The Town of Golden held two open Public Hearings on Feb. 18 to gather public input about proposed changes to the zoning bylaw.
With no input being provided in person at the hearings, and only one written submission which was read out at the meeting, the public input process is now closed.
The one written submission came in as opposition to the proposed change to Highway Corridor Commercial C4 (1401 Lafontaine Road, near the Visitor’s Centre). The property would then be permitted to split into separate lots for development.
The authors of the submission, David and Heather Morgan who are residents of Pine Drive, had some concerns regarding the proposal.
“There is the potential for short-sighted development that does not serve the best interests of the Golden community,” it read. The main concern being the Town’s lack of control over any future development after the zoning change.
This piece of property is one of the first views of Golden seen by visitors from the east, which makes the overall design very important stated the letter.
“Without an overall plan for the property it’s hard to comment on what impacts the development would have on Golden.”
As development on this piece of property moves forward, the Town of Golden will still have the ability to influence the appearance of the property says Phil Armstrong, the planning technician with the Town of Golden.
“Using some of the existing policies in the OCP (Official Community Plan) we’ll be able to apply that to each building in the proposals as they come forward, as well as to the actual subdivision,” said Armstrong.
“The first step to complete the subdivision is a development permit where the owner has to provide detailing on some of the signage, and the landscaping.”
Through that process he will also be looking into some buffering around the property.
During the same council meeting, Town Council also approved the removal of the $1.2 million dyke elevation improvement project from the 2014-2018 Five Year Financial Plan. This comes after it was recommended by the Open Standing Finance Committee.
Although the finance committee was split on the decision during the committee meeting, council unanimously approved the change to the budget.
The financial plan has now passed its second and third reading.
