Quote:
Originally Posted by LittleBoy
Any idea of when the final decision will be made for the Knox Tower? Not super familiar with how this process works
|
This is my take on things... I could be wrong. The development appeals board just rejected Meridian's appeal to allow deficiencies. These include things like balconies that slightly protrude over the allowable setback, lack of street level transparency on 24th St. (which is essentially just an entry into the parkade), and insufficient setback along the west side (back) of the property. There could be others.
One of the reasons for the Appeals board denial is that "the property in question does not exist (legally)."
Now, the city appears to be progressing with actually subdividing the lot as in the proposal. There is a public hearing on this in January. Also, the city passed a motion to "engage with the Municipal Heritage Advisory Committee about their concerns and about their role in these types of decisions."
My speculation is that actually subdividing the lot might "reset" the approval (and appeal) process, as if it were basically a brand new project.
Forcing developers to jump through these hoops (and incur additional speculative expense) is crazy. In this case the developer was just trying to get their ducks in a row and ensure they could actually build the project
before proceeding with subdividing (and buying?) the lot. But in this case it seems they must proceed with subdividing (and buying?) the lot just to determine if they can actually build what they need to make the project viable.