Executive policy committee votes against Crescentwood condo project

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This article was published 07/12/2016 (3451 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Controversy continues to swirl around a proposed Crescentwood condominium project after Mayor Brian Bowman’s senior committee narrowly voted against the plan.

Councillors on executive policy committee voted 4-3 against the $6.5 million-project Wednesday, with Bowman and Couns. Marty Morantz and Scott Gillingham on the losing end of that vote.

Opposition to the project was led by Coun. John Orlikow, whose ward is where the project is planned to be built. Joining Orlikow against the project were Couns. Brian Mayes, Cindy Gilroy and Mike Pagtakhan.

The fate of the project will be decided next week, when it will be presented to all of council.

Local development firm Ventura Developments Inc. wants to construct a 12-unit, four-storey, condo complex on two vacant lots on McMillan Avenue and Harrow Street.

While the city’s planning staff supported the project, the proposal was initially rejected last month by councillors on the local community committee, who sided with neighbourhood opposition that it was too large, out of character with the single-family neighbourhood, and could trigger similar developments along the street.

Orlikow told EPC he was upset with the intense public lobbying campaign that Ventura’s Tim Comack had been conducting to support the project, including a full-page ad in Saturday’s Winnipeg Free Press. Orlikow said rules prevent councillors from discussing the project publicly but no such prohibitions apply to developers.

Orlikow said that even though civic staff supported it, he believes they are incorrect and the project is wrong for the neighbourhood. Orlikow said he had supported similar infill developments in other parts of his ward and in other parts of the city, but added this project is inappropriate for the location.

Bowman, in comments echoed by Morantz and Gillingham, said he disagreed with Orlikow’s assessment of the project and agreed with the planning department’s recommendation to approve it.

Comack had complained that his company’s proposal had fallen victim to a ward councillor who had buckled to local opposition to a plan that complied with the city’s planning guidelines. The controversy prompted calls to remove politicians from the decision-making process.

Following the vote, EPC supported a motion from Bowman for an administrative review of the city’s development procedures bylaw.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca