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Sparwood rejects mobile home park expansion

The owner of Mountainview wanted to add five new pads
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Plans for new spaces at the Mountainview Mobile Home Park in Sparwood which councillors unanimously rejected. (Image courtesy of applicant and District of Sparwood)

Sparwood councillors have rejected an application by the owners of Mountainview Mobile Home Park to add five new mobile home spaces to the park as part of a longer-term expansion plan.

The owners of the park, located between Hwy. 3 and the rail line, applied for a development variance permit that would allow them to forgo having to build sidewalks, provide lighting or construct a drainage system for the area around the five proposed spaces. The variance would have also allowed them to reduce the width of the road from 10.4m to 8m.

In a report from staff, it was noted that there are no sidewalks in the rest of the park, lighting is ‘spotty’ elsewhere, and the owners had proposed an alternate drainage system that was deemed acceptable.

Staff recommended allowing the variance but district councillors weren’t having it.

Councillors Ron Saad and Amy Cardozo moved to deny the application based on safety issues around lighting and the width of the road, and negative feedback from the community.

“The way the roads are plowed… (it’s) not going to be adequate for fire trucks in winter,” said coun. Saad.

Coun. Cardozo zeroed in on the lighting issue, saying that nearby lighting from the highway wasn’t adequate.

Other councillors piled on with the same theme, while councillor Jason Christensen said that given the need for more housing in Sparwood he would be willing to entertain allowing it if the road width and lighting were addressed.

Mayor David Wilks said the applicant would need to come back with something more in line with what the council wanted.

The vote to reject the application was unanimous.

According to the application, the five new spaces would have been the first of at least another 25 new spaces to be added between the existing spaces and the highway, served by the 8m-wide road which would be extended.

READ MORE: Sparwood releases financial information for 2021



scott.tibballs@thefreepress.ca
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