Carbonear okays 21-unit rental complex after debate

By Craig Westcott / June 16, 2023

An application to build a 21-unit apartment complex had most of Carbonear council eager to approve it Tuesday, but two members reserving their support until they get more answers.

The units will be located at 21 Crowdy Street.

Development committee chairperson Danielle Doyle moved to approve the application. Councillor Chris O’Grady seconded it.

“I have a couple of concerns about that development,” said councillor Peter Snow. “I certainly consider myself very pro-development. I want to see as many buildings in the town of Carbonear as possible. But I have three or four issues that I’d just like to get a little more information (on).”

Snow said he intended to move his own motion to table, that is to say delay, the application until council can take a closer look at it.

Snow’s biggest concern was garbage.

“There are going to be 21 units there and if it’s going to be just one communal garbage bin, the neighbour that’s closest to that could possibly have quite a smell from that,” he said. “And from my own personal experience with these places, when you have just one spot and a lot of people have to go there and place their garbage in the one spot, they sometimes like to play basketball with the bag of garbage and just lob it, and if it breaks they scatter, they don’t stay there and clean it up. And if you have all the garbage in the one place, it’s going to be a tremendous attraction for rats and gulls and crows and everything else.”

Snow said he would rather see individual curbside collection for each of the 21 units. 

“The second concern I had was with regard to snow removal and snow clearing,” Snow said.

He raised a fear that the lot, which is to be cleared by a private contractor, might not always be kept cleared, which could hinder firefighters who might have to respond there during an emergency.

“We’re not going to let the place burn down,” Snow said. “So, our firemen are going to be going in there with their own plow when they are not used to plowing that particular development. That could cause some issues. And I don’t even know the legal ramifications if our own plow went in there and had an accident.”

Snow said he couldn’t tell from the drawings whether the development will have its own fire hydrant, which is another issue. 

“We didn’t see any of the underground infrastructure that’s going to be needed for that development,” he said. 

Snow added there was no sign from the drawings that sidewalks will be installed. “So, the little children that are going to be living in that development area, they’ll have to, I guess, walk on the road or on the grass on the sides,” he said. “That one worries me a little. I wouldn’t want to have it on my conscience if there’s an accident and someone is hurt there.”

Finally, there’s the issue of drainage. The area near the Royal Canadian Legion, which is down around the corner on Bannerman Street, already has a drainage problem, Snow noted. “I’m sure the developer will look at that,” he allowed. “He has more at stake than anyone else, so he’ll want to take care of any water problems. So, it’s just all these questions and no information.”

Mayor Frank Butt said Snow was raising legitimate concerns and asked staff if they had any response.

Chief Administrative Officer Cynthia pointed out Carbonear already has a similar 22-unit complex that has its own on-site garbage collection and snow clearing. “We haven’t had issues with that particular place, so we would assume it would be similar for this one,” she said. “The other one has been in place for many, many years and there haven’t been issues. I can’t say that’s not going to be the case in this new development, but we would typically treat it the same as the other complex.”

Doyle said if there are problems with garbage, the owner will be treated like anyone else in town and have to deal with the municipal enforcement officer. She suggested Snow’s concerns about garbage problems was speculative.

As for underground infrastructure, Doyle said there have been extensive upgrades made to water and sewer in the area and this complex will tie into the new lines on Water Street.

Doyle said according to the development plan review, the number one challenge facing Carbonear is a lack of housing.

“There is nowhere to live,” Doyle said. “In the last several days alone, I have tried valiantly to find housing accommodations for three families from the Philippines who are coming here to work at Carbonear Hospital and the food industry up along Columbus Drive. There is nowhere to rent here. So, if this is ‘The Town that says You’re Welcome,’ we need to start providing housing for people to come in to stay here… I think this particular developer is quite eager to get started and once he gets started, if there are issues with any of this then you would problem-solve them with the developer at the time. But this is June 13, this is a critical time of the year. If we’re going to put this off another two weeks or a month, this might not happen and that’s 21 units, that are beautiful housing units from the plans I’ve seen – every single one of them has an attached garage, I mean they’re gorgeous – and if we’re going to put this off, or delay this, I find that very unfortunate.”

Councillor O’Grady said he concurred with Doyle. “We’re desperate for housing and this is a nice development,” he said. “We already have a similar development on Saddle Hill… Like councillor Doyle said, he wants to start this. We can’t delay this any longer.”

O’Grady noted council has been talking about the application for some time and the plans were distributed to everyone on council for review. “We haven’t heard any feedback, so we need to get moving on it,” he argued.

Councillor Malcolm Seymour took the side of Snow and raised concerns of his own, suggesting there are no plans for green space, or sidewalks and curbs. 

“Garbage is a big issue,” Seymour added. “I do want to make sure that garbage is a proper thing that we deal with. And the issue with rats and everything in this town right now? We have an issue with this in Carbonear, and we need to develop something to make sure that we control this situation.”

Seymour said he has nothing against the developer or development. “I want to see this place flourish,” said Seymour. “But we need to make sure we do it right.” 

Councillor Ray Noel said he understands the concerns but suggested they can be addressed easily enough by discussing them with the developer. He pointed out construction season has started.

“Most of us know who this developer is, and it’s great to have these people around town who are building our town, and I don’t think it’s worth hanging up the construction over a couple of concerns, with all due respect to the concerns that the councillor has there,” Noel said. I think we should get this moving as quickly as we can and engage in some of these conversations. It’s unfortunate that they didn’t happen prior to this, but I think they can be addressed, and we can move on with this development.”

That led Doyle to interject again. “Further to the garbage issue,” said Doyle, “this developer also owns significant current rental property in the town. They own a series of senior citizens or 50 Plus (units). They also have a fast-food establishment over on Columbus Drive. And I followed up with the Municipal Enforcement Officer before he left and there has not been one single complaint about any of their current and existing properties filed with the Town.”

Deputy Mayor Sam Slade said it’s always nice to see new development. “And with all due respect to councillor Snow – I know where he’s coming from – the season is here to start building. When we talk about the possibility of garbage around this particular unit, I’m pretty sure people are not going to come into the Town of Carbonear, put up big, beautiful buildings and then let them go into a dilapidated state. I think we need to move forward on it and do it in a proper manner.”

Despite those arguments, Snow said he still wanted to proceed with his own motion to delay the decision on the application until more information is available.

“Can I speak? I just have one more thing to say,” responded Doyle. “We met as a council, and we discussed all this and any councillor who had any questions or things like that had the opportunity at that time also to reach out to the director of operations and the CAO to seek further information from the developer. I’m not sure if any of that happened. But that was two weeks ago.”

Snow said he did ask questions, but answers were never provided.

“I’ll be very sad if we lose a 21-unit development over this,” said Doyle.

Put to a vote, Snow’s motion to delay failed with only councillor Seymour supporting him.

Mayor Butt then called for a vote on Doyle’s motion to approve the development in principle pending further approvals from the provincial government departments that also have to sign off on it. That motion passed 5-2 with Snow and Seymour voting against it.