West Van town hall puts focus on Ambleside apartment housing

How to create more housing in West Vancouver – and match that to what’s needed in the community, without destroying its village atmosphere – was the topic addressed by a standing room crowd of about 200 people at a public town hall Thursday night.

Residents showed up to the Seniors Activity Centre to ask questions and make comments on the Ambleside local area plan being considered by council.

The plan is meant to provide a broad outline of what kinds of housing the municipality would like to see in Ambleside’s 1950s-era apartment zone in the future, said senior planner David Hawkins.

In general, the plan prioritizes creating more diverse housing for seniors, the “missing middle,” rental, rent-to-own and below market options, and contemplates allowing additional density for housing that address more public needs.

Most future housing would be low-rise or mid-rise, under the plan. The plan also considers using some community use sites like church property and district-owned land to create additional housing.

But “none of this is going to happen overnight,” said Hawkins, with much of the plan likely taking decades.

Mayor Mark Sager said there are likely only two sites that might see development plans put forward soon – one on the St Stephen’s Anglican Church property on 22nd Street and another redevelopment of an existing apartment tower at 1552 Esquimalt Ave., previously put on hold by the owner.

Even if greater density is written into the plan, “the owners of the property have to actually want to do something” or it won’t happen, said Sager.

Currently both the cost of labour and borrowing is expensive, said Hawkins, so “realistically we’re in a slow development phase.”

Development incentives lacking, say some

Several people questioned whether the density in the plan would be enough to spur owners to want to build more housing. “Have you had discussions with the development community?” asked one resident. “Is this enough to get things built? Sometimes what you get is absolutely no change at all.”

Another resident who said she was representing owners of properties in the 1800 block of Marine Drive said the incentives in the plan are “very minimal. This is no incentive for us and any of the owners in that block to redevelop,” she said, adding owners would like to see greater density and more mixed commercial and residential use.

Resident Gary Powroznik said West Vancouver has done a poor job of making it easier to build rental. “None of the housing proposals are appealing to our lost generations,” he said.

But another resident warned he wouldn’t want to see Ambleside start to look like Yaletown.

“Fifty-five storeys in Vancouver have become acceptable,” he said. “I don’t think it should ever be acceptable here.”

Rental protections planned

In response to comments about rentals, Sager pointed to council’s intention, announced this week, to bring in protection for rental-only buildings in Ambleside’s apartment area – something that council previously rejected.

In the latest version, all-rental buildings can only be redeveloped as rentals, but there are allowances for strata units to be added to the property. Council will also bring in rules requiring developers to help tenants forced to relocate and which give those tenants right of first refusal in new projects.

While those bylaws are being developed, council also has the right to refuse permits to any projects that don’t conform to the new rules.

Rick Wagner of the Ambleside Tenants Association said his group was started in response to discussions about rental protection and the lack of awareness among area tenants about council discussions on the topic.

Another resident questioned how the municipality would be able to force the building of affordable housing in a community with such expensive land values. The only way to do that would be to allow an increase in density or have projects subsidized by government, he said.

West Van lacks much public land

Several people added that West Vancouver has very limited public land to throw into the pot compared to a municipality like the District of North Vancouver.

Sager said he likes the idea of changing rules to allow for stratification of existing single-family properties to create more housing – an idea he floated during the election.

One resident described himself as being in the “cautiously pessimistic” camp and said he worries the plan won’t make anyone happy. “Ultimately not much changes and it’s painful to get there,” he said.

Council has been discussing the long-range policy document, which was drawn up after six months of public consultation, since July.

The apartment area section of the plan will now come back to council before getting sent to a formal public hearing.