Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 21/5/2019 (492 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Residents of a tony Tuxedo neighbourhood are challenging a neighbour’s plan to split a large lot and build a second, two-storey home on the vacant portion.

The Sapozhnik family received the go-ahead from the City of Winnipeg planning department and the board of adjustment in April to split their 152-foot-wide lot at 202 Handsart Blvd. into separate, 77- and 75-foot-wide lots.

However, neighbours, many of whom live on 75-foot-wide lots themselves, are appealing the decision.

The opponents, led by David and Ruth Asper, said while the lot split appears compatible with other properties to the south on Handsart, the proposal compromises the streetscape along the cross street (Nanton Boulevard).

David Asper said all the properties along Nanton have large lots, but the split proposed for the Sapozhnik property (at the southwest corner of Nanton and Handsart) would create a property substantially smaller than the others, ruining the look of the street.

"You can’t just look south, you have to look east-west," Asper said. "There’s a group of us that have canvassed literally all the streets in the neighbourhood and every voice is opposed to what’s going on here."

The other Handsart residents who signed the appeal include: Jim Ludlow, founding president and chief executive officer of True North Sports & Entertainment Ltd. (which owns the Winnipeg Jets and Bell MTS Place) who currently heads up the company’s real estate division (TN Developments); Hugh Moncrieff, executive vice-president, advisory network and industry affairs for Great-West Life, London Life and Canada Life; and Billy Casselman, vice-president of commercial sales and investor relations at MYM Nutraceuticals Inc.

Asper is a lawyer, philanthropist, and former chairman of the Asper Foundation.

The planning department concluded the lot split complies with the city’s planning document, Plan Winnipeg, and doesn’t create a substantial adverse effect on the adjoining properties and adjacent area.

David Asper said the proposal compromises the streetscape along the cross street, Nanton Boulevard, by creating a property smaller than the others, ruining the look of the street. (Phil Hossack / Winnipeg Free Press files)

The board of adjustment approved a series of variances for the project, principally because the square footage of the two new lots would be substantially smaller than the average size of lots within 200 metres of the property.

The appeal is tentatively set for June 21 before council’s appeal committee.

Asper said he has a petition with more than 100 names from area residents opposed to the project. Large signs protesting the proposal have also been erected in the neighbourhood.

The Sapozhniks could not be reached for comment.

This is the second time the Sapozhnik family applied for a lot split. They made a similar proposal in 2015 — which Asper said neighbours also opposed — but withdrew the application before a hearing at the board of adjustment.

The planning department concluded the lot split of 202 Handsart Blvd. complies with the city’s planning document, Plan Winnipeg, and doesn’t create a substantial adverse effect on the adjoining properties and adjacent area. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Winnipeg Free Press)

In 2015, there was a two-storey, 2,951-square-foot home (built in 1931) on the southern portion of the lot. The Sapozhniks received permission to demolish it and, in 2017, constructed a two-storey 3,966-sq.-ft. home on the northern portion of the lot.

The new lot-split application would create the northern lot with a 77-foot-wide frontage and a southern lot with a 75-foot frontage.

Plans submitted at the board of adjustment show a planned 2,969-sq.-ft. home on the southern lot.

Of the 27 properties on the block between Nanton Boulevard and Corydon Avenue, almost two-thirds (17) are either 75-feet (13) or 77-feet wide (four).

The Sapozhnik property is the anomaly: at 152-feet wide, it is the biggest on the block. Of the remaining properties, the smallest is 61-feet wide, five others are 100-feet wide and four are 81 feet.

Asper said all the corner properties along Nanton Boulevard were deliberately designed to have large lots, adding it would be wrong for the city to allow the Sapozhnik lot to be cut in half, compared to others along Nanton.

The Aspers built a two-storey, 4,244-sq.-ft. home on Handsart in 2017, on a 75-foot-wide lot.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca