Medicine Hat council to review motel-to-housing and Amazon hub proposals
Four land-use bylaws come before Medicine Hat City Council Monday, ranging from motel conversions to a new package distribution facility at the historic Ogilvie Flour Mill site.
Medicine Hat City Council will consider four land-use proposals Monday. Two involve rezoning motels — the Ranchmen Motel at 535 16 St. S.W. and the Sundek Motel at 855 Gershaw Dr. S.W. — from commercial to residential designations so they can be converted into multi-unit housing. Both sites sit in the city's West Employment Sector amid industrial and commercial uses, and planners note potential conflicts with noise, truck traffic and dust that could be addressed through development permit conditions such as sound fencing and landscaping.
The Ranchmen site also contains the 1964 neon cowboy sign, listed on the city's Heritage Inventory, whose future would be considered during the permit process.
A third bylaw would rezone 22 Sierra Green S.W. from Neighbourhood Residential 1 to Neighbourhood Residential 2, allowing builder Jayco Builders Inc. to consolidate two lots and construct a four-unit row house in the nearly built-out Saamis Heights neighbourhood.
The fourth proposal, recommended for approval by the Municipal Planning Commission, would establish an Amazon package distribution and trans-shipment facility inside the former Ogilvie Flour Mill complex at 1222 Allowance Ave. S.E. The operation would employ about 40 people, run seven days a week, and involve two tractor-trailers unloading before dawn and roughly 25 delivery vans departing in staggered waves, with no overnight package storage.
Compiled by the Alberta Daily Desk — an AI-written summary of reporting from the credited sources below, produced and reviewed under our editorial policy.