At an open house held last Wednesday by D.K. Harris properties about the rezoning for its medical centre project, attendees offered almost universal support and said there was little standing in the way of council’s approval.
Former councillor Peter Frinton said he is a big supporter of the project, but offered one criticism.
“They need to go bigger and offer more housing,” he said. “They’re being far too generous on parking. That’s valuable land they are developing, and it is only going to get more valuable.”
The land slated for development is 980 Dorman Road, and the proposal places a medical centre on the first floor of a three and a half story apartment building. Current plans include roughly half a parking space per unit of housing.
The standard parking requirement in Snug Cove is one space per unit, but municipal planner Daniel Martin said that the zoning for Lot 2 (the cleared area on the corner of Bowen Island Trunk Road and Seniors Lane) has set the precedent when it comes to apartment buildings: only half a parking spot is required for each housing unit.
“Only half of our tenants actually have cars,” added David Bellringer, the general manager for DK Harris Properties. The tenants he was referring to are live in the Village Square apartments.
The project’s architect, James Tuer, said that given the availability of parking in Village Square and the likelihood that people will park on the shoulder of Dorman Road, the number of parking spots for the medical centre and apartment block is not cut-and-dry. He said that there will be two handicap spots and several parallel parking spots that will make it easy for people who have mobility issues to get in and out.
Tuer also said that the original development concept included a second building, but this created a number of complications.
“At the end of the day,” he said, “We could always tack-on three or four townhouse units.”
The rezoning for this project is expected to pass through second reading in next week’s council meeting.
