City of Powell River Council will consider subdividing and rezoning a city property on Barnet Street for the purpose of potentially establishing rental housing, which would include affordable units.
At the August 16 committee of the whole meeting, city manager of planning services Daniella Fergusson outlined a proposition to situate rental housing at 7104 Barnet Street, next to Powell River RCMP detachment. The property had been considered for the site of a new emergency services/fire hall facility.
Fergusson said when the regional housing needs assessment was concluded in 2021, one of the action items coming out of that plan was that there is a great piece of city land on Barnet. The question was asked whether rental housing could be put there. The recommendation was for a feasibility study. Fergusson said the top part is zoned NT (institutional) and the bottom part is zoned as park.
“We looked at a feasibility study for the same building footprint as what was considered for the fire hall,” said Fergusson. “The reason this site is so great is because it is close to services, transit; it’s very central. It’s the kind of place where you wouldn’t have to have a car to live there, which helps with affordability.”
Fergusson said the city worked with New Commons Development, a nonprofit housing developer, to conduct a feasibility study.
“What they found is that it would be feasible to place a 60-unit building on this site with a mix of one, two and three bedrooms,” said Fergusson.
She said scenarios were run with a three-storey building and a five-storey building.
“Obviously, a lot more work would need to be done,” she added.
The consultant looked at two different funding scenarios for a potential purpose-built rental building, according to Fergusson. One performed a lot better than the other. She said BC Housing Community Housing Fund, with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation co-investment fund contributions, would deliver housing at a more affordable rate than the second scenario examined.
The rental composition proposed was 20 per cent deep subsidy rents geared to income, 50 per cent rent geared to income for households earning 70 per cent of housing income limits, and 30 per cent market rent units.
“In other words, there would be 70 per cent subsidized units,” said Fergusson.
She said the first thing examined was feasibility, and there is enough to go on to continue looking. The next steps would be conducting a legal survey, for a precise understanding of the land and topography.
Next would be environmental, geotechnical and archaeological investigations, followed by investigation of how the city’s infrastructure could support a 60-unit facility at that location. After would be more detailed building and site design, according to Fergusson.
“The city could partner with a nonprofit to take it further,” she added.
The most immediate step would be subdividing and rezoning the land to facilitate the rental building. Fergusson said city staff can go further and apply for seed funding to start some of the technical investigations.
“Staff are looking for input from this council for how you would like us to proceed,” added Fergusson.
Council members see potential
Committee chair councillor CaroleAnn Leishman said the report included some amazing opportunities.
Mayor Dave Formosa said he and councillor Maggie Hathaway had teamed up in the past and tried to convince staff and council to look at getting into the affordable housing business.
“As a government, we could get very favourable, if not forgivable loans,” said Formosa. “We own real estate free and clear. At the time, staff felt it was more work and we didn’t want to own more buildings.”
Hathaway said it’s time the city had a housing authority.
“I’d like to pursue looking into that and creating some city-owned properties that we have control over,” added Hathaway.
Councillor George Doubt said he liked the idea of the city owning residential properties that can be built in an affordable manner with funding assistance from the federal and provincial governments.
“We can take the speculation out of it and the profit-drive out of it, and we can provide sustainable, affordable housing,” added Doubt.
The committee gave unanimous consent to receive the site feasibility report for 7104 Barnet Street and to direct staff to prepare a report for council’s consideration to facilitate subdividing and rezoning the portion of land currently zoned NT (institutional) to RM5.
