City of Powell River Council is directing staff to prepare a draft amendment bylaw that would facilitate redevelopment of the Beach Gardens complex. At the April 3 city council meeting, councillors reviewed a proposal for 215 new residential units on the property.
Director of planning services Jason Gow said the purpose of his report to council was to present an application that proposes to amend the city’s sustainable official community plan and zoning bylaw for land located between Cariboo Avenue and Lillooet Place, known as the Beach Gardens complex. He said staff was seeking direction on the preparation of draft amendment bylaws to be considered by council at a future date, and, if directed, to prepare an amendment to the official community plan.
Staff is also seeking direction regarding meetings pertaining to consultation during development of an official community plan.
“A local government must provide one or more opportunities it considers appropriate for consultation with persons or organizations and authorities it considers will be affected,” said Gow. “The local government must consider whether the opportunities for consultation should be early and ongoing, and specifically consider whether consultation is required with the board of any regional districts, First Nations, boards of education, plus the provincial and federal governments. Consultation is in addition to the public hearing that is still required when developing or amending an official community plan.”
Gow said the complex consists of five separate parcels of land that are fee simple, owned by Seaboard Hotels. He said the parcels vary in size and land use. The development proposes to reconfigure the five parcels into two lots and rezone them, according to Gow.
Once subdivided, the property would feature two different zones, one being C4 (tourist commercial), and the other RM4 (multiple family residential four). If successful, the area currently zoned C4, housing the Beach Gardens Resort and Marina, would be reduced by approximately 0.7 hectares and the area to house the multi-unit residential development would grow to 2.8 hectares (6.9 acres), according to Gow’s report to council.
Gow said the RM4 zone would permit apartments, townhouses and cluster homes.
“The applicant has proposed three four-storey apartment buildings between Cariboo and Lillooet, providing 140 new units of housing,” said Gow. “Closer to the ocean, there would be three rows of six-unit and three-unit townhouses proposed, that would contribute 75 new units of housing.
“Council will want to consider associated impacts on adjacent owners and occupiers of property. This location, when you add 215 new units, is going to translate into a significant increase in population. More people means more cars and more potential for conflict. There will be direct impacts on residents living on Cariboo and Lillooet, as well as those living directly across the highway.”
Gow said while this was true, it would probably be good for council to consider there are existing development rights held by the property owner.
The ministry of transportation and transit has required the property owner to prepare a traffic impact assessment. Gow said that assessment, prepared by Creative Transportation Solutions (CTS), was delivered to the ministry and the city last fall, and was included in Gow’s staff report.
“Based on the proposal, which includes closure of the current driveway to the Beach Gardens Resort that connects directly to the highway, CTS performed an intersection capacity analysis of the adjacent key intersections with the addition of the site traffic for the years 2024 to 2029, which is the full build-out, and 2034, which is five years after the build-out,” said Gow. “From this analysis, CTS determined the traffic impacts of the additional site generated traffic volumes to be negligible, as none of the intersection performance and level of service measurements changed. While adjacent streets and intersections would get busier, they would still perform at a level deemed acceptable to traffic movement.”
Gow said staff was seeking direction on whether to further this application process by developing draft bylaws for council to consider at a future meeting, and to initiate steps related to meeting requirements of the Local Government Act regarding public consultation and engagement.
Council voted to direct staff to prepare for council’s consideration, draft amendment bylaws to the sustainable official community plan and zoning bylaw that would facilitate the redevelopment of the Beach Gardens complex, and that council, with respect to considering an amendment to the official community plan that would support redevelopment of the five parcels that make up the complex, considers appropriate consultation opportunities.
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