The latest plan for a major redevelopment of the Safeway site in Lynn Valley, which now includes a new fire hall, is getting a cool-to-tepid response from District of North Vancouver council.
Crombie REIT’s latest proposal for the site includes a series of mixed use buildings ranging from six to 12 storeys in height, containing a new grocery store, restaurant, smaller commercial units, two public plazas and 417 new homes, 148 of which would be purpose-built rentals. A portion of those would be social housing, although the exact number wouldn’t be known until the developer has done a pro forma analysis.
The proposal also now includes a new fire hall to replace the existing 50-year-old one on Lynn Valley Road, which only has about 10 years of useful life left in it, according to staff. If the district were to go ahead with the plan, the fire hall property could later be redeveloped to include affordable housing, a youth centre and/or child care.
The project does meet the guidelines set out for the site in the district’s official community plan, staff say.
When council members were given the opportunity to sound off on the latest iteration, it got mixed reviews.
For some on council, including Couns. Betty Forbes, Lisa Muri and Jim Hanson, the plan was simply too big, too expensive, bringing too many people and cars to the area with too little benefit in exchange.
“With all due respect to the designers, it reminds me of a U.S. prison work yard in the centre, so, needless to say, my comment is that I don’t like it,” Forbes said.
Hanson said he’d be open to the density but not with so many market strata units.
“I certainly would not approve the proposal in its existing form. If we are doing this type of density in this type of location, I would have to see a lot more rentals. I would have to see affordable housing that really does respond to the desperate needs of our community at this time," he said.
Mayor Mike Little noted that he voted in favour of all of the land use, density and height guidelines that apply to the site so he didn’t have any major issues with the size and scope of the project. He said he was open to the addition of the fire hall, but he said he was skeptical about whether it would be a significant enough community benefit to justify the project’s density.
“I’m still wrestling as to how can we justify this as a significant benefit when that’s exactly what those maximum densities were to be reserved for,” he said.
Coun. Catherine Pope put plainly that the fire hall should be nixed from the project and replaced with more homes that would rent for no more than 30 per cent of a household’s income.
“Come on, it could be seven to 10 years away before a shovel even goes in the ground for affordable housing at the old fire hall site,” she said. “We are in a housing crisis. That means today. People are desperately needing homes today, as we’ve heard over and over and over again.”
The developer will now take the feedback offered by council and decide whether to make changes before bringing the proposal back for a vote by council.
The proposal to redevelop the adjacent Black Bear Pub into a six-storey building with 98 purpose-built rental apartments and 12,000 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor, meanwhile, has since been withdrawn, according to staff.
