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City council voted unanimously to rezone a site in Edmonton’s Windsor Park neighbourhood, allowing for the construction of mixed-use apartments near the University of Alberta.
During a public hearing Tuesday, some residents voiced opposition to the project.
Among them was David Lynch, who said the building’s size would make it the largest in the area, potentially shading nearby homes.
“If you’re the neighbor living in the bungalow, almost literally next door to it, it might seem quite imposing and daunting,” Lynch told Edmonton AM on Wednesday.
LISTEN | Some residents concerned about new apartments near U of A:
Edmonton AM9:42Some residents concerned about new apartments near U of A
City council approved the development of Windsor Heights, a high-rise apartment building in the Windsor Park neighbourhood near the University of Alberta. Some residents do not support the project. David Lynch is a Windsor Park resident and the former dean of engineering at the University of Alberta.
With 25 storeys, the proposed Windsor Heights building would contain 285 rental units, 250 underground parking stalls and up to 24,000 square feet of retail space. It would sit on the corner of 117 Street and 87 Avenue, where a strip mall currently houses a local restaurant, bank, convenience store and hair salon.
Edmonton-based real estate development company Westrich Pacific is behind the project. In an open house last summer, the company said the strip mall’s amenities could be brought to the tower’s retail space.
Despite this, Lynch worries retailers won’t be able to afford space in newer buildings.
He said that a block away, another newly-developed building, called Windsor House, has space for retail businesses, but has remained largely vacant. Currently, a coffee shop is the only business operating out of Windsor House.
“It’s clear that the market and the prices that are needed in these new buildings may be beyond the reach of these smaller operators that we already have in the neighborhood.”
Over the past decade, the number of dwellings in Windsor Park has tripled, Lynch estimated. The increase has led to cumulative effects on the neighbourhood, particularly involving traffic safety issues, he said.
According to the Government of Canada, cumulative effects are changes to a region’s environment or community caused by human activities and natural processes, which accumulate over time.
At the public hearing, Lynch and several other residents asked the city to postpone the Windsor Heights project for a few years to allow the city to assess the impacts existing development has had on the neighbourhood.
“This was really to argue for a delay because of the cumulative impacts that we’ve already started to experience and to give us just a little bit of time to absorb those impacts and mitigate them through appropriate measures,” Lynch said.
Coun. Michael Janz acknowledged the concerns of residents during the public hearing, but said the construction of Windsor Heights could address the need for housing in the area.
“I don’t want those pieces to be tripping up the dire need for housing in our city and housing in our community and housing close to the U of A where people want to live and people want to enjoy all of the amenities that this area has to offer,” said Janz, who represents Ward papastew, where Windsor Park is located.
Windsor Heights will sit on 87 Avenue, a major arterial road in and out of the university area.
Lynch said the proposed construction could lead to an increase in traffic along 87 Avenue, prompting drivers to shortcut congestion by driving down alleyways and the road in front of a nearby elementary school.
“There may be some significant safety issues there for pedestrians and others who are crossing on the sidewalks and in front of that back alley.”
Traffic engineers are involved in the project to lessen its impacts on nearby roads, said city administration.
Residents of Windsor Park aren’t opposed to housing developments in the neighbourhood, but instead want construction to happen gradually, Lynch said.
“I think everybody recognizes that it is a fairly highly-accessible site, close to the university, close to transit on an arterial road that’s increasingly busy,” he said.
“But maybe there were ways of addressing some of those impacts through the design space that could have remediated some of the concerns that were addressed.”
Now that the city has approved the rezoning of the site, Westrich Pacific will finalize the building’s design. Construction is expected to begin next year.