Earls proposal for Main Street rejected by city

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This article was published 11/04/2015 (4001 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One city planner said it’s better suited to a suburban big-box development on McGillivray Boulevard. Coun. Jenny Gerbasi said it does little to create the kind of super-dense development the downtown needs. Other councillors worried it would preserve a parking lot rather than eliminate it.

On Friday, council’s downtown committee narrowly killed a proposal by Earls restaurant to move its busy Main Street location to a new and bigger building on a nearby parking lot.

In a case that’s emblematic of nearly every downtown development debate, Earls proposed to rebuild just north of its location at York Avenue on a parking lot closer to St. Mary Avenue. The new location would have allowed the restaurant to expand its footprint, pull in an extra $2 million a year in revenue and landscape the remaining parking lots with trees and hedges, giving it a “park-like” feel. The move would have shrunk the parking lot’s area by at least 50 per cent, architect Judy MacDougall said.

But city planners said the project doesn’t meet the height requirements in the downtown zoning bylaw, which calls for buildings that are at least 10.6 metres high. Earls proposed a 6.4-metre building, which is a little taller than one storey.

Planners said city policies for downtown density and transit development along the Main Street corridor favour buildings at least three storeys tall that are multi-use, with shops on the bottom floors and housing above. Earls is a single-use proposal.

Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry Coun. Jenny Gerbasi argued the gateway into the downtown and to The Forks ought to be a higher quality. She begged the committee to follow the new zoning rules, design guidelines and the spirit of a South Main redevelopment plan in the works by CentreVenture.

She said bypassing the letter and spirit of city policies would confirm frequent criticism of city council — that planning rules get altered too easily for flawed projects — and set a bad precedent.

“Why do we bother planning if we’re just going to ignore it?” Gerbasi asked. “This is an area that needs to be transformed. If we make this decision, what’s the next decision going to be?”

‘Why do we bother planning if we’re just going to ignore it? This is an area that needs to be transformed. If we make this decision, what’s the next decision going to be?’– Jenny Gerbasi

Only North Kildonan Coun. Jeff Browaty sided with Earls, saying the project would be a big improvement on the ugly parking lots north of Earls, which he called a blight.

He said the restaurant’s proposed height was similar to that of several buildings along that stretch of Main Street.

A series of variances and zoning appeals related to the parking and height issues were before the downtown development, heritage and riverbank management committee Friday.

River Heights-Fort Garry Coun. John Orlikow and committee chairman Brian Mayes joined Gerbasi in voting against elements of the plan, creating tie votes that killed the project.

The appeals do not go to council for another look.

MacDougall and staff from Earls left city hall quickly without commenting.

maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca