Sechelt council’s committee of the whole has given the planning department the go-ahead to draft a zoning bylaw for a mixed-use commercial and residential development on Field Road in Wilson Creek.
The proposed Evolve development would include low-density, multi-family housing with a combination of duplexes, fourplexes and townhouses as well as mixed-use commercial-residential and commercial-retail units on currently vacant property just north of the intersection of Field Road and Highway 101.
The lots, at 1688 and 1730 Field Road, cover about 12 hectares (29 acres) and were previously zoned for a business park, live-work project.
A report from the planning department, prepared for the Feb. 27 committee meeting, said about seven hectares (18 acres) is considered suitable for the development with the remaining five to be set aside as park.
The planning report also said the layout of the Evolve development would fit with the in-ground infrastructure and road alignment established for the original development.
Todd MacDonald, one of the proponents, was at the meeting and told councillors that one of the reasons they need a rezoning is that the existing zoning is too “set in stone” when it comes to the types and sizes of the buildings.
Evolve would be built in five phases and include an area of three- to four-storey mixed-use commercial buildings with up to 91 residential apartments, and an area of multi-family residential buildings with up to 84 units in townhouse or duplex-style buildings.
The planning department made several recommendations for conditions on the rezoning, including “a minimum of 35 units of affordable workforce housing to be secured through a housing agreement and restrictive covenant” and that “Field Road, extending from the north end of the subject property to the intersection of
Highway 101, be constructed to an Urban Arterial standard [and] that the proponent carry out improvements at Field Road and SC Highway 101 intersection works if required by the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure.”
MacDonald also told the committee that he and his partners are committed to affordability, but are concerned about the potential costs of the upgrades to Field Road.
“The idea here is to make this affordable for our community. I’m not looking to build
million-dollar townhomes. We’re trying to come to market at a good [price] point,” he said. “If we need to rebuild Field Road and we need to do a bunch of changes to stuff that’s already existing, it takes away that affordable component.”
The developers’ plan is to connect Evolve with the sewage treatment plant on
shíshálhNation land near the waterfront, which is being upgraded to accommodate a new apartment complex and the proposed Silverstone Care Centre, something MacDonald said was going to involved a “seven figure” expense.
Coun. Matt McLean expressed concern about the impact of rezoning the property and the availability of future land for industrial use in the district and asked if there was any recent data on industrial land availability in the district.
Ian Holl, development planning manager, said while the Evolve proposal isn’t expected to have much impact, it is an issue staff will be looking at as part of broader zoning and official community plan updates.
“We’ve been getting a number of applications over the years to try to change some of those industrial zoned lands into new commercial-residential zoned lands and trying to balance off ensuring we still have industrial lands available and we’re not sacrificing them to other things,” Holl explained.
The committee’s recommendation to have staff draft new zoning bylaws for consideration was scheduled to go to full council March 6.
