It is back to the drawing board for MacPine Development Ltd. after residents and contractors have raised concerns about the company’s proposed seven-lot single family residential subdivision at 18 Woodland Drive.
“They drew a map and showed where the houses may go, but that’s just a schematic design,” Mayor Walt Cobb said after a public hearing held Tuesday at city hall.
“We’ve asked them for a servicing plan because we need to know where the water and sewer lines and all that stuff will go.”
City planner Chris Hutton said staff, council and the public need a clear picture of what the situation at Woodland Drive is to make an informed decision.
In its proposal, the company has asked for a variety of variances, including decreasing the required road width and using an above ground storm water management system.
Presently Woodland Drive’s width ranges from six to seven and a half metres, with one metre wide open ditches for storm water run off.
If the subdivision went ahead the road width would have to be 11 metres to meet city standards.
Former Woodland Drive resident Rob Ritson said people drive up from other areas to walk along Woodland Drive.
“This narrow little road doesn’t accommodate that and if you add seven lots like they are proposing your traffic has just shot up,” Ritson said.
“I’m dead set against it.”
Karl Seibert said he’s pro-development but described Woodland Drive as a rural area of the city.
“Are we rural or are we seven lot subdivisions?” Seibert asked council and referred to survey of Woodland residents done by city staff that indicated the majority did not want lots divided to less than two acre lots.
Seibert also said that increasing traffic to the area while leaving the narrow road would be an issue.
“In the snow people are already slipping up and down that hill,” Seibert said.
Responding to concerns from residents about the impact of the subdivision on properties directly below on Westridge Drive, engineering consultant Dan Colgate said the proposed MacPine subdivision would have to control storm water run off and ensure retaining walls aren’t damaged or compromised.
“There will be geotechnical investigations telling us where to place the buildings and what are safe setbacks from retaining walls,” Colgate said.
The investigations will also determine where groundwater is and what it is doing so that the design can control it, Colgate added.