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Public hearing response split on WV’s pilot housing plans Sarah Ripplinger newsroom@nsnews.com
RESIDENT feedback on a District of West Vancouver initiative to generate alternate forms of infill housing was divided at a public hearing Monday for an OCP amendment that would open the door for more housing pilot projects.
Two pilot projects are set to get underway. The one at 2614 Ottawa Ave. is for an infill coach house, the other, at 6801 Hycroft Rd., is for an infill house on a remainder lot. The OCP amendment in question is needed to move forward with the pilot projects, according to director of planning, lands and permits Bob Sokol, as the development variance process does not allow council to move forward with a pilot project if it changes density or use. Both pilot projects would increase the density on a single-family lot. “Individual housing pilot projects cannot be approved and go through to implementation without this OCP framework in place,” Sokol said. Ottawa Avenue resident Ron Foxall said that the infill housing would result in an invasion of privacy for neighbouring See more page 5
Spud buds
NEWS photo Mike Wakefield
JUSTIN Nordlund and Squamish Nation Princess Nadia Baker will be performing the “potato dance” at the Squamish Nation’s 23rd annual Youth Powwow July 9-11 at Xwemelch’stn, the Capilano 5 Reserve on Capilano Road. The event is open to the public.
City will lend $1.6M in a mortgage Benjamin Alldritt
balldritt@nsnews.com
THE City of North Vancouver is making a foray into the social housing business by offering a $1.6million mortgage to a disabled peoples’ resource society alongside a $300,000 one-time grant.
Both transfers are on condition that the Central Lonsdale apartment building purchased by the Vancouver Resource Society offer half a dozen suites to people living with serious disabilities and that the balance of the building’s units are rented at below-
Loan and $300K grant for disabled and below-market rental housing
market rates. “The city wants that, we very much need that and they’re offering to help do that,” Mayor Darrell Mussatto said. The society has five years to pay back the four-per-cent mortgage. Mussatto said the city’s reserves are currently earning less than that through investment, so city taxpayers might actually come out slightly ahead.
The $300,000 grant will help the resource society to refit the ground floor suites and to keep the rent in the other units at roughly 20 per cent below market rates. During a Monday night council discussion, several councillors expressed concern over moving the city into an activity that has previously been the responsibility of senior levels of government. “This is income support, effectively,” said Coun. Craig Keating. “Municipalities — with our eight cents of the tax dollar — and now we’re getting into the business of income support. I have great See Fearnley page 5