YORKTON - A downtown Yorkton business received a Zoning Bylaw amendment from Council opening the door to a possible expansion.
TA Foods Ltd., a local agricultural food ingredient processing and packaging company, purchased the property at 72 Broadway Street West in 2016 after the Western Grocers Warehouse ceased operations. Since that time, they have continued to use the building as a warehouse facility to support their main production centre located on Myrtle Avenue, detailed an administrative report presented to the regular meeting of Yorkton Council Monday.
The property is currently zoned C-1 City Centre Commercial and Warehouse Facilities are Discretionary Uses in this district.
As the TA Foods warehouse use was not a change to the original use, a new Development Permit was not required in 2016 and following the purchase for warehouse use, office space was also incorporated into the building, detailed Carleen Koroluk - Planner with the city.
However now the owners are contemplating a building addition to provide more warehouse space and they are also considering the addition of “in-house product packaging” at the location.
Under the current Zoning Bylaw, an addition to add warehouse space can be considered by Council as a Discretionary Use, however, “packaging of products” is classified as a light industrial use in the Zoning Bylaw and is currently not permitted in the C-1 district, noted the report.
As such, TA Foods has submitted an application to rezone the property to allow for consideration of future light industrial uses.
Being that the location is within the C-1 City Centre Commercial zoning district, Administration is recommending consideration of rezoning to CMI-1 Commercial-Industrial Transitional which lists Light Industrial Uses as Discretionary Uses requiring Council approval, said Koroluk.
The purpose of the CMI-1 Commercial-Industrial Transitional zoning district is to facilitate reinvestment in core commercial and light industrial areas of the city, by firstly encouraging a wide range of commercial-oriented uses in new development and by secondly promoting the rehabilitation of existing light industrial structures and uses.
It was also noted the lot is the only property located on the Broadway Street block and has an existing 27,000 ft2 building. While there have been additions over the years, the original building was constructed in the early 1940’s and was used as a warehouse. The lot is adjacent to the CN Rail tracks on the east side, Laurier Avenue on the west side, Broadway Street West on the north side and a lane along the south side of the property.
Based on the location, site layout and previous use, the building could certainly be conducive to select light industrial uses depending on their scope and their impact to the area, said Koroluk.
“The applicant is an established company that has experience with development and financial implications. As the building and site are currently operating as a support to the existing business on Myrtle Avenue, the ability to expand is a benefit to the owner. At this time, they have requested the rezoning in order to approach project expansion feasibility on a step by step basis. While the first step to rezone the property will have no impact on the existing use, if the rezoning is not approved, there is no benefit in proceeding with more detailed plans for the in-house packaging use at this location,” she said.
Council moved forward in approving the rezoning.
