THUNDER BAY — A new stage of the Parkdale subdivision is set to move forward after securing municipal approvals.
Parkdale’s seventh stage includes 55 housing units, the first of which could begin construction as soon as late summer pending registration of title, according to developer Di Gregorio Developments.
The company expects the lots, which will be marketed to both home builders and individual homebuyers, to sell out within around two years.
Vice-president John Simperl said the move to open up the latest stage of the subdivision responds to a shortage of fully-serviced detached homes in Thunder Bay.
"I believe there’s a pent-up demand for single-family residences," he said. "We have numerous people who have already approached us to purchase them."
The new stage will expand the Parkdale Estates subdivision that sits north of Arthur Street and just west of the Thunder Bay Expressway.
The subdivision’s latest stage will be located on a new Bruin Crescent, north of existing Parkdale development and across from Cougar Crescent.
City council voted earlier this month to approve a subdivision agreement for the seventh stage, which was already draft approved after being included in the original 1992 plan of subdivision for Parkdale.
The sixth stage of the subdivision was approved in 2016. Di Gregorio Developments has since sold all single-family homes and townhomes in that stage, Simperl reported, though two multi-residential lots are not yet available for sale.
The stage seven lots are zoned for single-family or semi-detached homes, potentially allowing everything up to a four-plex under the city’s zoning rules.
There is currently only one access to the subdivision, via Parkdale Boulevard. That has prompted congestion concerns from residents in the past.
Decio Lopes, a senior planner with the city, said the additional development doesn’t change the single-access situation.
He noted the city maintains a gravel emergency access corridor out of the subdivision that can be opened in case of emergencies.
Future development in the area will be guided by a Parkdale secondary plan the City of Thunder Bay is currently at work on, which will consider issues like city servicing, housing density, and environmental impacts of further builds.
The Thunder Bay Field Naturalists have long had concerns about development in the Parkdale area and its impact on the William Bog, a provincial significant wetland that makes up about half of the Parkdale plan area.
Keith Wade, a board member with the group, said volunteers have noted anecdotally that the bog appears to be drying out.
The organization is asking the city to consider a hydrological study as part of the secondary plan, to learn more about that phenomenon and whether housing development in the area could be a contributing factor.
The field naturalists group now owns over 400 acres of land in the bog that it has dedicated to conservation.
