Corydon-Osborne development plan scrapped

Angry business owners have succeeded in gettinga city committee to scrapa major development plan forWinnipeg's Corydon-Osborne area.

A heated meeting of the city's property committee began Tuesdaymorning at city hall with severalbusiness owners from Corydon Avenuecalling theproposed plan's preliminary recommendations excessively restrictive andinsulting.

TheCorydon BIZ membersblame city planners and area Coun. Jenny Gerbasi for the report, which was still in development.

The business owners say the plan will assign more regulations in that area than other areas of the city and will kill growth on Corydon as a result.

"It's a no-growth, shut-us-down, shut-Corydon-down-and-the-neighbourhood-down document. It's full of rules and regulations that prohibit the entrepreneurialspirit and drive to continue," said Pizza Hotline owner JerryCianflone, who owns the Caf22 restaurant on Corydon Avenue.

Cianflone had won a battle with city hall last year to expand his property. His initial proposal was turned down, but he fought it.

Similarly,Cianflone not long ago presented a plan to build afive-unit condo ona single property parcel that was once home toa single-family dwelling on Nassau Street North in the area.

The pitch was turned down by a committee, of which Gerbasi was a member. Cianfloneappealed the decision and won. It was later given approvalby council.

Cianflone and other Corydon BIZ representatives say the opposition to development in the area comes from a small group of retired homeowners who have aNIMBY (Not In My Backyard) sentiment.

City urged to hire consultant instead

He urgedthe cityto kill theproposed plan and hire a third-party consultant to draft a newonethat will enable development in area.

'A huge amount of resources have gone into it [and] it's now being cancelled in midstream. It's a waste of taxpayers' money.' Coun. Jenny Gerbasi

Cianflone said a new report will be better for everyone, "but only if our local councillor and our city planning department are out of that process."

Gerbasi saidthe protest of Corydon plan was premature becauseit had not even been written yet.

She saidshewas stunned by thevehement oppositionfrom the businesses, who she said would have had a say in the planning process.

"I'm almost speechless. I've never heard of anything like this. A huge amount of resources have gone into it [and] it's now being cancelled in midstream. It's a waste of taxpayers' money," Gerbasi said.

City planners andthe project's community planning advisory committee (CPAC) have been holdinga series of open housesover the past year to present their ideas and gather feedback to shapethe plan's key concepts.

By noon, after lengthy debates about the plan,Coun. Russ Wyatt introduced a motion to disband theplan andstart anew with more input from businesses.

"We shouldn't have had to deal with this today and move this motion. It should've been resolved in the community, working together. That didn't happen; that's why it came to us," Wyatt later told reporters.

Coun. Mike Pagtakhan said he was willing to give Gerbasi the benefit of doubt and not cancel the plan before it is written.

However,a vote was passed tosuspend the plan and startfresh. The final decision still rests with council as a whole, which will meet later this month.