Long Pond wharf extension to get land use impact review

By Craig Westcott/August 26, 2022

CBS council found itself saying no more often than it did yes last week when it came to applications to build sheds and garages.

Most shed and garage applications don’t usually make it to council if they meet the minimum lot requirements laid down in the development regulations. In those cases, the permits can be approved by staff.

But in some instances where accessory buildings already exist, or the house occupies a large portion of the lot, staff oftentimes pass the responsibility of saying yea or nay to the applications over to the discretionary authority of council. 

In three cases, last week – at 52 Readers Hill, 2213 Topsail Road, and 6 Goldust Place – council was forced to say no because the proposed buildings would exceed the maximum lot coverage for accessory buildings on the properties.

Two other applications did get the go ahead; at 21 Fagans Road, where the applicant can proceed as long as no fill is added to the property to accommodate the building, and at 20 Marions Garden, where the application involves an extension to an existing shed.

In other development news:

Council rejected an application to operate a moving truck rental business and parking lot at 2676 Topsail Road in Manuels. The property is located between Woody Lane and the CBS Recycling Depot.

Planning committee chairman Rex Hillier explained such a business would create new and added impacts in a high traffic area.

“It’s unfortunate that we have to deny an application for a new business within the town,” Hillier said, “but our concern in that particular area is this is adjacent to the Green Depot, we’ve got private laneways entering Route 60 on either side, we’ve got two schools there and a great deal of traffic, so unfortunately we can’t put that business in that location.”

Council did say yes to an application to allow the parking of a backhoe at 31-49 Tippett Place.

An application to build a chain link fence around an industrial property at 2-22 Barley Road at the top of Fowlers Road in Chamberlains also got the thumbs up. 

“This is a retaining fence for the tire shredding plant that we approved recently,” said Hillier. “It’s nice to see this project is up and running and moving along a little bit more everyday.”

Council has ordered a LUIAR, short for land use impact assessment report, on a proposed extension to a wharf at 12 Commodore Place in Long Pond.

“Your Worship, as you know it’s not uncommon for us to ask for a Land Use Impact Assessment Report if we’ve got a development in sensitive areas,” Hillier said. “In this case, the proponent wants to extend a wharf in an area that is basically the entrance to the channel going between the outer pond and the inner pond where the Yacht Club is, so we’re asking to have a little more in-depth look at that whole application, and the tool that we use is a Land Use Impact Assessment Report. So, we’ve just provided the terms of reference for that report this evening.”

The proposed rezoning of land at 1621 to 1627 Conception Bay Highway to allow for the building of a new subdivision across the street from the Seal Cove campus of the College of the North Atlantic has been sent to the Province for comment. According to the minutes of the latest planning committee meeting, council decided to ask the Department of Municipal Affairs if it has any interests in the proposed development after hearing from residents in the area about possible impacts on waterways and wetlands. 

And according to the minutes of the same report, an application for multi-unit developments at 86 Red Bridge Road has been deferred to allow staff more time to “consider how the definition of a subsidiary apartment might impact one aspect of the proposed development.”

No further details were recorded in the minutes and the matter was not discussed at the public council meeting.