City of North Vancouver council gave mixed results to two developers looking to proceed with their builds on Monday night (March 28), with one moving to adoption without a public hearing, and the other sent back to the drawing board over questions around density and the number of childcare places proposed in the plan.
The proposed five-story mixed-use building at 149 West Third St. passed unanimously after brief questions by councillors regarding cooling systems, storage, and the proposed breezeway through the development. The development includes 57 strata units above 6,300 square-feet of commercial retail spaces.
Coun. Angela Girard said she was pleased to move the development through, as it will revitalize the Third Street south-side commercial district.
“I'm also very happy to have heard the applicant’s interest in maintaining this neighborhood’s current character of smaller local businesses when leasing out the CRUs [commercial rental units], because I know how appreciated the smaller ethnic restaurants and grocery stores are to local residents. It certainly gives the neighborhood a flair and really a feeling of community,” she said.
Coun. Holly Back said she was supporting the project, as council has received positive feedback and “Third Street has been in need of a cleanup for a long time.”
Mayor Linda Buchanan said the use of a mid-block connection down to the laneway behind the project is a great use of space that usually isn’t utilized. Buchanan also noted the development's 48 units of “adaptable” housing.
“When we look to the age of our population and wanting people to be able to age-in-place, having adaptable units, and that significant number of adaptable units, makes it much easier for people as they start to age-in-place, and be able to either downsize to an apartment like this, or buy it outright at the beginning and then stay for a very long time,” she said.
The proposal will move on to adoption at a later time to be determined by council.
Meanwhile, the proposed development at 1536-1550 Eastern Avenue has been sent back to the drawing board, as council voted against sending the proposal to a public hearing in its current state.
The development would have included 113 rental units across 13 floors, with an adjoining childcare centre providing 129 daycare places, and 125 car spaces underground.
In rejecting the motion to send to a public hearing, council was particularly concerned by the density and the number of childcare places, considering the proposal is in a residential area.
Coun. Tina Hu cited the proposed childcare as the reason for not voting for the development.
“I'm supportive of childcare … [but in that location], in my opinion, we would really need an in-depth traffic study to make sure that is not causing any problems in the allocation,” she said.
Buchanan, however, said that from a land-use perspective, she doesn’t have concerns about the tower height as it fits within the neighbourhood, but she is also concerned about the proposed childcare.
“I will put on the record though, this is too large for this residential area,” she said of the childcare. “And it's unfortunate that it's gotten to this place before council had any understanding of the size that was being contemplated, because I think that it could have potentially been something different.”
