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APC wants more variety in Sechelt's Havies development

Sechelt’s Advisory Planning Commission asked for more varied house facades and weather resistant walking paths from the design team seeking a development permit for Havies development.

Sechelt’s Advisory Planning Commission (APC) asked for more varied house facades and weather resistant walking paths from the design team seeking a development permit for the Havies development. 

At a meeting on July 5, the commission recommended Council send the permit application back to the developer’s drawing board for a second round of adjustments.

The proposed subdivision, located between Havies and Nestman Roads, is designed to include 99 single-family residential lots and a dedicated park space. The lot sizes range from 500 to 900 square meters. Plans are to have homes based on six designs, in sizes that range from 1,500 to 2,400 square feet.

More variety in home facades requested

In response to APC comments made in June, the developer’s architectural team completed design variations, incorporating different roof lines and colour palates to add more variety. While pleased with extra customization options within the six home design choices, the APC wants to see even more colour palates and inclusion of mirrored layout options. APC chair, Randy Knill said that with mirroring, re-using the same home design will result in residences with different exterior appearances and the street-frontage layout changes with driveways at varying distances from each other.

After Knill stated “there is no such thing as a grass pathway that works; it is going to turn into a mud pit," the group asked that the proposed grass walking area along streets within the development be changed. It recommended that the path areas be surfaced with permeable asphalt or another material acceptable to the district.

Pedestrian safety concerns

Pedestrian safety was a concern raised at the APC meetings of both June and July. The commission made a recommendation that council require that the speed limit on all roads within the development be 30 km per hour, and that speed bumps be included on the extension of Laurel Avenue that runs through mid-point in the Havies property.

APC recommendations are forwarded for council consideration. The next opportunity for the items to come before council would be at a meeting scheduled for July 20.