The former site of the Uptown Motel and Trailer Park, turned RV Park, is one step closer to being home to a rental-condo development and North America’s first mass-timber parkade.
On July 9, Gibsons council approved variances and a form and character development permit for City State’s mixed-use development at 718 North Road.
Proposed are three apartment buildings with a total of 124 apartments – 100 of those rentals – and a daycare on the 0.53-hectare lot. The units are proposed to range from one to three bedrooms, with 24 affordable units and six accessible units.
Instead of a rezoning, seven variances were requested (due to financing requirements, a staff report says). The variances include allowing for a 21-metre building – up from 12 metres; a reduction in the minimum apartment size to 48 square metres from 55 square metres; a reduction in onsite parking spaces to 153 with two car share vehicles provided and eight visitor/daycare spaces; setback reductions; moving the loading zone off-property; and allowing residences at the ground level.
At the July 9 council meeting, Coun. Annemarie De Andrade said while she acknowledges the importance of the project, her concern remains with the lack of a shadow study due to the building’s height of 21 metres.
“A shadow study is not a punitive thing, it’s to understand if there's any impact and if there's any way to mitigate that if there is an impact,” said De Andrade.
Mayor Silas White noted the idea of a shadow study was addressed in the staff report, and had been discussed at the committee level, resulting in several motions. "And I recall one point was that most of the shadow would be on what is currently a vacant lot on North Road,” White said.
At a June 18 committee of the whole meeting, where the majority of council’s deliberation on the matter took place, planner Kirsten Rawkins said council effectively asked to weigh the benefit of the proposed housing provision with the potential impacts of fitting the building massing and services within the constraints of the site area.
Youth councillor Cael Read said that in community consultations, density was supported in this area.
“You have to make compromises to fit the needs of community,” said Read. “It is important to recognize the impact on the community that’s here, but we also have to be willing to let the community grow and change and not just stick to what it is now.”
Coun. David Croal highlighted the benefit of rental housing in perpetuity and called it “one of the most exciting projects that’s come to this table in the six years I’ve been sitting here.”
The development plans to use mass timber and pre-fabrication to address the “twin challenges of our time,” the housing crisis and climate change, said Gaetan Royer of proponent City State Consulting Group and Massive Canada Building Systems Inc. (which is developing and handling the mass timber and prefabrication). This will cut construction time by one year, Royer told council.
The existing concentration of amenities makes 718 North Road an ideal location for rental housing, said Royer, adding they’re striving to create an intergenerational, inclusive village with “lots of social interaction.”
“You’re going to find five generations in the elevator,” he said.
Parking study
A parking study supports the proposed parking reduction to 153 spaces from 182, says a staff report, but that will leave some units without parking and the neighbourhood could feel the impacts of spill-over parking, unless “alternative transportation options are not well supported.”
Minimizing neighbourly impact
“Forseen impacts” staff listed in the report note the massing and the minimal setbacks to neighbours mean trees could be affected and there will be reduced opportunity for privacy buffers.
Neighbour Peter Braune voiced concerns to council members at the June 18 meeting, saying he feels he would have no say in how the development affects his property, including his trees. “It’s going to get a lot hotter in my lot,” he said.
Braune pointed also pointed to the development’s height gain, the number of variances required, traffic, massing and the need to make an interesting visual statement.
Council directed the developer to work with Braune to reduce the impact of the project on his property.
Now that the variances and development permit are approved, the proponent may now apply for a building permit, once conditions are met.
– With files from Keili Bartlett and Sandra Thomas
