A Charlottetown developer’s plans for a project on Chestnut and Passmore streets is going to look different than originally planned.
Phillip O’Halloran had originally proposed to build one condominium on the site with 48 units.
O’Halloran told The Guardian on Monday those plans have changed, and he’s now proposing to build two smaller buildings – one that fronts onto Chestnut Street with 27 units and a second building that fronts onto Passmore Street that also contains 27 units.
He’s also scrapping a commercial component on the ground floor. It will be purely residential.
O’Halloran told The Guardian that his construction loan was shelved over the winter as a result of a disruption in the world financial scene. So, he had to go about the project in a different way.
Coun. Greg Rivard, chairman of the city’s planning committee, said the total density of the project will be a bit less now.
“He’s going to provide underground parking for one of the buildings, and the other building . . . will have surface parking so it’s going to be a combination of the two but the previous application was 100 per cent underground parking,’’ Rivard said.
O’Halloran also went to the city with another late change on Oct. 6, taking away the zero variance he had sought on the side of one building.
“He came with a late amendment to his current plan and what it was, was basically not to ask for the zero variance that he initially asked for but to go back to the 4.33-foot variance and eliminate the balconies on that side.’’
Tim Banks, another Charlottetown developer, had sent in a letter to the city arguing against the zero variance. Ironically, the two developers also butted heads over balconies on Banks’ proposed Richmond Street apartment building (O’Halloran has the condominium standing next to Banks’ proposed apartment building) although in that case it was Banks balconies that were the issue.
O’Halloran’s project hasn’t received final approval from city council. It still has to go through third and final reading but, historically, projects are almost always approved at that stage.
