 (MR-2) and commercial corridor Zone 1 (COR-1) to allow local developer Arnold Chippins of Chippins Limited to construct a mix of townhouses and apartment buildings and one mixed-use building on separate lots.

Council also unanimously approved a change to the properties’ municipal plan designations from commercial centres and corridors to new neighbourhoods.

Stately Court is just east of Doak Road, just south of the Fredericton Co-Op, which was identified earlier this year as a new area being targeted for housing development on the city’s south side after no residential units were built in the previously identified growth area near Knowledge Park Drive and the Corbett Centre.

“Although the site is located outside of the ‘uptown’ growth area identified in the growth strategy, there is a significant lack of residential land available in the southeast quadrant of the city and the proposal responds to this need,” senior planner Tony Dakiv said in a report presented to the planning advisory committee March 20.

“Given this and the ongoing lack of new residential development in the ‘uptown’ growth area, staff will be looking to update the Doak Road area master plan with a new secondary municipal plan aimed at providing additional residential growth opportunities.”

Dakiv said the property was previously rezoned in 2011 to allow more commercial uses, and the plan included 10 commercial building lots on Stately Court. Since then, only one commercial lot has been created and developed with a small office building at the corner of Stately and Allison.

Dakiv said two rezonings have also been approved in recent years for a new church and mosque on Alison Boulevard near the site.

Stately Court is next to a “newly developing residential area” and has the last remaining parcel of land south of Alison Boulevard before a future road is built that will extend from the Route 7 off-ramp, Dakiv said. He said there’s an office building, stacked townhouses, and some semi-detached and single detached homes nearby, along with an RV dealership to the east along the Route 7 interchange.

“This context makes the site a suitable location and logical extension for additional residential land as Alison Boulevard and the future collector road represents an appropriate boundary between residential and the commercial/industrial lands in this area,” Dakiv said in his report. “The proposal is generally consistent with the criteria for mid-rise residential development outlined in the municipal plan.”