-A new city report provides city staff perspective on questions about the Revelstoke Crossing development
-Read the entire document yourself — it’s embedded at the end of this story
City councillors have received an in-depth document from city staff, with answers to their questions on the contentious Revelstoke Crossing.
It follows a request for more information after councillors voted at the last city meeting, on Oct. 27, to rescind the third reading of the developer’s requested zoning bylaw text amendment.
This amendment was to add grocery, pharmacy and other uses to zone CD-09 — the area that includes 1702 Bend Road.
The new city report released on Nov. 6 is 410 pages long, but it’s mostly filler. After a couple of images on the first two pages, there is an 11-page section of questions from council and answers from city staff that form the core of the new information about the proposed development. Then, fast forward to the very end of the document, where developer Hall Pacific has provided a seven-page rationale for the project. In between, existing city reports have been tacked in as reference documents, including a 2006 retail strategy report (starts page 19) and a 2015 business retention report (starts page 235).
Some requests in this document for detailed evidence, such as the impact from a similar highway development in Salmon Arm, will have to wait until a report is provided from director of community economic development Alan Mason on Friday, Nov. 13. However, there are several interesting answers.
Regarding why tenants saw a business opportunity at this proposed shopping centre, and the centre’s potential impacts to Revelstoke business, developer Hall Pacific stated the following.
“The tenants that have approached us expressing interest in this development did not come to us based on a population base of 8,000 people, they are interested in this site because of the 3.8 to 5.2 million people that travel through Revelstoke along the [Trans-Canada Highway] every year.
“This highway traffic will represent the vast majority of customers at Revelstoke Crossing.”
City staff also say in one of their responses that highway developments do bring more people into local communities.
“It is also noted, people have a wide range of factors that come into play when they pick a place to purchase items and services. The objective of designated lands as highway commercial [zoning] is to create opportunities for more travelers to pause in the community, the result being more will stay longer and explore and others will choose to come back in the future,” city staff stated in the report.
It appears though that concern regarding the added use of pharmacy to this development could create negative competition for Revelstoke’s two local pharmacies after comparisons showed a new pharmacy could be bigger.
“The proposed zoning bylaw text amendment includes a maximum pharmacy size of 1,000 square meters or 10,763 square feet,” city staff wrote. “The Pharmasave Pharmacy is 910 square meters or 9,795 square feet and the Peoples Pharmacy is ~ 330 square meters or 3,550 square feet.”
Hall Pacific has stated its development will contribute $20 million to the local economy and a breakdown was requested.
“The investment noted would include their investment in land, servicing, site construction, building construction, tenant improvements and associated fee, charges and licensing,” city staff wrote.
It also was shown, using estimates, that the development’s annual tax contribution would be about $537,458 annually, including $369,524 in municipal taxes and $167,934 in school and other taxes.
And on the question of whether it is realistic to connect the development to Farrell Road, it seems unlikely.
“A connection over or under the railway is not feasible …,” city staff responded.
There is a fair amount of new information in the report, such as info on staff housing, highway traffic impacts, and whether a road connection to Farrell Road is possible. There’s not much utility in rewriting it into this story. Please see the embedded document below. We recommend reading the first 15 pages of the PDF, and the last seven, then skimming through the middle as time allows.
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What do you think of the answers provided by city staff? Do they make sense to you? Do you dispute any of the assertions? Start the community conversation by providing your views in the comment section below.
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Revelstoke Crossing Q&A document by Revelstoke Mountaineer
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