The District of Sechelt’s planning and community development committee has given its nod of approval to the form and character of the proposed Rockwood Ocean Stories seniors development and recommended that council issue the project a development permit.
The committee is made up of councillors Darnelda Siegers, Noel Muller, Alice Lutes and Mike Shanks.
Rockwood Ocean Stories is described as a “residential care community” to help seniors “age in place” slated to be built by Spani Developments on a 2.4-hectare property between Chatelech Secondary School and the Rockwood Centre.
The development features a 60-unit condominium for independent senior living, a 125-unit supportive and assisted living building and a 26-unit multi-family building.
A 1,671-square-metre strata lot will also be gifted to the district for community use or a future hospice.
Two of the development’s buildings will be four storeys in height and the 60-unit condominium will be eight storeys.
Currently the project is sitting at third reading of a zoning bylaw and official community plan amendment to allow it to move forward. Council stipulated the need to approve a development permit before fourth reading and final adoption.
During the planning meeting on Oct. 26, Muller asked some clarifying questions about the development’s height, noting most of council was unsure in the original drawings about what the bottom and top level of the tallest building would be.
“Without knowing what the final interior was going to look like, we didn’t know if that was a front lobby, a mezzanine, or simply just full-on parking with no entrance, and now I see entrances on it and I’m curious about that,” Muller said.
Developer Doug Spani, speaking from the gallery, said the bottom level of the condominium with entrances is to allow fire truck access to the building as well as access to pickleball courts that will be created in a section of the underground parking area.
Spani also said the top level with a peaked roof was a loft and that the entire eight-storey condominium was under the 25-metre height allowance.
The building as presented in the development plans tops out at 24.09 metres.
“The actual building bylaw doesn’t talk about storeys, it just talks about height in metres, noted planner Aaron Thompson, “as storeys is not an exact term for measure.”
Muller noted staff had referred to the development as an “eight storey or an 8.5 or a six-plus” development throughout various documents over several months.
“I think our planners really have to have a handle on this as to the different ways it was referred to,” Muller noted.
“It has been six to eight months since we went through this, so that stuff needs to be brought up again just so we understand it.”
Committee members then recommended council issue the development permit for Rockwood Ocean Stories, conditional on the adoption of the official community plan and zoning bylaw amendments needed and the production of a $371,772 landscape bond that will be held for two years to ensure plant survival of landscaping on the site.
Council unanimously supported the committee’s recommendation at its regular council meeting on Nov. 2.
