The City of Salmon Arm has acquired a piece of what will become part of the planned Auto Road Connector.
The connector will go down Auto Road as it travels west across 20th Street and then, instead of going down the hill towards Fifth Street SE, or Shoemaker Hill when it’s not closed during winter weather, the road would go across, near Crystal Springs residential development, and down 14th Avenue SE to Shuswap Street.
The connector is designated an urban arterial road that will provide an east/west link between 30th Street SE and Shuswap Street SE.
Another piece of the land required for the connector became available to the city because of a development variance permit application from the owners of 1220 and 1191 Fourth Street SE.
Brenda Bennett and Stuart Wood applied to subdivide the properties and so requested a number of variances to the subdivision and development servicing bylaw such as waiving extension of the water main, sanitary sewer main and storm sewer main.
This was because the subdivision is simply a parcel line adjustment with no additional parcels being created and no changes to existing land use.
At the time of subdivision, the city, under the Local Government Act, can obtain a road dedication up to 20 metres. However, because the standard for an arterial road like the connector is 25 metres, the cost of the additional five metres would be $19,000.
So city staff supported the variances and suggested the city provide $10,000 for the extra five metres.
Council agreed.
The staff report states it would be more appropriate to require completion of the servicing upgrades when the properties come under further subdivision or development.
“Given the amount of land required and the benefit to the municipality in obtaining full road dedication, staff support the requested variances and the expenditure of DCC (development cost charge) funds,” the report concluded.
Staff noted that construction of the connector cannot proceed until additional land deductions are obtained from land to the east and west, including another adjacent parcel owned by Bennett and Wood.
