Didn't know that was a thing... I wonder the reasoning? I assume its giving them the room to expand 14th.

Also answers why this project is setback from 14th.
They are a relic of the 60s, when the plan was to widen many roads by adding lanes of traffic. 5.182m is 17 feet, or the width of a lane of traffic. I see now though, they have updated the language in the land use bylaw to say these setbacks are "To maintain and improve the quality of the physical environment for the overall public interest, the public realm setbacks are intended to accommodate public realm improvements, pedestrian environment improvements, and context specific mobility improvements.". So, at least they don't plan to put in extra lanes of traffic anymore. What is frustrating though is that the active main streets projects so far (the Main Streets line up quite conveniently with many roads that have widening setbacks) don't actually use the widened property. They have been ignoring it, or not taking it because the City would have to pay to acquire these spaces they have protected. Anyway, I have ranted about this table in the past on these forums, don't need to get into it again. If you are curious to read it and a few more posts about the subject, here they are:

Here is a link to the LUB table and rules around it:
 
I mean maybe at some point the city uses the setback in this case to do something with 14th going under the tracks? Depending what happens with 11th they won't cut off vehicle traffic here but a nicer public realm would be nice to add as part of the main streets program... But you can't have a redone underpass to nowhere so they need a plan for what they're doing with whatever the dealership district is actually called.
 
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Weird, yet another rendering for this project. Same as the other one but shorter, they must have changed it at some point.
With the recent rise in rents, I bet they wish they had stuck with 10 floors.
 

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