Despite being about a 15-minute walk from the heart of downtown in B.C.'s capital city, a 108-unit proposal that would reach 14-storeys at its highest point narrowly survived further consideration by Victoria council.
Plans for the site, which is mainly a parking lot bordered by Quebec, Montreal and Kingston streets, aim to add family-friendly homes and a variety of other spaces in a 14-storey mixed-used building and several townhouses.
The proposed tower reaching 17 storeys and other concerns led to council referring the project a year ago this month – giving instructions for it to come back with a similar number of homes and around the same density. To meet those demands, the developer responded with a reworked proposal that has three floors shaved off the tower and fewer three-bedroom units.
One Greater Victoria housing group is happy to see the project move forward, but said that should've happened a year ago given its proximity to downtown and focus on family units.
"Delays of this nature increase housing costs, reduce affordability, and ultimately cut the number of homes available, thereby prolonging the housing crisis," Homes for Living told Black Press Media. "Providing homes for people to live in should be every council's primary concern, while fears over a building's height, look, or architecture should be secondary considerations."
In a letter to council on its application, Mike Geric Construction said the proposal looks to turn an asphalt lot into a landmark building that would serve residents and tourists alike. The firm added it would create a variety of housing types and tenures that would suit a range of groups and incomes, with a focus on family-housing.
The project would also include a daycare space rented to a non-profit for free over a 10-year period, commercial space on the tower's ground-floor and a meeting spot for the James Bay Community Project. It aims to enhance the public area around the property with a new crosswalk at Quebec and Montreal streets, a corner plaza with a cafe, bike lanes that would fit into the city's planned AAA cycling network expansion, 40 new trees and other landscaped elements.
After reducing the tower's height, the developer increased the number of townhouse units from 10 to 12 and tacked an additional floor onto some of the townhome buildings to make them three-storeys. Those being situated along Kingston Street have looked to create a gradual transition from the mainly single-family-home neighbourhoods to the south.
Coun. Dave Thompson, who voted in favour of the project moving forward, noted there are other buildings in the area that would only be slightly shorter than the proposal.
Coun. Matt Dell said the proposal would align with James Bay's vibrant neighbourhood but was sad to see the number of three-bedroom units falling from 41 to 27 after council asked for a smaller project - noting that in some ways it makes the building worse.
"I actually have a bit of a hesitation about what we've done to reduce the size of this," he said.
While noting it's too early to say what the city's updated Official Community Plan (OCP) would envision for the site, staff said generally they're eyeing that policy change to allow up to six-storey apartment buildings around town centres outside of downtown.
Council voted to move ahead with required consultation around the project's request for an amendment to the current OCP. Councillors Marg Gardiner, Chris Coleman and Stephen Hammond voted against as they largely cited how the proposal is still too tall and too dense.
Mayor Marianne Alto joined that opposition after she said she wouldn't support anything larger than 12 storeys at the site.
The developer and several councillors, both supportive and opposed, highlighted how the site is currently an under-utilized parking lot.
