Municipal staff are recommending that the city’s planning committee approve a proposed zoning change that would allow a new east-end apartment project near Blair Station, calling the transit-oriented development “good planning.”

The second phase of RioCan REIT’s 2280 City Park Dr. development – the former site of the southern portion of the Gloucester Silver City Shopping Centre – would see a 20-storey residential building added to the site next to a 23-storey tower already in progress. Future phases of the project would see three more towers fill the 7.1-acre site, ranging in heights between 16 storeys and 18 storeys.

The second phase tower, which requires a five-metre zoning amendment to allow heights up to 65 metres, would feature 208 units. When finished, the development will see 840 total residential units as well as commercial space.

RioCan sold a 50-percent stake in the Gloucester development in 2017 to Halifax’s Killam REIT, which will take over the residential project as property manager when it’s complete.