Councillor Donovan Cavers
Image Credit: City of Kamloops website
January 10, 2013 - 12:24 PM
A second public hearing for Coun. Donovan Cavers' carriage suite has been set for Jan. 15.
Plans to rezone his mother's property at 917 Douglas Street from a single family residential property to include a two-storey, 63 square-meter laneway carriage suite with outdoor parking have taken months. The initial application was denied on Nov. 6 by council after the first public hearing.
Cavers' mother, Anne Grube, addressed council on his behalf to appeal council's decision, on Dec. 4. She revealed several changes in the appeal that appeased council, including an amendment to the colour scheme to complement the existing home, removal of the solar panel located on the lower roof and an overall height reduction. Council made the decision to allow the application to return to a public hearing.
While Cavers recently chose not to comment about the suite, he told InfoTel News that he is optimistic about this upcoming public forum.
"I'm expecting that (the suite) will pass," he said.
Cavers began the application process last June.
"It's been a long time," he said.
"The average length for rezoning applications to go through is 2.4 months."
He said while being denied, appealing and going through the public hearing process has impacted the timeline, other factors have caused delays.
He said when council is busy, councillor applications are put aside.
"The other person gets priority," he said.
He also added that councillor Marg Spina had applied for a suite around the same time.
"They didn't want two councillor applications going through at the same time," he said.
He said that two of his neighbours showed up for the last public meeting voicing concerns, but he thinks recent amedments to the planned suite will apease neighbours.
"We've made quite a few changes from our original proposal," he said.
"I also have written support from 19 of 20 neighbours on the block including the neighbour directly behind us."
The public hearing will begin at 7 p.m. Jan. 15 in council chambers.
— Jessica Wallace
jwallace@infotelnews.ca
(250)319-7494
News from © iNFOnews, 2013