BONNYVILLE - During the Aug. 27 Town of Bonnyville council meeting, two development permit applications for secondary suites were submitted.
Despite the Town of Bonnyville being supportive of those providing an increase in much-needed rental units, only one development permit application was approved.
An application for a secondary suite on 38A street, in a R1 single family residential district, was denied on the grounds that the cul-de-sac was too congested, and two adjacent landowners had responded with their concerns about parking and traffic.
“People buy in a certain location to have a certain feel. [Residents] said they bought in that area knowing it is single family,” said Mayor Elisa Brosseau. “If we start approving all these different dwellings then it changes a little bit the nature of the environment there. It is a tight area, and if we have one dwelling like this what’s to stop the other ones?”
Coun. Phil Kushnir cautioned against too much restriction for secondary suites and discussed the dichotomy between the town needing rental suites, and the desire to deny secondary suites in order to preserve a community's original environment.
“We just don't have enough suites available in the town, so that's something that we may be looking forward to in the future... it'll be interesting to see when we decide to go down that road with the bylaws and how that's all going to play out,” said Kushnir.
“In this case, because of the [lack of rear access], I can see why this would be an issue... I do agree in adequate space, safely providing parking stalls that won’t be detrimental to the look of the neighborhood – that’s the key statement for me, because then it goes to Madam Mayor’s point.”
Coun. Byron Johnson also offered his thoughts.
“I've been down this street a number of times dropping kids off and visiting - it's congested at the best of times. Wintertime it's worse when we're trying to clear snow and everything. The design of these neighborhoods has been made to have narrower streets and no back alley so we can fit more houses in - that was long before our time. For me, adding extra people in there makes it a lot tougher.”
During the same meeting, council approved the application for a secondary suite located on 49th Avenue in an R3 medium density residential district.
The Town of Bonnyville received no feedback from adjacent landowners regarding the request.
Brosseau stated there was rear access to the property, which would suffice as an additional parking location.
Coun. Brian McEvoy received confirmation from administration that the building was a single-family dwelling and not a duplex, before he moved to approve the application with four conditions suggested by administration. The motion was unanimously carried.
One of the conditions was to have an additional parking stall provided on site to accommodate parking for the secondary suite, for a total of three on-site stalls
Another condition was that the secondary suites should meet all the requirements of the Alberta Building Code prior to occupancy.
The third condition was that the applicant shall be financially responsible during construction for any damage by the applicant, his servants, his suppliers, agents or contractors to any public or private property.
And the last condition was that the applicant shall prevent excess soil or debris from being spilled on public streets, lanes, and sidewalks and shall not place soil or any other materials on adjacent parcels without permission in writing from adjacent property owners.
