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Bylaw changes to allow suites and breweries in downtown Summerland

Bylaw amendments brought forward at Aug. 11 municipal council meeting
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BANK BUILDING A change Summerland’s zoning bylaw will allow suites above buildings in the downtown core. A suite exists in the old Bank of Montreal building on Main Street, but in the past it had not been used for housing. (Summerland Review file photo)

Summerland’s municipal council is amending the zoning bylaw as a result of changes in the downtown area.

The first of the changes permits a single dwelling unit above the first storey of a building in the CB1 zone.

This change comes because of an application to rezone the former Bank of Montreal building at 9902 Main St.

While this building originally contained a dwelling unit, it had, until recently, been used as office space.

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While the zoning bylaw does not allow single dwelling units to be constructed above commercial units, apartment housing is a permitted use. However, apartment housing must have four or more units.

“While this encourages the densification of downtown by requiring higher numbers of dwellings to be constructed in new buildings, it discourages adaptive use of existing buildings which, in many cases, don’t have the floor area to provide for more than one unit,” development planner Kevin Taylor said in a report to council.

The second change allows craft breweries and distilleries in the entire CB1 zone in the downtown area.

In October, council adopted a bylaw to allow for a craft brewery or distillery at 13220 Victoria Rd. N.

Now that the brewery has been established and is part of the business community, the zoning bylaw change will reduce the barrier for other craft breweries and distilleries in the downtown area.

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John Arendt

About the Author: John Arendt

John Arendt has worked as a journalist for more than 30 years. He has a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Journalism degree from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute.
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