Charlottetown sends 1,700 housing units to public consultation

Charlottetown residents will soon have their say on 1,700 housing units proposed for the city across three separate projects.

Charlottetown's Deputy Mayor Alanna Jankov said she can't recall the city sending this much development to public consultation at one time.

"One development alone is potentially 1,200 to 1,400 residential dwellings of different varieties and styles," Jankov said.

Council voted unanimously on Tuesday night to send all three projects to public consultation.

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'It's a significant project, and we'll be picking away at it. I'd like to move forward as quickly as we possibly can,' says Housing Minister Rob Lantz about the 1,700 units planned for Charlottetown's Hillsborough Park.

P.E.I.'s provincial government is proposing low- and high-density development in a 34-hectare parcel of land it owns in the Hillsborough Park area of Charlottetown through the P.E.I. Housing Corporation.

The plan includes a mix of single-family homes, townhouses, duplexes and apartment buildings and would bring between 1,211 to 1,476 housing units to the area over the next decade or so.

The province hosted a public meeting on the proposed plan in August. At that meeting residents voiced concerns about increased traffic.

The province submitted a traffic impact study to the city. According to that document, a full build-out of 1,211 dwelling units would generate an average total of 6,550 new vehicular trips to and from the development.

Increased traffic is always a concern for residents when it comes to any development, Jankov said.

"We can look at public transportation, we can look at walking trails, we can look at bicycle pathways, but the bottom line is our population is growing and traffic is going to increase," Jankov said.

"The levels of government need to work together to address that, so that developers can build the houses that people need to be able to have somewhere to live."

Another development heading to public consolation is a proposed eight storey building for 199 Grafton Street. The project would bring 158 units to the area with more than 30 affordable rental units in Charlottetown's downtown core.

Project developer Tim Banks, president of Pan American Properties, has said it takes too long to get approval to build, especially south of Euston Street where many heritage homes sit.

"We're bound by bylaws, policies, procedures, official plans, legislation. So until those things are changed, then that's what we have to adhere to," Jankov said.

"That's why we're opening up the official plan and that's why we're looking at the zoning and development bylaw. That's why we lobby the province to change legislation. But we're just not there yet. So hang on everybody, We're going to get there."

The third project going to a public meeting would put an eight-storey, 257-unit apartment building at 503 University Avenue, the former site of Maritime Christian College. The plan is to have the old college demolished and the new building put up in its place.

Dates for the public consultations have not yet been set, but Jankov said, they are expected to take place in early March.