A six-storey seniors’ care centre is pencilled in for Oxford Street, but for at least one councillor, the project’s parking is worse than its height.
During Monday’s debate, District of North Vancouver council generally favoured the idea of a 180-bed Creekstone Care Centre, nursing seniors who are frail or in poor health through the end of their lives. However, Coun. Lisa Muri suggested 35 parking stalls – which exceeds district requirements by five – may not accommodate the centre’s staff and visitors.
“I just cannot imagine the stress that is going to be on visitors that are going to be coming there, driving around the block,” she said.
Besides a scarcity of parking at adjacent commercial and industrial areas, neighbours in the area are already calling for residents-only parking, according to Muri.
Muri also took issue with Coun. Robin Hicks’ suggestion visitors might park at a nearby Canadian Tire parking lot.
“You might want to visit that parking lot as well, because it is chaotic on a daily basis,” Muri said.
With 10 developments within about one kilometre in various phases of development and application, it’s incumbent on the developer to devise a plan to “minimize construction impacts” along Mountain Highway and Oxford Street, according to a staff report.
Parking problems may be alleviated by increased B-line service to Phibbs Exchange, which should be up and running by the time the centre opens, according to Mayor Richard Walton.
There would likely be “very steady turnover” of parking at Creekstone, according to Coun. Roger Bassam, who attended the meeting via conference call. He stressed the centre’s importance.
“I very much view this as a health-care facility and … something that we absolutely need in the community,” he said.
While council was unanimous in sending the project to a public hearing, Walton suggested his final decision would be informed by statistics on the length and frequency of visits as well as how the centre’s employees will be getting to work every day.
A staff report suggested the project’s approval would “result in over 200 jobs.”
Vancouver Coastal Health would operate 150 of its beds for seniors who need daily care, leaving 30 beds available at market rents. However, Vancouver Coastal Health will be able to acquire the beds in the “short to medium term,” according to a staff report.
The eight lots between 1502 and 1546 Oxford St. are zoned for single-family residential, requiring council to grant an official community plan amendment to change the zoning for comprehensive development. The OCP currently restricts the area’s floor space ratio – which measures a project’s total floor space against its lot size – to 1.75. Creekstone would have an FSR of 2.91.
If approved, Trellis Senior Services would pay the district $619,200 – $5,000 of which would be earmarked for public art at Green Spine Linear Park, a pedestrian-focused pathway and green space to run north-south from Fern to Oxford Streets, the length of the developing Lynn Creek town centre, as proposed in the district’s design guidelines for the area.
The public hearing is set for June 13.
Couns. Mathew Bond and Doug MacKay-Dunn did not attend the meeting.
