Residents in another aged but affordable Lynn Valley rental complex are anxious over pending evictions after the property was purchased by a developer.
Emery Village renters received letters dated March 31 informing them the property had been sold to Mosaic, a Vancouver-based developer, and that the company would be exploring future plans in keeping with the Lynn Valley Town Centre plan.
The District of North Vancouver’s official community plan foresees medium-density apartments being built on the site.
“They just said nothing will be happening within a year but for us to start making plans,” said Natasha Vignal, who just moved her family in to Emery Village in November.
It will put the residents of the 65 townhouse units in a scramble to find other accommodations in a rental market with almost no vacancy and skyrocketing rents, much like the Mountain Court redevelopment approved by district council last year.
“There’s no community left in North Vancouver for people who are renting and for families. The single moms and single dads with two and three kids – where the hell are they going to go?” she asked. “Where is it you can have three- and four-bedroom townhomes for under $2,000 to rent?”
Finding a home is especially hard when you’ve got a child in tow, Vignal said. “As a parent myself, we find it very difficult in North Vancouver to find somewhere to live and I’m born and raised in North Vancouver. As soon as people saw we had a baby, they wouldn’t answer the door. They didn’t want us to live on their property, whether it’s a basement suite, upstairs suite, apartment building. People don’t want families,” she said.
Buying a similar-sized home on the North Shore is also not on the table, Vignal added, with homes listing for an average of $899,000, “which would be a mortgage of about $3,800 a month,” she said.
While Mosaic is looking to build over the long term, there is no timeline for when redevelopment may actually happen, according to Andrea Camp, the company’s senior vice-president.
“We have yet to put any formal application forward but I have communicated that we are a new home builder and that it is our intent, eventually, to develop the lands if we can. When that happens, we don’t know. It can be quite a lengthy process.
“At this point, it’s status quo and we’re just focusing on being good property managers,” Camp said. “But this type of news, anytime it comes, it’s troubling.
“These are wonderful people with a beautiful community. It’s challenging for them,” she said.
The district is in the process of drafting new rules for developers in the hope of addressing affordable housing issues, and to help compensate tenants who are evicted from purpose-built rental housing going under redevelopment.
Should it come to that, Mosaic plans to meet those requirements “and then some,” Camp said.
“Yes, we are a new home builder and if we do put an application forward, it’s new homes that we will build but it still doesn’t discount the fact these are people that need homes. We’ll do everything we can to help them.”
Built in 1968, the property’s last assessed value was $15,708,000.
