Gateway zone getting 13.5 acres larger

By Craig Westcott

The Town of CBS will consult the public on a plan to rezone 13.5 acres of land near the CBS Arena.
“This is a privately-owned piece of property adjacent to what we refer to as The Gateway,” said councillor-at-large Rex Hillier. “It’s currently zoned Rural and the owner wants to have it rezoned to Regional Centre, which is what the rest of the Gateway is zoned as. So that would be a much larger contiguous area with the zoning of Regional Centre.”
The area is adjacent to the south end of the arena’s parking lot.
The history of the Town’s involvement with the property dates back to 2009 when it acquired some Crown Land and parcels of land held by private property owners to create The Gateway.
One of the property owners was Greenslades Construction Limited, which had quarry rights in the area. In return for Greenslades giving up those mineral rights, the Town agreed to convey to the company 10 acres of land on the east side of Graham Mifflin Drive and to rezone it, along with some 3.5 acres already owned by Greenslades.
The rezoning needs an amendment to the St. John’s Urban Regional Plan and the permission of the Minister of Municipal Affairs. The Town is covering all the expenses related to the process, which staff estimate to be less than $5,000.
Rezoning the land will make it much more valuable as a potential commercial site. The list of business activities permitted in the Regional Centre zone is extensive ranging from amusement centres, catering, child care, convenience stores, hotels and indoor assembly plants, to medical and professional clinics, offices, service stations, shopping centres, theatres and veterinary services.