Six storeys, no. Five storeys, yes.
In a rare split vote, City of North Vancouver has approved a new rental building for 2612 Lonsdale Ave.
The project from Tavan Group has a bumpy history with council. In 2019, the developer proposed a six-storey, 26-unit rental building at the site, which council declined to send to a public hearing. At issue at the time was the height, its shortage of three-bedroom units, and the fact that it was submitted before council set a requirement for 10 per cent of all new units to be 10 per cent below market rents in perpetuity.
The developer returned with a revised proposal this year, four feet shorter with the top storey recessed several feet, making it less visible from below. It also added more three-bedroom units at the expense of one-bedrooms, made accessibility improvements, guaranteed 10 per cent of the suites would rent for 10 per cent below market for the life of the building, and included a higher energy efficiency standard than the previous iteration.
At a public hearing held July 5, the proposal remained unpopular with neighbours who argued it was still too big and would result in more people seeking street parking in the area.
“My builder friends call this a ‘squish.’ It remains a significant upward escalation, creating one of those zoning cliffs the city’s [official community plan] promises to avoid,” said Robert Overgaard, who lives nearby.
Coun. Angela Girard questioned whether the project could still be made smaller.
Developer Troy Van Vliet expressed worry that would threaten the viability of the project.
“All of the changes that we've done in the concessions that we've made up until now cost money and so, inevitably, that gets passed on to rent,” he said. “Nobody wants to cry for a developer. But having said that, it does have to make sense as well. … We don't want to have a building that's not rentable either. That doesn't help us. That doesn't help the community. It doesn't help anybody.”
When it came time for a vote, Girard brought a motion to remove the top storey from the project.
Staff cautioned the late-in-coming change would make it unclear what the final unit mix would be, though it would likely reduce the number of three-bedroom suites council had asked for, and it would certainly come at the expense of at least one of the below-market units.
“I did appreciate the applicant’s comments and all the changes that they had come back with and essentially addressed what council had put forward as concerns,” she said. “I just didn't think they went far enough with respect to the height.”
Couns. Jessica McIlroy and Don Bell agreed.
“I realize the OCP provides a potential of six storeys but that doesn't mean that council will automatically approve six storeys just because the design is good,” Bell said.
Coun. Tony Valente rejected Girard’s motion, saying the city is not in a position to be saying no to rental homes.
“We're in the middle of this housing crisis. We do need projects to come forward. Three of those units would be more affordable, and the remainder become more affordable as they age,” he said.
Coun. Tina Hu also voted against the change, adding she was particularly concerned about the potential loss of three-bedroom suites, which are rare in the city.
Coun. Holly Back voted against the development, albeit for the opposite reasons. Back said there are a lot of rental units coming down the pipes and she felt the project would only mean more people trying to park on the street.
Mayor Linda Buchanan broke the tie, voting in favour – largely because she didn’t want to see the project scrapped entirely.
“Which means 20 families would not be finding housing within our community,” she said. “We want density in the right place and we want the right kind. Lonsdale is the right place and rental is the right kind. And this is on a frequent transit network, so it does work in this location.”
