City approves 6-storey, 120-unit block in west end

Brandon City Council gave the green light Monday for a six-storey residential complex to be constructed on Victoria Avenue in the west end.

The 120-unit building at 2940 Victoria Ave. will feature 17 one-bedroom suites, with the rest consisting of three- or four-bedroom units.

“It’s a very good fit and a very good use of really bare land,” Mayor Jeff Fawcett said at Monday evening’s council meeting.

“We haven’t had a six-storey building built in a long time.”

Council’s approval was for the land’s subdivision.

After the meeting, Fawcett described the development as “wonderful to see.”

“It will add a lot of housing and density into an area that can allow for it,” he said.

Ryan Nickel, Brandon’s director of planning and buildings, said the site has largely been underutilized, aside from the current dentist’s office and a former television station.

“There’s been a substantial amount of vacant land to the rear,” Nickel told council.

The development also aligns with the city’s plan for major routes to have higher density housing, as it is closer to amenities like shops and schools. Vincent Massey High School is directly south of the planned residential building.

“(It’s) a big deal for the city to maximize our land use along our main corridors,” Nickel said.

He said the planning commission had previously approved a conditional use and variance. There was no public opposition at the related public hearings, which he called “somewhat surprising” based on the size of the development.

No public hearing is needed for the subdivision, he said, as no roads are being created.

In a followup interview on Wednesday, Nickel said conditions of approval will need to be fulfilled, which include paving the back lane to the southeast of the development that connects to McDiarmid Drive.

The city’s housing supply gap currently sits at around 1,500 units after growth following the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.

“Having any development is good to kind of bridge that supply gap, and having something this substantial puts a bigger dent in meeting that supply need in the city,” Nickel said.

Coun. Shaun Cameron, whose Ward 4 covers the neighbourhood where the complex will be built, said he’s “fairly supportive” of the plan.

Cameron said he and nearby residents have brought up concerns about traffic flow to the south of the building, where a back lane sits.

But administration said the building’s parking lot wouldn’t be able to access the back lane on the western side and traffic would be directed to Victoria Avenue or to the southeast to McDiarmid Drive.

“I didn’t want it to become a through back lane right from McDiarmid Drive to Cherry Crescent, just because when you have a building of that magnitude, you do run the risk of that back lane becoming a thoroughfare and an access to the property,” Cameron said in an interview Wednesday.

He said the development is in a good location within the city, as the neighbourhood already has taller buildings.

The city hears from several organizations about the need for housing in Brandon, Cameron said.

“At the end of the day, any time that we can increase the housing stock in the community, it’s great, provided that the places that the developments are going find a way to work with the neighbourhoods and work in conjunction with them,” he said.

Kate McKenzie, owner and senior designer of McKenzie Design Solutions, which is designing and hiring architects and engineers for the project, said they are “really excited” to build a new six-storey complex in Brandon.

McKenzie said the next steps are to fulfil the conditions agreement, work with architects and engineers, finish drawings and apply for building permits.

The apartments will be one-, three- and four-bedroom units because those types of units are currently the most needed in the city, she said.

“A lot of developers right now are going away from the two bedrooms,” McKenzie said about Brandon.

“There’s a shortage of everything, because our vacancy rate is so low, but one bedrooms, threes and fours have the biggest shortage, more so than two-bedroom units,” she said. “So that’s why we skipped twos and we just went with ones, threes and fours.”

The one-bedroom units will be affordable housing, she added.

The building will also feature several amenities, including a party room for events, a small indoor gym, a work area and a large patio space, McKenzie said.

She said she’s hoping for construction to start this spring or summer, with work expected to last two years. McKenzie didn’t have a timeline for when people would be able to move in.

The six-storey building will be located behind Precision Dental, while the existing dentistry office is planned to stay as is.

Documents attached to the council report say that an additional commercial building is planned to be built next to the dentistry office.

Nickel said the parking for the apartments will be shared with the commercial buildings next door, which works well as visitors would typically be there when the commercial buildings are closed.

» alambert@brandonsun.com