Skip to content

Another change for Wade project in Sechelt

A mixed-use building slated for the intersection of Wharf Avenue and East Porpoise Bay Road in Sechelt is going back to the advisory planning commission (APC) after yet another set of revisions.
Wade project
A Grout-McTavish Architects rendering of the new five-storey design for the Wade project on Wharf Avenue in Sechelt.

A mixed-use building slated for the intersection of Wharf Avenue and East Porpoise Bay Road in Sechelt is going back to the advisory planning commission (APC) after yet another set of revisions.

A report on the Wade project was presented to council’s committee of the whole on March 27.

The project first came to the district in 2017 as an application for a six-storey, 47-unit development with 1,000 sq. feet of commercial space. After going through a public hearing, the developer came back with a four-storey, 42-unit development with 1,000 sq. feet of commercial space.

Council voted last August to authorize the planning department to draft a new zoning bylaw reflecting the change and bring it back to council for second and third readings.

But, early this year the proponent submitted another revised proposal, this one calling for a five-storey building with 40 residential units and 3,000 sq. feet of commercial space. There would also be eight units earmarked as “affordable,” an increase in four over the previous version of project.

The application and the membership on council may have changed since last August, but the central issues in the debate over the proposal were the same – height, density and traffic.

According to the planning department report, “The proposed application provides for some modest employment opportunities and additional housing. However, it does so outside of the downtown core and in an area that could result in potential conflicts between movement of goods to support commercial and industrial businesses and creating a walkable urban node to the north of the downtown core.”

Mayor Darnelda Siegers said she sees the development as part of evolving changes on Wharf Avenue.

“This development, on this corner, will change what is happening on Wharf. It will move development of more density outside of just Cowrie [Street],” she said. “It will create Wharf as also a route for pedestrians. We’ve always talked about Wharf being ‘from sea to sea,’ so if we’re going to do that, how do we actually do that? This [project] would in my mind catalyze that – and I’m in favour of that.”

Councillors Alton Toth and Matt McLean both said they felt going back to five storeys would add too much height.

McLean said he agreed, in principle, that the site is suitable for density but more along the lines of Wharf Plaza, a three-storey mixed-use development that is right beside the Wade location.

“I don’t see the benefit to the public of adding this one extra storey,” McLean said. “We get a couple of more affordable housing units, but to have a five-storey building that is on the very edge of downtown is really pushing it.”

“The five storeys to me is a bit of a sticking point. The community, the APC, both previously identified five or six storeys as a big deal for them,” Toth said, adding that having buildings get taller as you move out of the downtown is “backwards.”

“Knocking it down to four storeys makes sense,” said Coun. Eric Scott. “I love the look of it, it’s just that, especially on the Porpoise Bay side, it’s going to be monolithic.”

Siegers said she felt the stepped back design for the upper floors would lessen the impact, and she was prepared to support five storeys. “From the streetscape it wouldn’t appear as a large building on the front, that’s why I’m not opposed to the five storeys. It also reduces the footprint on the land by 20 per cent.”

Coun. Tom Lamb also said he would be prepared to support the new design. “I like the way it looks, and I think it’s a nice way to end up the block. And if you work back from there, if there’s infill with more of these developments, I think it looks pretty good.”

The committee voted to forward the new proposal to the APC with a summary of the issues raised during the committee discussion, which Siegers characterized by remarking, “Obviously, we’re divided.”