A proposed subdivision between 68th and 70th Avenues in Grand Forks near the Canada Rock Fest festival grounds has cleared a city public hearing.
The hearing was on rezoning the vacant property from R1 to R2 to allow for smaller lots and more prefabricated homes on the land, immediately west of Brycen Place.
“We’re just increasing the density a little more to allow for a smaller lot size and a few more homes that the city needs,” developer Charles Varabioff told council Monday.
Varabioff says this will be two of three phases. Roughly 40 homes will be built with this development. A future 20 home development west of it (an application is expected next spring) would bring the entire area to approximately 60 dwellings.
While acknowledging the concern about water and sewer, he is confident the city’s systems will be able to support the development in the short term.
“I’m hoping without a lot of public pushback on this that we could move forward and hopefully by the fall have some homes ready to go for sale to the public,” Varabioff said.
The public hearing lasted less than 15 minutes.
Varabioff hopes to have a development permit in August or September and then would be “getting homes on the ground” this fall.
Corporate Officer Daniel Drexler told council there were three inquiries about the project: one verbal, one email supporting the development and one hand-delivered letter with concerns about water issues.
Coun. Chris Moslin raised what he considered a “major concern” about the traffic stress on 70th Avenue that is a dirt road. City staff noted that once another subdivision is built north of 70th Avenue, 22nd Street will punch through all the way to 68th Avenue.
The rezoning has passed three readings but still has to go through final approval at an upcoming council meeting.