Agenda – Riel Community Committee – January 7, 2026
REPORTS
Item No. 8 Plan Approval – 1275 St Anne’s Road (St. Norbert – Seine River Ward)
File DASZ 6/2012
WINNIPEG PUBLIC SERVICE RECOMMENDATION:
The Urban Planning and Design Division recommends approval of the submitted plans.
https://clkapps.winnipeg.ca/DMIS/ViewDoc.asp?DocId=27431&SectionId=&InitUrl=
Without any advance warning from City PP&D or from our local city councillor Progressive RE’s controversial C2 project at 1269/1275 St. Anne’s Road has suddenly reappeared at City Hall. CBRA and its members have 5 days to file a written response with PP&D (Noon on January 6).
The conceit appears to be that this application is primarily about the 3 commercial retail units at 1275 St. Anne’s Road, and not about the massive multi-story apartment block to be built adjacent at 1269 St. Anne’s Road. The fact that final approval for the building plans for 1269 are included next Wednesday as well is merely incidental. Fine, let’s talk about 1275 St. Anne’s Road first.
Above is the proposed C2 commercial building as seen on the year-old Progressive RE webpage. That old photo is still up today. (January 1, 2026) Below is an exterior shot from the new plans. The building plans for 1275 do not seem to have have changed much, if at all, over the last year.
The proposed CRUs get smaller and smaller as you go south, in response to the tapered lot. At 1394 sf, 1153 sf and 909 square feet, respectively, they are not overly large commercial rental units. If a renter decided to combine two or more these units, they could naturally obtain a larger footprint for their business.
A major impediment to the construction of the now six-story apartment to be built to the north (See Part 2 for more on that later) is local sewer capacity. By local I mean a known chokepoint near the corner of John Forsyth and Dakota in River Park South/Dakota Crossing. That chokepoint was supposed to have been resolved with work to be conducted by the owners of the nearby 180 Creek Bend apartment project. As readers know, 180 Creek Bend has applied for yet another one year extension to their building permissions. The sewage shortfall affects both 180 Creek Bend and 1269 St. Anne’s Road. (The empty lot at 112/120 Creek Bend has grandfathered sewage capacity.)
The 1275 St. Anne’s project should result in relatively little sewage outflow, even if all of the units were used as restaurants. The approvals impediment for 1269 evidently does not apply to 1275 St. Anne’s Road. As the developer is paying for a mortgage every month, even a small project like this can bring in some extra income. In all iterations the parking lots of the two projects are separated with separate entrances. If 1275 was constructed and rented it would not interfere with future construction at 1269. About those separate entrances. The original entrance for 1275 St. Anne’s Road is shown below.
The proposed curb cut onto Creek Bend Road was objected to by both the CBRA and by various members. We felt that it presented a present danger to the Creek Bend community and a future danger to the new residents of Precinct K in the next decade. City Public Works recognized the problem at the last minute, and they reportedly put an emergency hold on the planning process. The CBRA had proved its value to the community with that one action.
A transitional plan used by the landscape architects reveals not one but two curb cuts, one on Creek Bend and one on St. Anne’s Road.
The City must have pushed back on this plan, for what appears to be the final iteration shows only one curb cut, a 20-foot opening onto St. Anne’s Road.
It is interesting to note that there is no refuse enclosure in the proposed parking lot. There is therefore no need to allow room for a garbage truck to back up and leave the location. How WFPS vehicles or delivery trucks visiting the CRUs will accomplish this is for traffic engineers to discuss with you, not me.
There will be 25 parking slots in the 1275 parking lot, including 2 handicap accessible slots. At the last public meeting the developer said that he did not anticipate that tenants or visitors would need to park offsite on Creek Bend Road. As it is unknown if there will even be any public parking on Creek Bend in five years time, that is fortunate.
Residents of The Woods at Creekbend will appreciate the four large trees to be planted behind the CRUs. They are supposed to be Colorado Blue Spruce, which will provide screening in all seasons. (see below) There will also be a six-foot fence constructed at the back of the property.
A niggling detail is the lack of a sidewalk behind the CRUs. The area is grassed. In wintertime that means that kitchen staff would have to take their bags of garbage through the front of house. All deliveries would have to come in through the front door. While Woods residents would probably not want to see service though the fire doors at the back anyway, this does not look very functional to me.
While local residents may have their own opinions about types of businesses, hours of operation, signage, etc., I feel that the CBRA’s main concern regarding 1275 St. Anne’s Road, vehicular access from St. Anne’s Road, has been addressed by the current plan.
Part 2 – 1269 St. Anne’s Road will be posted sometime soon. Happy New Year.