Parking issues have been raised as plans for a five-storey, 54-unit assisted-living rental project for those 55 and older at 257 Evans St. in downtown Duncan moves forward.
Duncan’s city council issued a development permit for the project last March, but one of the conditions of the permit was that the applicant enter into a housing agreement with the city to restrict the age of the primary occupants of the development to 55 years of age and older.
Kyle Young, the city’s director of planning and sustainability, told council at its meeting on Nov. 4 that the reason for that is that under the city’s zoning bylaw, housing developments for residents who are 55 and older have lower parking requirements.
He said the developer is proposing that the development have 27 parking stalls, which is one parking spot for every two housing units in the building.
But Coun. Garry Bruce pointed out that there’s not a lot of room on Evans Street for more cars to be parked there, so the number of parking spots proposed for the new development is a concerns for him.
“I know we’re all saying that nobody has cars, but that’s not what I’m witnessing,” he said. “Are we sure we want to do this because there’s no room along Evans Street at all really. I’m sure we’ve given it great thought, but I’m very concerned about our parking.”
Young replied that the city is looking at updating its parking regulations in the coming months, and the municipality can have a discussion about whether there should be lower parking requirements for age-restricted buildings at that time.
“But right now, those provisions are in the zoning bylaw so the application is entitled to those lower parking provisions and the city is unable to refuse the proposal on the basis that they have relatively low parking divisions,” he said.
Bruce said that likely means that the city will be left to deal with the situation once parking problems begin on Evans Street as a result of the low parking requirements for the new development.
Coun. Mike McKinlay asked if the city has had any discussions with BC Transit on adding an additional bus stop on Evans Street, where none currently exists, or somewhere nearby to help deal with people’s transportation needs.
“There’s this property and others along there that could be bought and built on,” he said.
Young said the city does refer all development proposals to the Cowichan Valley Regional District’s transit department and BC Transit and the two organizations comment on their future routing plans as part of the process.
“But I don’t believe there is a route plan for Evans Street [at this time] and I can’t recall if there’s any plans for new or expanded routes for Jubilee Street,” he said. “However, we take every opportunity we get if it makes sense to put in a transit stop as part of the transit’s future plans for the Cowichan Valley, and we’ll look to the developer to make those improvements.”
Council voted in favour of the housing agreement with the applicant that would see lower parking requirements.
Of the 54 units in the development, the project includes plans for 46 one-bedroom units and eight two-bedroom units.
The first storey would be at-grade parking incorporated within the building, with four storeys of residential units above.