The history of Gibsons Landing's Stonehurst property is long – and so may be the saga of its redevelopment.
June 7, Gibsons committee of the whole sent Pacific Ray Development’s (PRD) Stonehurst redevelopment to council for consideration of first reading June 21, but no community amenity contribution offers were recommended.
PRD owns the Stonehurst site, which was developed in the early 1900s as the home of the Coast's first resident medical doctor.
The initial steps in getting zoning and official community plan bylaws into place for redevelopment of that property came 18 months after an online public survey supported selling Town land adjacent to that site, owned by the town and used for public parking, to PRD. That sale would enable that company’s proposal for 26 condominiums and a transformation of Stonehurst into an inn and bistro.
Town elected officials and PRD remain a fair distance apart on the benefits that should be provided in exchange for allowing the developer to buy the lot near the lower intersection of School Road and Gibsons Way. In a written community amenity contribution (CAC) proposal presented to council in March, PRD spokesperson Babak Tafreshi emphasized that the Town would benefit from having new residential units and a hotel-type facility in Lower Gibsons. In addition to paying a new assessed value for the land (previously assessed at $725,000) PRD’s offer also included the preservation of the historic site, contributions to park space planning and 16 parking stalls in the underground structure that will also serve the residential and commercial development on the site. Mayor Bill Beamish stated he felt that amount of parking being offered was too low.
The committee referred negotiations on the CAC to another round of discussions with the developer. Director of planning Lesley-Anne Staats recommended that council have the CAC offer recommendation finalized before the bylaws proceed to public hearing, which would be scheduled after the bylaws receive second reading.
To achieve agreement on the recommendations, Beamish suggested the committee consider a new twist on the potential deal, a long-term lease rather than sale of the town property. The idea piqued the interest of Coun. Annemarie De Andrade, who said, “In order to sell (town property), there has to be a tremendous value for the entire community.” She expressed doubts that the community view of PRD’s proposal, as it stands, provided that to Gibsons residents.
Expressing frustration with a new form of land tenure being added to the debate, Tafreshi, said that his proposal had been developed based on the willingness of the Town to consider the land sale. “Bringing up points that we have already dealt with, it hurts. We have been going at this for two years,” he said.
While Coun. Stafford Lumley said the changing “asks” from the committee were wasting PRD’s time, Tafreshi said that there could be opportunities to discuss adjustments to the project’s residential component height and massing. Those factors were key concerns for Coun. Aleria Ladwig, who voted in opposition to any of the recommendations proceeding to council. She said that she felt the proposed condominiums were at least two storeys too high to be in keeping with the scale of the community and neighbourhood.
Expressing a similar view, De Andrade said the proposal would be beautiful in West Vancouver, but in its current form, is not consistent with the seaside community character or the harbour area plan.
The June 21 council meeting is scheduled to be held at 7 p.m. in council chambers at Town Hall, 474 South Fletcher Road. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and up to June 7, council meetings have also been available via the Zoom online platform.
