Sechelt’s advisory planning commission (APC) is recommending council approve BC Housing’s application to rezone a lot on Hightide Avenue for a three-storey building with 40 supportive housing units.
BC Housing already owns the land, which is currently zoned R-4, allowing apartment buildings and townhouses. The agency wants zoning and Official Community Plan changes to allow the supportive housing use and increase the maximum density on the property.
BC Housing also wants permission to reduce the width of part of the undeveloped section of the Hightide Avenue right-of-way.
The project is designed to offer residents a transition from shelters to permanent housing. The units would be roughly 350 square feet (35 square metres), with eight on the ground floor along with common areas, including a dining room. The upper two floors will each have 16 units.
The rezoning application is still out for referral, and will likely come before council’s planning and community development committee late this month or in April.
The BC Housing project is one of two multi-unit buildings being proposed for that neighbourhood.
The other is an apartment complex that would be built on three lots at the corner of Wharf Avenue and East Porpoise Bay Road.
The developers are seeking an amendment to their earlier zoning application to allow for greater density so they can add six more units, to bring the total to 47.
The APC is recommending rejection of the extra density, and that council follow an earlier APC recommendation to reduce the height, increase the setbacks, “and mitigate the impacts to the neigbhouring properties.”
