St. Boniface housing development passes its first hurdle

A controversial infill development in St. Boniface has cleared its first hurdle at city hall. Harrison Shin explains.

A controversial infill development plan in Winnipeg’s St. Boniface area is one step closer to breaking ground.

The proposed development at 470 Des Meurons St was hotly debated at the Riel Community Committee on Friday. It passed unanimously –with a caveat.

The property is currently designated a light industrial zone, previously housing Overhead Door – a garage door company in Winnipeg.

The meeting on Friday dealt with two matters – rezoning the property into a residential multi-family zone and the 11 variances the developer, Freedhome Developments, requested.

“We are requesting some fairly minor variances that have been approved for countless other infill developments, including two of our developments just down the street,” said Jonathon Freed, president of the company, on Friday.

The proposed plan would bring 120 residential units – with 10 per cent of it aimed for affordable housing.

The 11 variances include no front yard, larger balconies, less guest parking spaces, more units and others. However, Friday’s vote only allowed a portion of the request.

“We agree with five, we’ll give you part of one of them and we disagree with five,” Coun. Brian Mayes (St. Vital), who sits at the committee, said on Monday.

That decision came from the recommendations the city planners made to the committee, which include a front yard of 10 feet and keeping 11 guest parking spaces.

Freed said some of his other buildings don’t have any visitor parking spaces and the property has ample street parking.

“I guess the alternative is, if we went below grade for parking and rents skyrocketed and we could no longer do affordable housing, so that’s kind of the trade-off,” he told the committee on Friday.

Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham said the nearby residents’ concerns should be kept in mind.

“It’s too early for me to say if I hope to see any changes,” he told CTV News on Monday. “But I do want to see housing built and look forward to this file coming through the committee process.”

CTV News reached out to Matt Allard, the city councillor for St. Boniface, for additional comment. He reserved it as the matter still needs to be voted on by council.

The project now moves to its next phase of review, which takes place at the city’s property and development committee.