The owners of a site located at 3120-3184 Knight Street (at East 15th Ave) are seeking final approval at public hearing next week for a rezoning from RT-2 to CD-1 District to permit the development of a five-storey residential building with 51 market rental units.

Currently, three rental apartment buildings, built in the 1950s, exist on the site. The buildings are three storeys in height and contain a total of nine rental units. The location of the development, on an arterial street and within 500 metres of an identified local shopping area (Commercial Drive and East 16th Avenue), qualifies the site to be considered, under the policy, for a building of up to six storeys in height.

Existing site

The application was made last year under the Affordable Housing Choices Interim Rezoning Policy (IRP), and in accordance with that policy, the application seeks increased height and density in return for all proposed housing units being secured as for-profit affordable rental housing for the longer of the life of the building and 60 years. The rezoning, if approved, would result in an increase of rental units on this site of over 400% — from the existing 9 units to 51 units.

A 41-unit heritage apartment building at West 10th Ave and Oak Street in Vancouver has sold for $11,000,000, representing a 4.0% cap rate, or $268,000 per unit. The building, built in 1927 had been listed for sale for $13,000,000. The lot is 12,500 SF in size and is zoned RM-3.

The largest single commercial/residential development to come before the city in recent years won its approval at City of North Vancouver council Monday night, years after it was first pitched.

Concert Properties’ Harbourside development, which will place roughly 800 strata and rental units and 300,000 square feet of commercial space on the waterfront property along Harbourside Drive at the foot of Fell Avenue over the next 10 to 15 years, passed 5-2 in a late-night session of council.

The city previously held a public hearing to rezone the property on April 1 but chose to defer the vote.

The motion passed 5-2, with Couns. Pam Bookham and Rod Clark voting against – the same split on council for each step of the project over the last two years.

For the two dissenters, the issues were poor access, a loss of land that could be commercial or industrial and the project’s isolation from the rest of the city and its services.

The only ways into the area are via Fell Avenue and Bewicke Avenue, which is home to an at-grade rail crossing. TransLink has no plans to run transit to the area and so the developer has promised to run a private shuttle linking the neighbourhood with the SeaBus terminal.

Read more: http://www.nsnews.com/news/north-vancouver-s-harbourside-project-gets-council-approval-1.965173