A 40-unit residential building being proposed on 12th Street has some council members fearing the loss of commercial spaces in the neighbourhood.
The city has received rezoning and development permit applications related to a proposed five-storey residential building being proposed at 909 to 915 12th St. The project would include nine ground-oriented units.
In a four to three vote, council directed staff to process a rezoning and development permit application for 909 to 915 12 St., as well as an official community plan amendment application for part of the rear lane adjacent to the site. Mayor Jonathan Cote, along with councillors Patrick Johnstone, Nadine Nakagawa and Mary Trentadue, supported the staff recommendation, while councillors Chinu Das, Jaimie McEvoy and Chuck Puchmayr were opposed.
In order to build this project, the applicant would buy a 96.6-square-metre (1,040-squrae-foot) city-owned lane at the rear of the property.
According to a staff report, the site’s current zoning allows for the development of a four-storey commercial or mixed-used building. While the site would need to be rezoned in order for the project to proceed, the report stated the five-storey residential building being proposed is consistent with the official community plan’s designation for the site, except for the city-owned lane.
Das noted three small businesses will be lost as a result of this proposal. She said upper 12th Street has been a vibrant area, but that could change if it becomes entirely residential and loses its retail.
“There will be no reason for people to step out into the street. Who would want to walk down 12th Street? Where is the activity? Where is the vibrancy?” she said. “Although I have nothing against this proposal per se – it is in its preliminary stage – my worry is that there is going to be more and more and more.”
Das questioned how many other development proposals are in the works on upper 12th Street that would see ground-level commercial replaced by residential.
“I don’t have the exact number of projects at my fingertips,” Jackie Teed, the city’s senior manager of development services, told council July 13. “However, I am aware of two that we are currently evaluating, potentially three. There’s one that is a little bit behind the rest.”
Puchmayr said the updated official community plan (OCP) didn’t provide protection of all of the commercial spaces on upper 12th Street. He said the area where this project is proposed is relatively flat, so it makes sense to have commercial at that location.
“I am very concerned about 12th Street. It is an incubator for a lot of new immigrants and small businesses. It has some affordable rents,” he said. “As soon as the OCP passed, there was a rash of purchases of these commercial businesses, which showed that people were literally buying them up to develop multi-family or residential properties at the expense of commercial.”
Puchmayr said he’d like council to send the application back to staff and have them tell the proponent that the city won’t sell the lane unless the development includes commercial space.
Mayor Jonathan Cote said a retail strategy that’s getting underway will consider issues related to 12th Street. During the official community plan process, he said some people expressed concern that the 12th Street business district was “too long to be a thriving business district” and would benefit by having a more compact commercial area.
“Whether that was the right decision or not, that’s what came out of the OCP process. Certainly I would be more than open in reengaging in this conversation,” he said. “We are embarking on a retail strategy, which I support, which very well may revisit that strategy.”
Based on council’s past instructions to staff, Cote said some development applications on 12th Street will still be coming to council for its consideration.
In June 2019, council and staff discussed the impact that new development is having on existing businesses on 12th Street. Council directed staff to report back on the impact of temporarily suspending all 12th Street development permits.
Council subsequently considered a staff recommendation to support continued application review of the four in-stream development applications on upper 12th Street, but to temporarily suspend any new rezoning applications for mixed-used sites until staff completes the retail strategy and the upper 12th Street land-use strategy. Instead of staff’s recommendation, council voted three to two in favour of considering new development applications on 12th Street on a case-by-case basis.
Base d on that decision, Cote said it would be “problematic” to now notify an applicant that council won’t consider its application.
“I think we need to be more consistent there,” he said. “The message we gave is, we would at least consider the application. Ultimately, this has to go through a full public process and is not necessarily going to be supported by council. But to me, I think the decision we made is that we would see these processes through, so I will be consistent with that.”
