The Steveston “skyline” could have a slightly different look if a City of Richmond proposal gets the green light.

Changes to building height and density in the village core were due to be presented to city council’s planning committee Tuesday afternoon.

The proposal was based, in part, on public consultation, including 83 completed surveys in April and May.

According to the Steveston Village Conservation Strategy, one third of all buildings on Moncton Street are allowed to be three stories and have a floor area ratio 1.6 times the lot area.

The proposal would reduce the maximum building height to two stories and reduce the maximum density to 1.2, with exceptions granted on a case-by-case basis.

Anthem Properties is proposing to redevelop 7 single family lots between 435 and 475 Seymour River Place for a 61 unit townhouse project. The site is located in the northwest corner of the Maplewood Village Centre plan area and is designated for 1.2 FSR residential development. The development concept includes 5 separate 3-storey townhouse buildings all over common underground parking at a density of 1.224 FSR.

The short list of developers for the Steveston secondary site got shorter last Tuesday. Richmond School Board members have narrowed it down to three potential applicants.

“They were all very high calibre, and I was very impressed with all of them,” said board chair Donna Sargent.

The board will convene for a summer meeting on July 22 to consider the three submissions.

Last month, five residential developers were chosen over a dozen who applied to build on the 13-acre site along No. 2 Road.

Board members based their criteria on value (financial compensation the district would receive), vision (for the neighbourhood that takes into account its surroundings) and voice (ensuring the residents have a say).

Onni to stage open houses on its Imperial Landing proposal – Richmond Review.

The Onni Group will stage two open houses next week in Steveston as part of a bid to rezone its newly-constructed Imperial Landing properties.

The developer’s six low-rise buildings—built along Bayview Street on the last piece of land at Imperial Landing—feature apartments on upper floors and commercial units on the ground floor. But the commercial zoning allows for only maritime-related businesses.

Onni submitted a rezoning application to the city in March to allow more commercial uses in the ground floor space of the six buildings, which are now largely complete.

On a website dedicated to Onni’s new proposal, waterfrontrezoning.com, the developer contends rezoning the commercial space to allow a broader range of commercial retail uses “will better serve the community’s needs.”

Read more: http://www.richmondreview.com/news/214434901.html

It appears as though there has been heavy public opposition to the idea of towers near Broadway and Commercial as proposed in the recently presented Grandview Woodlands Community Plan.

The preliminary plan, presented at open houses last month suggested a dozen tower sites of 22-36 storeys within a 5-minute walk of the Commercial/Main Skytrain Station.

Here is an excerpt from a recent planner update:

“We are still in the process of gathering input on all aspects of our Emerging Directions work – and many of you have already taken the time to share your feedback on the DRAFT policies.That being said, we have heard clearly from the community that there is serious concern about the extent and height of tower building forms in the vicinity of the station area. In light of this, I wanted to let you know that we will not be proceeding with the proposal as presented in the sub-area policy for Broadway and Commercial.

While we’ve heard support through the planning process for additional density in the Broadway & Commercial area, we know that community members would like to see options of building forms explored that are different than the concentration of tall towers proposed in June.”

Source: City of Vancouver