IKEA clears another hurdle

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/03/2009 (6135 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The IKEA project has cleared another hurdle at city hall, as Mayor Sam Katz’s cabinet has paved the way for an 80-hectare, $400 million commercial development to proceed in southwest Winnipeg.

After a 10-hour public hearing, city council’s executive policy committee voted to approve a plan to convert industrial land at Kenaston Boulevard and Sterling Lyon Parkway into commercial land and also enter into an economic development agreement with developers Fairweather Properties and IKEA Canada.

The lengthy public hearing required EPC to approve a planning amendment, zoning variances, subdivisions, a road closing and the economic development agreement, which will see the developer pay for $26.5 million of roadwork up front and receive $22 million back from the city and province.

During the first four hours of the hearing, EPC councillors grilled consulting firm the MMM Group about many aspects of the complex plan, including minutiae such as loading dock configurations, pathways in parking lots and potential changes to the decibel level of ambient noise in the neighbourhood.

EPC then spent more than four hours listening to delegations from citizens, several of which are concerned about the environmental aspects of the project as well as the long-term costs, not to mention the speed the project is sailing through city hall.

After an hour of further questioning of the consultant and city staff, EPC approved the development without insisting on significant changes.

The project still faces approval from city council as a whole.

If approved, a 350,000-square-foot IKEA store will rise at the southwest corner of Sterling Lyon and Kenaston in 2011, followed by an additional 1.15 million square feet of commercial developments by the time the project is completed in 2018.