Zoning request approved for North Bay Hydro building

North Bay’s Planning Advisory Committee has recommended approving a zoning change request for the North Bay Hydro building on Fisher Street.

The request was the only piece of business the committee dealt with at its Wednesday night meeting.

If approved by council the zoning change will allow North Bay Hydro Distribution Ltd. to sell or lease the now empty building without restricting who can take it over.

“As it presently exists they could only sell it or lease it to another government agency because that’s all that’s allowed under the Open Space zone the building is currently under,” said Rick Miller, who appeared at the meeting on behalf of NBHD.

But the District Commercial category the building would be changed to allows a wide variety of uses including automobile service stations or gas bars, banks, business offices, clubs, food stores, retail stores, hotels, motels, restaurants and taverns.

Once rezoned the property would come under site plan controls since part of it sits on the Chippewa Creek floodplain.

The building’s garage has been flooded before.
And if any new owner of the building wanted to turn the garage into habitable space, a hydrology study would have to be undertaken as part of the site plan control agreement.

North Bay Hydro chairman Bill Walton said there’s been a lot of interest in the building, “and quite a few people who either want to rent or buy it, but we really couldn’t do anything until the zoning issue was formally cleared up.”