A developer who wants to put more housing on less land in St. John’s has been given a green light by council.

An application is already before the city to develop 33 so-called small lots on land zoned for them.

But the developer needed, and got the OK yesterday for nearby land to be re-zoned as well, adding 19 more lots to its plans, for a total of 52.

Those plans include single-detached homes at the top of Henry Larsen Street near Leonard J. Cowley Street, continuing the residential housing creep along Kenmount Road toward the site of a future hospital at Kenmount Crossing.

The usual lot would require a minimum 12 metres’ frontage and 350 square metres in total area, compared to 10 metres’ frontage and 250 metres for a small lot.

There were public consultations with both written and online submissions received. And while most support the plan, others stressed a desire for more traffic controls in the area, as well as walking or biking trails.

The city’s chief municipal planner, Ken O’Brien, acknowledged that no such trails are planned for that area – yet.

“That would be a future consideration, particularly for development above 130 metres, the current service level, and this development brings us up to that level,” he said. “Beyond that we would be looking at further amenities, including walking trails.”