Even with stellar spring weather, the Stonehurst proposal information event last week saw a few dozen attendees drop by within its first half hour.
Pacific Ray Developments (PRD) hosted the session that featured plan displays along with the chance to speak with the project team at Gibsons Public Market.
The Gibsons Way and School Road (aka five corners) site's plans have been adjusted since October 2021, when PRD first publicly presented them. Proposed is transforming the 1912 vintage Inglis house into a six-suite boutique inn with a public bistro and adding 22 condominium units. An earlier plan was for 26 residential units.
A town public hearing on bylaw amendments to permit those changes will be held April 25. The project also hinges on PRD being able to purchase, for a minimum of $725,000, just over half of adjacent town-owned Lot 23 on School Road. Since the 1980s that site has offered about 20 free public parking spots and a small unofficial park space. If the sale proceeds, PRD’s residential structure would occupy the purchased portion. The remaining land would be retained by the town for an expanded and officially designated Inglis Park in conjunction with the project.
Parking change concerns
A March 2022 town staff report stated that with current town parking standards applied, Lot 23’s capacity is 15 vehicle spaces. PRD’s latest proposal commits to replace those with 16 public parking spots, a combination of grade-level and underground spaces. PRD’s managing director Babak Trafeshi clarified at the meeting that the entrance to the below-grade parking will accommodate up to standard-height pick-up trucks.
Coast Reporter was told by meeting attendees that the sale of the land, although supported in 2020 town survey and by a subsequent council resolution, remains a concern. Town resident Judith Bonkoff said she wanted to see the matter of selling public property go to referendum. "We’re losing really valuable parking spots. If the developer wants to develop, let him do it on his own property.”
Bonkoff's concerns go beyond a loss of four public parking spaces. With more uses coming to the site, she said the proposal will increase demands for parking in lower Gibsons, an area she said already struggles to accommodate current traffic. With patrons of the proposed park, commercial uses as well as residents and visitors to the condominiums also being able to use the developer-provided spaces, she indicated the plan is a “parking disaster in the making."
Restoring and publicly opening Stonehurst
Trafreshi reflected on the project's intent. “Honestly for me, it has never been really a business venture. It’s been about what we can do for the community… making sure Stonehurst is preserved with the shared objectives that we have with the town." He reiterated that those included having public parking maintained, making lower Gibsons more beautiful and adding housing. He said a major benefit will be the preservation of the historic Inglis House, restored and opened up for public access.
When asked if the development would proceed if the Lot 23 land was not available for purchase, he said he could not comment. He stressed that demolition of the Inglis house “has never been something that I have wanted to do, and that’s not what I intend to do". That structure, located on the developer’s property, is not protected by any form of historic property designation.
Neighbourhood 'fit'
"When we started, we heard from the community that they did not want to see anything that is over three to four storeys and we have made sure that we have maintained that," said Trafreshi. "We did reduce massing and the development size, dropping the number of units. We have taken a full storey off the front row of the building and one off the back as well." He also indicated that access to onsite parking off Gibsons Way was added to respond to safety concerns about the School Road access point during icy conditions.
The proposal's lack of fit with the town’s Harbour area plan remains an issue for Bonkoff in relation to its design, height and density. She has concerns with the high number of units per hectare and the precedents that approval would have for other properties awaiting development within the Harbour plan area. As well, in her view, the redevelopment of that structure will destroy its historic nature.
A lack of “green development” features in the proposal is another sticking point for her.
Next steps
Trafeshi commented that the development had been a “long process, that’s for sure.” The initial display panel at the event indicated project initiation in early 2020.
Bonkoff used her social media networks and put up posters to promote the developer’s event, as she viewed public access to the new plans as important. In her opinion, what has been missing in the proposal review process has been an open meeting with the council and town staff to discuss the site’s possibilities. “This thing has been going on for three years, often behind closed doors. It has hardly hit the public meetings so far...for this to go this far without public engagement when [Lot 23] is public property is wrong” she said. (The project was discussed at town committee meetings in 2020, 2021 and 2023.)
As for the April 25 public hearing, “I am hoping our politicians listen,” she stated. But she cited what she identified as the community “having bad experiences with public hearings”, citing past proceedings related to The George and Gospel Rock developments.
