Adera has completed the acquisition of a rental development site at 2762 Lonsdale Avenue, in the Upper Lonsdale area of North Vancouver. The purchase price is $9,450,000.
The site is 17,353 sq ft. in size and improved with an older 3-storey walkup apartment building. There is now a development application on the site to allow a 6-storey market, 60-unit market rental development.
The City of Vancouver is proposing changes to the I-1 Zoning in Mt. Pleasant as part of a “quick start action” under a broader Employment Lands and Economy Review.
Allowing Medical Office Use in I-1
The first proposed change is to add ‘Health Care Office’ as a conditionally permitted use in the I-1 zone in response to a request from the development industry who have identified Mount Pleasant as an attractive location for medical offices at the relative mid-point between VGH and the future new St. Paul’s Hospital. This amendment is mainly intended for Mount Pleasant, but also introduces this use to one block of I-1 at the southwest corner of 6th Avenue and Clark Drive.
New I-1C Zone Along South Side of West 2nd Avenue
The second and potentially more major proposed change is increased heights and densities along the South side of West 2nd Avenue via a new zone called I-1C. The new zoning would apply to 32 individual land parcels that would be consolidated into approximately 9 or 10 developments.
Details of the proposed new zone include:
Allow double the density from3 to 6 FSR (as long as a full 2 FSR is dedicated to light industrial uses such as production, distribution and repair);
Maintain the same use provisions as the I-1 industrial zone, except that mini-storage and other low-intensity uses are not permitted;
Allow a maximum height for up to 152.5 ft. to reflect the form and scale of SEFC across the street to the north and balance the 2nd Avenue streetscape;
Limit shadowing on the north sidewalk of 2nd Avenue and secure a 5 ft. dedication along 2nd Avenue for public realm improvements including wider sidewalks;
Introduce building setbacks above 4-storeys to ensure that new higher buildings are sculpted to relate to lower buildings;
Permit a variety of new building forms, including terraced, tower and childcare forms.
For developments proposing leasehold developments, the City will apply the commercial linkage target for non-stratified commercial development.
For developments proposing strata, a negotiated CAC approach will be required to estimate the additional value that Council’s enactment of a rezoning would generate above the current land value.
The City estimates that the 32 individual parcels in the subject area could consolidate into approximately 9-10 rezoning projects in the proposed I-1C rezoning area.
As a result, redevelopment could help deliver approximately:
• 1.07 million sq. ft. of new job space over the present condition; • 685 thousand sq. ft. of job space above current zoned capacity; • 3,500+ new jobs; and • $7.2 million in public benefits (based on commercial linkage targets as described above) or more if developments are stratified.
Intracorp has submitted a new rezoning application for a 29,100 SF site they own at 1837-1849 E 11th Ave and 2631 Victoria Drive, this time with a lower woodframe building and 100% rental use.
Adera has submitted a rezoning and development permit application to the City of Coquitlam to develop at 17,100 SF site at 715-717 Como Lake Avenue in the Burquitlam area. The site is currently occupied by a single family house and a duplex.
The plan calls for a 6-storey market rental apartment building using the RM-3 Multi-Storey Medium Density Apartment Residential designation under the Burquitlam-Lougheed Neighbourhood Plan.
