Rezoning proposal envisions four-storey building along Granville Street and West 32nd Avenue
Naoibh O’Connor
Vancouver Courier
A market rental building may be coming to Shaughnessy.
A formal rezoning application has been filed for a four-storey project on a site that includes 4750 Granville St. and 1494 West 32nd Ave.
Domus Homes and Stuart Howard Architects are behind the proposal, which envisions 81 apartments.
Single-family homes currently exist on the two properties.
Last June, city council rejected, in a 7-4 vote, a different rezoning application for a property near by at 4575 Granville St. after Vancouver Hospice Society objected. Stuart Howard Architects was also involved in that proposal.
Domus Homes’ plans will be presented at an open house March 5, but the developer already held a pre-application open house last September.
The chair of Arbutus Ridge Kerrisdale Shaughnessy (ARKS) Vision Implementation Committee told the Courier at that event that the plan appeared to conform to its community vision. Members of Abundant Housing Vancouver also attended in support of the project — the group has lobbied in favour of more purpose-built rental housing given the housing crisis.
A handful of Shaughnessy residents were also on hand. They told the Courier they opposed it for myriad reasons ranging from it will lower property values to it will lead to further redevelopment in the area to it will clash with older homes in the neighbourhood.
The project is being pitched under the city’s Affordable Housing Choices Interim Rezoning Policy.
While rents for new rental buildings on the West Side are on the high end, Domus Homes’ Richard Wittstock told the Courier at the open house that it’s to be expected unless government subsidies are provided.
“We’re not demolishing any old, existing rental stock here. To deliver affordability, it’s really the older apartment stock that delivers that. It’s pretty hard to expect a new market building to be affordable to the broad range of the market,” he said at the time.
The rezoning application includes 70 underground parking spaces and 154 bicycle spaces.
Existing hedges along Granville will be retained. Ten three and four-bedroom apartments are proposed, along with 19 two-bedrooms and 52 one-bedrooms.
The upcoming open house runs from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at VanDusen Botanical Garden, March 5.
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