Members of the Olds Subdivision Development Appeal Board are deliberating a decision after having heard an appeal on July 15 from Art Baker.
Members of the Olds Subdivision Development Appeal Board are deliberating a decision after having heard an appeal on July 15 from Art Baker.
Baker wants to build a three-apartment addition to the building where the Cowboy Coffee Company is located at 5111 48 St. He is appealing the town’s development department not issuing a decision on his development application within 40 days as required by the Municipal Government Act.
Werner Fischer, the town’s manager of planning, told members of the SDAB during a hearing on July 15 that the original application was received on March 18 and that the development department sent a report back to Baker on April 15 detailing what the department viewed as insufficient water and sewer lines to each of the suites and the incorrect sloping of the lot. Fischer said the lot sloped from the edge of the lot toward the building.
"We were very concerned with the way this building (appeared to be) serviced. Our big concern is the water and the drainage," Fischer told the board members, adding that one water line per suite is the preferred standard.
Baker contested the department’s views about the sloping of the lot, saying it sloped away from the building towards an adjacent fence, but runoff doesn’t pose a threat to neighbouring properties.
"This issue of the grading, it’s very clear where the water goes," he said.
Fischer said new drawings of the proposed development were received on April 29 and 30. He said a decision on the development was close at hand on June 8, when the 40-day decision period ran out, but that the development proposal was considered incomplete as of that date.
Several meetings were proposed between Baker and the development department in the interim before the June 8 deadline passed, but the two sides were unable to meet before the decision period expired, Baker said in his submission to the appeal board.
Because there were still outstanding issues with the application that weren’t resolved to the development department’s satisfaction, Fischer said the application was never circulated to internal or external parties for their review.
Baker said the application was approved previously in 2010, with an excavation permit being approved and services installed. He added he was present during the excavation. Baker also claimed that an extra $32,000 would have to be spent to satisfy new conditions put on the proposed development by the town.
"It appears we are being bullied. When does all this end?" he told board members.
The board must render a written decision on the appeal by July 30.
[email protected]
