Sechelt Mayor Darnelda Siegers used some of her opening remarks during a Sechelt and District Chamber of Commerce webinar to characterize a list of developments slated for 2021 as a mini construction boom.
Next year “will see a mini boom in building in the District of Sechelt,” she told attendees on Dec. 7, adding several “big and small projects are projected to start early in the new year.”
Her list included Trellis, a 132-bed complex care facility slated to be built and open on Derby Road by 2022 if council adopts zoning amendments; a five-storey Lions seniors affordable housing project at Greenecourt; and a six-storey affordable housing project for women and children on Inlet Avenue led by Sunshine Coast Community Services Society, which is headed to a public hearing for zoning amendments Dec. 8.
A proposed five-storey building project at the corner of Ebbtide and Wharf known as the Wade Building is also being reviewed by council, and a public hearing is also slated Dec. 8 for the Westcor land proposal with single and multi-family units on Mills Road.
She said the Sechelt operations centre, which needs electoral approval for a $3-million loan, could move ahead next year if approved.
Two developments are also in the works for Davis Bay, as is “a big development” behind the Wilson Creek shopping centre in Wilson Creek, which includes affordable and workforce housing.
Heading towards first reading is a major project in West Sechelt through Grand Excelsior Investments that would see 128 hectares (319 acres) developed to create housing for approximately 850 families over a 10 to 20-year period. “Given the size of that development, we’ve reached out to the school district to make them aware of the proposal,” she said.
Siegers said the district is also working with the Affordable Housing Society on a “potential submission” to BC Housing for affordable rental housing for families. The deadline for submission is expected mid-January. “We’re hoping to pull everything together to get that application in.”
She said a developer has also purchased land in downtown Sechelt with a proposal to build a “four- or five-storey structure comprised of smaller rental units.”
Sechelt isn’t the only government to see rapid development.
As one attendee observed, shíshálh Nation’s business development arm Tsain-Ko is “racing ahead of the District of Sechelt in keeping with retail business trends.” The speaker asked what the district can do to keep up, or incentivize businesses to launch in Sechelt.
Tsain-ko is completing the third phase of its shopping centre expansion and construction is also underway for Our House of Clans, a multi-use building that will include 34 rental apartments as well as retail space on 5573 Sunshine Coast Hwy. “That’s fabulous to see,” said Siegers.
The stores at the Tsain-ko shopping centre “in most cases don’t generally suit what we envision for our downtown. They’re more big box stores. We don’t typically have those in our downtown, and I believe the two can coexist,” she said. “I don’t see why we need to keep up, we can have a different vision for downtown.”
Earlier in the meeting, she described her vision as a “vibrant, walkable, pedestrian-friendly downtown core with small unique local shops.”
The district supports the Sechelt Downtown Business Association by installing lights and benches and upgrading streets, said Siegers, adding the Chamber’s role would be to find businesses that would “fill in some of the holes downtown.”
Siegers was also asked about short-term rentals and hotels. She said while the district is receiving letters related to short-term rentals, council has yet to settle on whether to create separate regulations or to keep them folded in with current zoning bylaws.
She also noted that they intend to complete the rewrite of Zoning Bylaw 580 in 2021 – the first complete review since 1987. The bylaws have proven a hindrance to development, said Siegers, because they’re so outdated. In many cases when developers approach the district with projects, “everything has to be rewritten.”
Plans are also in the works to check in with landowners in Sechelt to find out “what it would take to move projects forward.” She said she’d hoped to have the conversations earlier this year but the pandemic stalled the process.
