Massive Victoria, B.C. rental housing project gets green light | 24CA News
A large new rental housing growth in Victoria’s downtown core has been given the inexperienced mild, following debate about how a lot parking needs to be included.
The Harris Green Village will ultimately embrace 5 towers housing greater than 1,500 rental models, together with a plaza, a park and a neighborhood centre.
Developer Starlight Investments has been engaged on the proposal for about three years, however the venture hit a latest snag when town’s new council pushed for a number of adjustments together with a discount of the variety of parking areas included.
The developer agreed to a number of of council’s requests, together with automobile share parking areas and improved bike entry, however received approval to proceed with the initially proposed variety of parking stalls within the first section of growth.
“It’s going to add people to our downtown core who are lost as a lot of the office workers have left the downtown core. It’s going to revitalize this part of the city,” Victoria Coun. Matt Dell instructed Global News.
“Our council was comfortable 1,500 extra folks had been coming, nevertheless it was the considered may we deal with 1,500 extra automobiles downtown, I believe a variety of us would already agree downtown is fairly heavy with visitors.
Dell stated the push for much less parking got here from council’s deal with walkability, automobile share and bike lanes as it really works to scale back congestion within the metropolis’s core.
Removing parking areas may additionally assist lower the price of new housing, he stated, as every underground parking spot can add as much as $100,000 to the price of a construct.
“This changes the economics of buildings, and I think is going to make housing a lot easier to build if developers don’t need to add as much parking, because a lot of folks these days don’t want parking as they’re using different kinds of transportation.”
That value impact is one thing different municipalities will seemingly be watching intently because the venture proceeds, with the corporate agreeing to comply with town’s bylaws concerning provision of parking phases when it applies for the event’s latter phases.
“This would be one factor that would be bringing the average rent down to lower than it would otherwise be if you were providing a more conventional parking supply rate,” transportation engineer Peter Joyce defined.
Construction on two towers, which is able to sit between Cook and Vancouver streets in central Victoria, is slated to start later this yr.
Phases two and three, which is able to ship one other 1,000 models between Vancouver and Quadra streets, are scheduled for completion earlier than the top of the last decade.
“We are seeking to bring in better use. A mix of purpose built rental and commercial use,” stated Starlight Investments vice-president of growth and development.
The approval will imply large adjustments for close by business homeowners like Rob Reid, whose Frontrunners Footwear is positioned within the footprint of the venture’s latter phases.
Reid instructed Global News densification in downtown Victoria was inevitable, however that section one development will inevitably have business impacts.
“You’ve got to really reach out to your customer base and find out ways to entice them to make that drive or bike ride or walk to get into your store,” he stated.
“For us its really important that maybe the city looks at ways of assisting businesses also.”
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
