The province has suggested the City of Salmon Arm begin putting away money for a traffic study related to development around the north side of the 30th Street/Highway #1 intersection.
On Monday, city council gave final reading to a zoning amendment for one such development, a proposed 21 strata-lot retirement community at 1341 30th St. NE. The amendment was to rezone the 2.5 acre property from R5 high density residential to R4 medium density residential.
Final reading for the amendment was pending comment from the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, which was received on Jan. 15 from ministry district development technician Elizabeth Keam.
Keam’s feedback on the application is as follows: “We ask that the City of Salmon Arm consider imposing development cost charges towards this and future developments in the area to contribute towards a traffic study and possible future improvements to the intersection as warranted.”
Councillors, staff and Mayor Nancy Cooper deemed this to be an unusual request from the ministry, with development services director Kevin Pearson noting it was the first time he’d ever seen MOTI suggest the city undertake projects and specify where the city should be spending its DCCs.
However, Pearson explained, this is not currently possible as the intersection is not identified as a project in the city’s DCC bylaw.
“I think it’s a comment to raise awareness of what is deemed to be an intersection that’s going to need some work because of increasing traffic there,” said Pearson, who then directed the discussion to engineering and public works director Rob Niewenhuizen, who explained developer contributions did go towards a traffic study for the intersection at 30th Street and 11th Avenue NE.
“That traffic study was completed and we do have recommendations from that study,” said Niewenhuizen.
“There are several options we can go forward with and we will be looking towards putting reserves in or starting a reserve for those improvements. But right now… there’s no requirement for this developer to contribute to that.”
Niewenhuizen later told council the cost of any of those options would come in well under $1 million, but added land would have to be acquired.
Pearson noted Keam is aware of that traffic study, completed in relation to Uptown Askew’s.
There is also a covenant on the remainder of the Askew’s property, which dictates that another traffic study has to be done before it can be developed, Pearson added.
“So yes, the person is fully aware of the traffic study requirements.”