Plans for a new Kal Tire location has received an initial nod from Salmon Arm Council.
At Monday’s meeting of the city’s development and planning services committee, council members considered an official community plan amendment and a zoning bylaw amendment needed to accommodate the project. Coun. Marg Kentel was absent, but all other members voted to forward the application to the next meeting of council.
Developer Bill Laird proposes to develop the property at 521 First Street SW, just north of the Mall at Piccadilly, by splitting it into a 1.6-acre parcel for a Kal Tire service facility and the 3.7-acre remainder for future commercial development.
The plan would require amending the land-use category in the official community plan from city centre to highway service/tourist commercial, as well as rezoning it from A-1, agriculture, to C-3, service commercial for Kal Tire and C-7, shopping centre commercial for the remaining property.
Director of development services, Kevin Pearson, explained that the OCP designation of the property was highway service/tourist commercial until 2011, when it was changed to city centre because the area to the south is residential ‘area B.’ It was thought that expansion of the city centre and its retail would serve the area. Laird said he hadn’t realized the designation was being changed in 2011 and, if he had, he would have been enthusiastic that it remain the same.
Laird has commissioned a traffic study in keeping with a request from the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure. Pearson said one of the initial concerns was how the proposed access would line up with Fifth Avenue, but the plan now includes that requirement.
Coun. Ken Jamieson asked Laird if he thinks a traffic light would be required at Fifth Avenue.
“I’m probably not wise enough to be able to answer that,” Laird said, noting there has been discussion in the past about three-way stops.
Once the traffic study is complete, there will be a public hearing on the proposed amendments.
The Kal Tire site will consist of a 13,440 sq.ft. service building including a 2,470 sq.ft. service canopy for large truck business. The service canopy will be on the north side of the building and the service bays’ access from the south. A secured compound will be in the west corner of the property for tire storage and refuse. The service building itself will contain a showroom, eight service bays, staff offices/facilities and warehousing for parts. The plan includes 45 off-street parking stalls.