Old Clover Bar Lodge redevelopment moves forward with six-storey design

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Heartland Housing Foundation (HHF) has overcome the latest hurdle in the old Clover Bar Lodge redevelopment saga.

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At the Tuesday, March 11 public hearing, Strathcona County Council approved a bylaw to amend the Direct Control (DC) Zone within the Land Use Bylaw to increase the site’s maximum height from 16 metres to 19 metres (from four-storey to six) and to remove the requirement to provide underground parking spaces.

The project located at 100 Fir Street will see 104 units of near market housing. The underground parking was scrapped after it was discovered that the site had a high water table, making the project cost prohibitive, according to HHF. Instead, the new design offers surface parking (with the same number of stalls at 1.1 per dwelling unit) and now the apartment building will allow a 70-metre setback from the closest residential home since the previously planned townhomes have been removed.

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“The adjustment to the six stories on the one side of the property was to help manage the number of units we required so there’s more than 14 units per floor of the building. If were were to remove that to make it four storeys, we wouldn’t meet that 90 unit requirement that council requested us to meet (in December),” said Nancy Simmonds, CEO with Heartland Housing Foundation.

More than 350 letters to Fir Street area neighbours in January about these proposed changes and no feedback was received, confirmed HHF’s strategic engagement manager Adrienne Richard.

On Tuesday, residents from ‘The Trees’, including those living on Fir Street and Willow Street, spoke against the bylaw amendments, wanting council to protect the mature neighbourhood’s look and history. With concerns of increased building heights and ripping down trees, residents said the project should be moved to another neighbourhood that already allows for higher apartment structures.

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Ward 6 Coun. Corey-Ann Hartwick said the new site design resolves the previous issue of the building overlooking neighbouring backyards. She confirmed with the county’s Planning and Development Services staff that this project meets requirements of the municipality’s Affordable Housing Strategy.

“I believe it’s important for our community,” Hartwick said. “It addresses the need and the obligation we have in our community to build affordable housing.”

Ward 2 Coun. Bill Tonita said the cost of housing has been reported at 30 per cent higher in Strathcona County compared to other municipalities and something has to give. He pushed back saying that this kind of development shouldn’t be pushed out to Cambrian or Bremner because the Fir Street location provides direct access to services in the centre of the community.

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“I want to see the project move along. It’s been a long time coming,” Tonita said. “The need for affordable housing is significant in our community and we can’t just turn a blind eye to that. We’ve done study after study showing there is truly a need to build more affordable housing, so as a member of council, I need to respond to that.”

Last spring, Ward 3 Coun. Lorne Harvey, who represents the neighbourhood, voted against the DC zoning, saying the project wasn’t in the best interest of his ward residents, but on Tuesday, he said the county needs to do more for population growth and supported the DC amendments. 

“As a councillors, we’re supposed to be looking at what’s best for Strathcona County. I know there are lots of people looking for affordable housing. I see stuff on social media, almost on a daily basis, where someone’s looking something to rent that’s affordable, single mothers, young people, young families, and that,” Harvey said. “I have to support it. It’s what’s best for the county, it’s what’s best for the residents, and unfortunately, it’s just part of the growth of our community.”

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Mayor Rod Frank and Glen Lawrence voted against the first and second readings of the motion, and the mayor continued to vote it down in the third reading, but it was ultimately passed by elected officials 8-1.

The mayor outlined that no one is against affordable housing, but this is happening in Sherwood Park’s oldest residential neighbourhood and the changes proposed by HHF are because of the underground parking, not because of the feedback from residents. He said concerns of increased building heights, density, protecting mature trees have not been addressed.

“I support this project but not in its current form,” Frank said. “I support this project if we can better meet the character of the neighbourhood, but I don’t see that happening today.”

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 Acknowledging he might be a bit of a ‘tree hugger’, Ward 7 Coun. Glen Lawrence said he was concerned by the number of trees being removed from the site. PSD confirmed the mature trees had to be removed due to complex root systems and to provide access for construction equipment.

“I can get my head around changing the building designs and everything because that’s just moving ahead and we want to be efficient, but when it comes to that part of the neighbourhood, I really struggle with it,” Lawrence said. “I love trees and someone has to speak for them. I can’t speak for the community, I don’t live in the community, I live some 50 kilometres away, but if I lived there, I would value that. I’ve known this community my whole life and I’ve (watched) those trees grow. I just think that we do no respect to the history of this community by saying ‘well we’re just going to knock those trees down’. If they were dead or dying or a were a hazard, that’s a different story, but they look fine to me and I think we do a total injustice to this community if we just arbitrarily start knocking down trees because they get in the way.”

A traffic impact study will be submitted with development permit application, which HHF expects to file with the county within the next few weeks.

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