Planning board opposes high-density housing project in Summerside's north end

Summerside's planning board has unanimously voted against recommending city council approve rezoning of a portion of land in the Greenwood Drive area for high density housing, but the final decision on the development remains in the hands of the full city council.

The vote was taken at a public meeting in the P.E.I. city Tuesday evening. The proposal from Stratford's Flourish Development Group would see about 600 housing units, including around 17 apartments built over the next decade.

More than 60 people crammed into the chamber at city hall, with some standing in the hallway and filling a nearby media room. Cheers erupted from the crowd as the vote was taken to not recommend the zoning for R4 high density development.

"I think I'd feel more relieved if they were certain that they wouldn't be going to R4," said Wendy Gallant, who lives in the area, "but they are still expressing an interest in taking on a portion of that section as R4."

Many residents' concerns focused on traffic and that the intersection at Greenwood Drive and Pope Road may not be able to handle the traffic load. According to documents in the planning meeting package, rezoning the area to high density would result in more than 3,000 vehicles per day, more than double the current traffic load for the area about 1,400 vehicles per day.

"We simply don't seem to have the infrastructure in place. The roads are too busy, our water, sewer I am not sure if that could fully handle it," Gallant said.

About 600 people signed a petition against the development, but Summerside Mayor Dan Kutcher criticized where some signatures came from. Some people who signed the petition put down addresses in Miscouche and Richmond.

"I'm happy and pleased they decided as a planning committee to not approve that to go forward," said Krista MacDougall, who also lives in the Greenwood Drive area.

"We do need housing in Summerside, absolutely, we need to grow, we need to build more housing, and I am certainly not against that. I just think we need to plan for that."

There are buildings in downtown Summerside, MacDougall said, that could be used for housing.

If the project is approved the land would go from R1, single residential homes, to R4 to allow for high-density housing on the 25-hectare site which is currently fields and farmland.

"There was sort of a lack of details as far as the development goes," said Coun. Justin Doiron, who represents the area where the development is proposed.

"Was it going to be this many buildings, this many units, were any or all of them to be affordable or low income. That information was not at our fingertips."

Planning board did vote to recommend changing portions of the land from R1 to R2 to allow for duplexes to be constructed.