Plans by a local accounting firm to have their potential new location at 1462 - 100th St. rezoned as C1- Downtown Commercial have crashed to defeat.
Council voted 5-2 to defeat, on first reading, a zoning bylaw amendment that would have rezoned 20 lots from C3-Arterial Commercial District, to C1-Downtown Commercial.
With that, the rezoning application from owners of a 100th Street strip mall came to a sudden halt.
“There will be no further readings and no further consideration of changes to that bylaw,” said Mayor Ryan Bater to reporters. “Council is maintaining the status quo.”
It was a surprising turn of events after the previous council meeting Nov. 12, when council had indicated a willingness to at least consider the rezoning of that location.
The request came from owners of Parkview Square Ltd., who are also partners with accounting firm Holm Raiche Oberg. The accounting firm had been looking to move to the 100th Street property, but the property was located one block north of the boundary of the C1 downtown commercial zone. The property was also located outside of the boundaries of the downtown business improvement district.
A rezoning to C1 designation would have accommodated a major office building development of more than 3,600 square feet or larger at the proposed location.
When the request was initially brought forward, city administration had recommended turning it down, citing that it went against the city’s Official Community Plan to concentrate large office developments in the downtown core.
But council voted against that recommendation 4-3 at their Nov. 12 meeting. City officials then came back with a proposal to extend the C1- Downtown zoning to include the 100th Street property as well as the surrounding block.
That bylaw amendment ended up defeated on first reading before any debate was even entered Monday.
