CBS approves bevy of development applications
By Mark Squibb
December 1, 2023 Edition
CBS council approved a number of development applications during the November 7 public meeting.
The first was an application to subdivide a property on Baird’s Lane in Long Pond into two residential building lots and construct a single home serviced by a private septic system.
“Baird’s Lane has water only, and it won’t have sewer for quite some time, if ever — and I hate to say that but it’s down the road quite a ways — and this application came in looking to subdivide the lot and do an on-site private septic, so we’re bringing that forward for approval,” said Deputy Mayor Andrea Gosse.
Councillor Melissa Hardy noted the application was comparable to the situation for adjacent properties, while councillor Rex Hillier declared a conflict of interest on the matter as he has family members who live near the proposed development.
Council also approved construction of a garage at a residence on Ava Place, Kelligrews, subject to payment of a $1,000 deposit refundable upon approval of plumbing for the yet-to-be built home.
“We actually approved a similar application recently,” noted Gosse. “The resident is looking to build a new house, and the application is in for the house and going through the process, but (also) wanted to put a storage shed on the property… We don’t typically approve an accessory building for a piece of property that doesn’t have a main dwelling. But we talked about it and said that there are lots of instances where people are building and they would like to have a garage because that gives them a place for tools and supplies as they’re building. The planning committee recently reviewed another file and determined that we would put a refundable deposit in place that, upon starting their main building and getting to a certain stage, we would refund their deposit.”
In other development news:
Council voted to ask the Province to redesignate land at 1821A to 1825 Conception Bay Highway in Seal Cove from Rural to Urban Development. Council also approved a motion to undertake initial consultation to add policies for areas designated as rural, create a new land use zone for rural light industrial uses and to rezone the property at 1821A Conception Bay Highway from rural to the new zone for rural light industrial uses.
Council initially deferred voting on an application for placement of fill on 0.3 hectares of land at 1440 Conception Bay Highway, Seal Cove, pending the outcome of a request to rezone the property, but approved a motion to undertake the initial consultation process to rezone the land from residential to commercial. That’s the area where Parson’s & Son’s Transportation has been operating since the early 1960s, long before CBS was even officially a town.
“The resident has operated the business there for over 50 years,” said Gosse. “Because the business has been there for so long, they’ve been grandfathered in under the zoning and they’re looking to do some work and a little bit of expansion and would therefore like to rezone the property to something a little more suitable.”
Councillor Paul Connors declared a conflict as he has a family member involved in the business in question. That’s how the matter stood until a later public meeting this month when council approved the application to lay in some fill, subject to submission and approval of grading and stormwater management plans.
Town staff explained the rezoning process is continuing, and the application did not hinge on the land being rezoned.
Council also approved the construction of a garage at a Ewings Road residence, and a storage shed at a Smiths Place residence.