Hung vote fails to decide fate of Crescentwood condo project

Winnipeg's chief planner and property chair wound up on opposite sides of a debate about infill housing as council's property and development committee failed to decide whether a condo project willriseon an empty plot of Crescentwood land.

Council's property and development committee wound up in a 2-2 hung vote overafour-storey, 12-unit condo project Winnipeg's Ventura Developments wants to build onthe southeast corner of Harrow Street and McMillan Avenue.

Winnipeg's planning department supportsthe development. But in November, council's City Centre community committee rejected the project, partly because area councillor John Orlikow (River Heights-Fort Garry) considersit a bad precedent for the neighbourhood.

That led Ventura vice-president Tim Comackto launch an unusual public campaign to get the condos approved, attempting to portray his project as precisely the sort of infill development the city claims to desire as a means of increasing density.

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He partly succeeded Monday, as Couns. Shawn Dobson (St. Charles) and Jason Schreyer (Elmwood-East Kildonan) voted in favour of the project, while Orlikow and Coun. Jenny Gerbasi (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry) opposed it.

The hung vote means council's executive policy committee has the next crack at approving the project.

Given the quasi-judicial nature of the November hearing, Orlikow is not able to comment about the project outside of the committee room.

On Monday, he asked Winnipeg planner Braden Smith how such a large development could be supported by city planning staff in a residential neighbourhood.

"Ididn't agree with the department on this one and that'smy right," said Orlikow, asking how so much density could be approved. "There are ways to improve density that are not driven by adeveloper's need to make money."

Smith said the proposed project is not unusually dense and noted it would back up against an even taller commercial development that fronts on Corydon Avenue.

"It is an established five-storeycommercial building,contiguous to the proposed development," Smith said.

Comack said he was pleased to see the hung vote and noted Mayor Brian Bowman's inner circle has an interesting decision in front of them.