Council Debrief: Opposition Heard to Downtown Proposal

This week Council held a public hearing for a potential new downtown subdivision that drew a lot of attention from neighbouring properties.

The variance application from a developer working with a portion of the area formerly occupied by the Co-op parking lot drew a lot of opposition from the community, largely over parking spaces. Neighbouring businesses including Grit Force Fitness and Harris Pharmacy were not opposed to a development itself but rather the request to vary the required number of parking spaces from 44 to 34. The lot as it exists now already is at or near capacity and creating additional parking pressures might deter customers.

A larger problem with the proposal might be the lack of safe pedestrian access to that block of First Avenue. Residents on the east side of the street, which is entirely residential, already struggle to find a safe path as there are no sidewalks for the bulk of the block, and where there is some sidewalk or paved area it often requires a step up or step down along its length and is not well maintained in snowy conditions. The proposed development as it was circulated also does not include any new sidewalk in its plan. 

Development Officer Scott Kowalick indicates that there is sufficient space for a standard width sidewalk and a condition of the approval could be to establish a proper sidewalk along the length of the development. Other conditions would include clearly marked parking lines for both standard and accessible parking spaces.

In Council Reports, we hear from several committees including finance, economic development and recreation, going into depth on a few of the most recent meetings. The Neepawa Public Library has released some circulation statistics showing above average circulation in November, and as well increased month-over-month attendance to many of its programs. The local committee is looking at installing door counters to better understand the volume of use which isn’t entirely reflected in circulation statistics.

As well, the local veterinary board has met for the first time in over a year, which includes Neepawa and several of the neighbouring municipalities. The big topic of conversation was the difficulty of attracting and retaining new veterinarians. There is a single school that serves Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia, and the number of graduates is not meeting the needs of the province, which is short an estimated 60 veterinarians at the current time but graduating only 15 a year from the University of Saskatchewan, not all of whom may choose to return to Manitoba.

Council conducts all other business in a separate second part of their meeting.