The first major development proposal seen at council since the new Ambleside apartment plan passed last year is asking for that plan to be amended.
At a Monday meeting, West Vancouver council voted for a preliminary application to build a 19-storey apartment building at 1552 Esquimalt Ave. to be advanced to the public information stage.
Only Coun. Nora Gambioli was opposed. The public has just expressed what should be built in the area via the recently approved local area plan, and to amend it right away would undermine council’s credibility, she said.
Currently, developer Wall Financial is proposing to build a 139-unit apartment building as infill on a lot with an existing 20-storey rental tower built in 1970. If approved, the existing tower would be permanently secured as rental.
The new stratified tower would be secured as rental for six years. The district’s current regulations don’t allow for a strata development to be so dense. It’s around 60 units over what the current zoning allows, the developer said.
For that reason, staff recommend that the application be revised to comply with the official community plan before going to a public information meeting.
Council previously received death threats over similar proposal, councillor says
An effort by the developer to build on the site goes back to 2019, but paused in 2022 to wait for the area plan update.
Gambioli said the proposal now is very similar to the one previously before council.
“Council received death threats during this public consultation process,” she said. “So I just want to be very careful, in case this goes ahead, that everyone else on council realizes that this is not going to be an easy one.”
Coun. Sharon Thompson said that even though council has just set new policy, the local area plan is still a recommendation.
“We’ve gone through all this work and expertise to decide what would be best, most suitable. But as we all know, everything’s so unique that I want to give people confidence that they can come in and challenge what we have,” she said.
Mayor Mark Sager said the agreement to keep the existing rental building is very significant.
“I suspect that Walls, if this was approved, they’ll build that second building, and I don’t they’ll ever take it out of the rental pool, because that’s not their business. It’s a financing issue,” he said.
Coun. Peter Lambert moved to delete staff’s recommendation to revise the application, and instead move it forward for public information. All of council agreed except Gambioli.
“I really think that this reduces the credibility of council,” Gambioli said. “We have just passed the tower portion of the LAP last year. This is the very first proposal to come forward, and we’re all, except for me I guess, saying that we think it should be different.”
Thompson disagreed, and said you need a specific project for the public to weigh in on.
“We’ve set heights and ... that really isn’t a true measure of people’s tolerance for what they’re willing to entertain,” she said.
“We’d like [the public] to know that we are concerned about renters’ stability,” Thompson said. “But we’re also in a climate now that all we’re hearing about is people pulling out of projects. Builders aren’t building, and if the population has tolerance for this, I would be very pleased for someone to take up that responsibility and risk to go forward.”
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