Pennyfarthing Homes has submitted a development application for a 26,873 SF site at 705 – 717 West 15th Street at the Southwest corner of Bewicke Avenue, just North of Marine Drive in North Vancouver. The site is currently improved with three older industrial/commercial buildings.
The original application was made one year ago and envisioned a 6-storey building, which was later shelved due to neighbourhood opposition to the height. The new application envisions a 4-storey building for the site, and includes:
- 52 units;
- 20 one-bedrooms, 27 two-bedrooms and 5 three-bedrooms;
- 3,300 SF of ground floor retail space;
- a total density of 2.10 FSR;
- two levels of underground parking
- a total density bonus payment of $110 per SF
The OCP permits a density of 2.0 FSR with a bonus of 0.5 FSR at the City’s discretion.
The application describes the design rationale: “Massing of the building has been carefully considered to respond to the diverse residential context and large grade changes across the site. The building is composed of two distinct elements: a strong commercial base facing Bewicke and a four-storey residential component which wraps around the site. The first level facing Bewicke is buried due to a storey of grade change across the site, reducing the building to three storeys above grade. The single-family houses sitting high on the slope across Bewicke are met with a single storey of commercial and two storeys of residential. Towards the south and west, the grade falls away revealing four storeys to match the neighbouring three-to four storey developments.”
The architect for the project is Shift Architecture.