Some residents in the Tuxedo neighbourhood want a developer to park their proposal of building luxury multi-family condos on Shaftesbury Boulevard because it interferes with park space.
The 1.4-acre parcel of land at 490 Shaftesbury Boulevard is owned by P3 (Private Pension Partners) after they bought the property from Marymound, the youth and family services organization.
The proposal includes the construction of three buildings ranging from four to six storeys, with a total of 58 residential dwelling units.
An application has been made to change the zoning of the land to make way for the buildings, but the property is adjacent to Tuxedo Golf Course and the Assiniboine Forest and residents want it to stay green.
“To take this acre that is zoned park and change it to multi-family is just not a vision we have for our park system in Winnipeg and it’s a little myopic and we would like to see this maintained as park space,” Tuxedo resident Andrew Holtman said.
Another resident calls the proposed buildings “out of character” for the land, which also neighbours the Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) campus.
“This isn’t a location conducive to it, it doesn’t have cohesion to what’s existing around it,” said resident Cheryl MacInnis. “The structure proposed is much taller than anything around it and we have a heritage building beside it that it would dwarf.”
Landmark Planning and Design was hired by P3 to build the complex and says they’re willing to listen to the concerns of residents.
But Donovan Toews of Landmark says the site has a single-family home on it which has been used as a group home and it hasn’t been used as park space in years.
“When people walk down Shaftesbury or when folks look from across the street, they see the wide-open campus and substantial amount of land that CMU is sitting on and you keep walking by and see the golf course,” said Toews. “So it would be easy for people to mistake this property that sits in a notch between the two as park land, but it’s not park land.
P3 says the development will “allow the opportunity for new, growth-oriented families to move into Tuxedo.” and repurposing the land “has a trickle-down effect that will be felt throughout the community.”
The proposal will be discussed at the Assiniboia Community Committee at City Hall next week. MacInnis says she will on hand to appeal the project and says she has significant backing, including from CMU.
Marymound was gifted the property back in 1996, before it was eventually sold to P3.