Lord Selkirk-West Kildonan community committee roundup

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This article was published 30/11/2022 (1354 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Lord Selkirk-West Kildonan community committee resumed Nov. 17 with its first meeting since October’s municipal election. The committee welcomes back all three councillors from last term, Couns. Devi Sharma (Old Kildonan), Ross Eadie (Mynarski), and Vivian Santos (Point Douglas), with Eadie taking the first shift as committee chair.

The stretch of Winnipeg Avenue on which Harvest Manitoba operates may soon sport a new (though honorary) name. The committee concurred it should be called David Northcott Way, after the longtime executive director of what was then called Winnipeg Harvest. Northcott worked at the organization for 30 years before retiring in June of 2017. During his tenure, he received the Order of Manitoba, the Order of Canada and the Queen’s Canada 125 medal.

The committee endorsed the FIFA World Cup as a community event and recommended the King’s Head Pub be granted a temporary liquor licence allowing the bar to serve alcohol earlier in the day to correspond with matches taking place in Qatar.

The committee held public hearings on several items, including projects by McGowan Russell Group. The group is hoping to develop two lots at Court Avenue and Pipeline Road with residential multi-family homes, but first needs to rezone the land from its current single-family designation. It also needs variances on several issues — mostly to reduce size requirements for spacing between the buildings and from the street.

A representative of the group addressed the committee’s concerns that the project could created traffic bottlenecks on Court Avenue by saying that “there will be some widening of Court Avenue” at another stage.

The same group is also pushing to expand the Northgate Shopping Centre at 1399 McPhillips St. by adding two buildings for mixed use, commercial and residential. One proposed building would be six storeys, the other seven storeys. The buildings would contain a total of 204 residential units. Two residents of the area spoke in opposition to the project citing issues with its proposed height, among other things.

Local architecture firm Architects at Play also sought rezoning — and received the committee’s endorsement to be approved — for a multi-family project at 516 and 518 McAdam Ave. Current plans include a two-storey building with six units. It would have two rooflines and be clad with aluminum, stucco, and wood siding, with front and rear balconies, six parking stalls and a bicycle rack.