An old Steinbach neighbourhood is about to change, and a lot of people aren’t happy about that.

Following its policy to increase housing density, city council on Tuesday unanimously approved rezoning to allow a plan to replace two single-family houses and an empty lot on McKenzie Avenue with three apartment buildings.

Dozens showed up to the council meeting, and 48 residents from the area signed a petition in opposition.

“In all reality, we know that there is an affordability crisis right now. And the fastest way to solve that is to have more [housing] inventory,” Coun. Damian Penner said.

Harold Kihn has lived on McKenzie Avenue for 57 years. Locals used to call it Moscow Street because of the large number of Russian Mennonites who had moved to the area.

He is two doors down from the 48 apartments planned by developer Randy Reimer.

Reimer lives on one of the lots set for development, which would be near the intersection with the east end of Main Street.

Kihn led an effort that successfully stopped approval for a much smaller apartment plan in 2008.

“And now, all of a sudden, it’s fine. What drives it? The love of money,” he said after the meeting.

Three-quarters of the 365 approved dwelling permits in Steinbach in 2025 were for multi-family units.

Only one-quarter were single-family homes, which was the predominant type when the city was still a town. There is an advantage to the shift, Penner said.

“With growth does come higher density. With higher density, though, does also come … newer amenities or better amenities,” Penner said.

“[A] prime example is our event centre. If we were the city that we were 20 years ago, there wouldn’t have been a taxation base to have been able to afford a facility like that.”

Homeowners at the council meeting said they want their way of life preserved as the city grows.

“It’s too much. It’s too big. Set way back when we’re in our backyard, we’ll be looking towards the east. We’ll see this massive brick wall just through the trees there,” Kihn said.

Other concerns from neighbours included lack of green space, no sidewalk on that side of the street, traffic, and drainage in an area flooded by major rain events the past two Septembers.

City administration and council said those issues are being addressed, with the sewer backup resulting more from a blockage than the deluge that overwhelmed other areas of the city.

Council recently approved Steinbach’s first apartment building completely made up of studio apartments, with the goal of making more accessible housing.

A continued hearing on a variance to allow a seven-storey seniors complex with 91 units is scheduled for council’s next meeting, on April 21. It would be on Friesen Street in another old neighbourhood near Main Street, with more neighbouring single-family homes.