ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

Date: February 2, 2000

Author/Local: G McGeough/7091
RTS No. 01251

CC File No. 1401-17

Public Hearing: February 22, 2000

TO:	Vancouver City Council
FROM:	Director of Current Planning
SUBJECT:	615 & 621 Princess Avenue - Designation and Heritage Revitalization Agreement.
RECOMMENDATION

A. THAT the Vancouver Heritage Register be amended to add 615 Princess Avenue in the "C" category and 621 Princess Avenue in the "B" category;

B. THAT Council authorize the Director of Legal Services to enter into a Heritage Revitalization Agreement and a second registered agreement for the property at 615 and 621 Princess Avenue to restore and conserve the two house exteriors and vary the Subdivision and Zoning & Development By-laws to permit subdivision into two parcels;

C. FURTHER THAT Council designate the houses at 615 and 621 Princess Avenue as Protected Heritage Property under Schedule A of the Heritage By-law; and

D. FURTHER THAT the Director of Legal Services be instructed to bring forward the necessary by-laws.

GENERAL MANAGER'S COMMENTS

The General Manager of Community Services RECOMMENDS approval of A,B,C and D.

COUNCIL POLICY

Council policy on heritage designation states, in part, that legal designation will be a prerequisite to granting certain bonuses and incentives.

PURPOSE

This report seeks Council approval to add the two houses located at 615 and 621 Princess Avenue to the Heritage Register and to secure their conservation through designation, a Heritage Revitalization Agreement (HRA) and a registered side agreement to secure speedy restoration.

BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY

The two houses at 615 and 621 Princess Avenue are located on a single parcel which is owned by two parties each having equal undivided interests. The south house has been lived in by a one owner and her family for 20 years. The north house, which has been vacant and a nuisance site for 8 years, has been recently purchased by investors interested in renovating it. The joint owners submitted a preliminary proposal to subdivide the site on August 12, 1999. The Subdivision Approving Officer has granted preliminary approval to the subdivision proposal, subject to conditions, including Council approval of the requisite HRA. The Director of Current Planning recommends approval of the HRA to make the subdivision legal which in turn permits the common ownership to be separated so as to allow the individual owners to benefit from their respective improvements to their own property. Concurrent with the subdivision proposal, and as part of the revitalization proposal,Development Application DE404482 was submitted to refurbish the south house and Development Application DE404478 was submitted to rehabilitate and add a second unit to the north house. No negative response has been received following development application notification. The Director of Planning has reviewed and approved the two development permit applications, subject to conditions.

DISCUSSION

Heritage Value: These houses at 615 and 621 Princess Avenue are two of four identical, side-by-side wooden houses built in 1907-08 by carpenters Rogers & McKay. The four houses are identified as an `A' heritage streetscape in the Strathcona/Kiwassa RT-3 Design Guidelines. The two now being considered are very good examples of the Classic Edwardian Box, featuring large front porches, raised basements and wood siding. The structures are a hybrid of balloon and western platform techniques of construction. The elevated basements differ from earlier versions of the Classic Box in Strathcona to accommodate installation of modern furnaces. The large, bright windows which produce an airy quality are another indicator of Edwardian taste and a departure of dark spaces of the Victorian house. Built in an area which today boasts several Vancouver Heritage Register buildings, the houses at 615 and 621 Princess Avenue contribute to the rich diversity of early Vancouver architectural styles, institutional buildings, and housing types concentrated at the intersection of Keefer Street and Princess Avenue.

Issue: The two houses at 615 and 621 Princess Avenue are located on a single parcel, owned by two parties each having equal undivided interests. The houses are in poor condition, particularly the north house at 615 Princess. Under its previous ownership it has been vacant and become a nuisance site. The investor who bought the vacant house is reluctant to make substantive improvements to it,without separate ownership ensuring they retain the benefit of dollars spent.

The joint owners are therefore seeking separate title for the two houses on the site. This could normally be accomplished either through strata title ownership or subdivision. However to strata title, the Condominium Act requires both houses to substantially comply with all relevant by-laws, including the Vancouver Building By-law. Only one owner, the investor, is prepared to upgrade his house to Vancouver Building By-law standards at this time, as part of converting the north house from one to two units. The owner living in the south house (621 Princess) has different ownership objectives. Her family has lived in the house for 20 years and wishes to continue to reside there and use it as a single-family house without incurring the costs of a 100% code upgrade. Thus, conventional subdivision is the only solution.
Given this situation, the Director of Current Planning recommends the City enter into a HRA to vary the Subdivision and Zoning & Development By-laws, as necessary. Although the south house will not be fully upgraded at this time, the subdivision will not create any additional non-compliance issues and the location of the new property line will, in fact, lessen the degree of non-compliance of the north wall of the south house. Following subdivision the common ownership will be separated thereby giving each owner incentives to invest in improvements which provide community planning, heritage and life-safety benefits.

As a consequence of the Subdivision and HRA:
· the exterior of these two neglected houses will be repaired and restored, a key objective of the Strathcona zoning;
· the two houses (of four in a heritage `A' streetscape) will be protected through designation and their ongoing maintenance secured by the HRA;
· the north house, which has been a nuisance site, will be substantially upgraded to meet current Vancouver Building By-law standards, thereby increasing life-safety on the block;
· an additional affordable dwelling unit will be created in the north house, another zoning objective; and
· while only one of the two houses will be 100% upgraded at this time, the HRA will promote the ongoing improvement of the south house because it cannot be torn down and replaced. The HRA will allow the south house to convert from one to two units in the future, which will trigger upgrading to Building By-law conformance.

Compatibility with Community Planning Objectives: The intent of the RT-3 District Schedule is to:

"... encourage the retention of neighborhood and streetscape character, particularly through the retention, renovation and restoration of existing character buildings. Redevelopment is encouraged on sites with existing buildings of style and form which are inconsistent with the area's pre-1920 architecture. Emphasis is placed on the external design of additions to existing buildings and new buildings to encourage the preservation of the historic architectural character of the area. Floor area incentives are included to achieve the creation of affordable housing and the rehabilitation of original buildings which are important to the neighborhood's character."

The proposal to restore these two streetscape heritage houses without adding to the buildings clearly meets the intent of the RT-3 District Schedule.

Land Use Variances: The recommended HRA would vary the Zoning and Development By-law as noted in the following charts:

Zoning Chart - 615 Princess Avenue - Development Application DE404478

RT-3 Regulations	Required/Permitted	Proposed (Existing)
Use	Multiple Conversion Dwelling permitted subject to conditions on residential use	Two-Family Dwelling by way of new construction or Multiple Converion Dwelling without conditions
FSR	0.60	1.69
Floor Space	90.99 m² (979.41 sq.ft.)	256.95 m² (2,765.90 sq.ft.)
Site Area	259.99 m² (2,798.71 sq.ft.)	151.65 m² (1,632.35 sq.ft.)
Height (max.)	10.69 m (35.10 ft.)	11.24 m (36.58 ft.)
Storeys (max.)	2.5	4
Rear Yard (min.)	8.19 m (26.90 ft.)	0.786 m (2.58 ft.)
Site Coverage	45 %	54.93 %

Zoning Chart - 621 Princess Avenue - Development Application DE404482

RT-3 Regulations	Required/Permitted	Proposed (Existing)
FSR	0.6 (outright)	2.06
Floor Area	78.93 m² (849.60 sq.ft.)	270.33 m² (2,909.9 sq.ft.)
Site Area	260 m² (2,798.71 sq.ft.)	131.54 m² (1,415.93 sq.ft.)
Height (max.)	10.69 m (35.10 ft.)	11.17 m (36.64 ft.)
Side Yard South	0.86 m (2.81 ft.)	not required
Rear Yard (min.)	8.13 m (26.7 ft.)	0.786 m (2.58 ft.)
Site Coverage	45 %	63.33 %

The recommended HRA would also vary Table 1 of Schedule A of the Subdivision By-law by substantially reducing the minimum parcel area for each proposed parcel from 306.58 m² (3,300 sq. ft.) to about 151.65 m² (1,632.35 sq.ft.) for the north parcel and about 131.54 m² (1,416 sq. ft.) for the south parcel. Both the parcel area relaxations and the proposed Zoning and Development By-law variations can only be approximate at this time because the subdivision plan has not yet been prepared and so the numbers cannot be exact.

As noted in the chart below, the Parking By-law requires three parking stalls for the three units proposed on the site. Following past practice, the Director of Planning supports the two existing units continuing without parking being provided. Furthermore, the Director of Planning is able and prepared to relax the one parking stall required for the additional unit proposed for 615 Princess Avenue. There is no area on site to accommodate parking and the relaxation will have a minor impact on the neighbourhood.

Parking Chart

By-law Requirement	Existing	Proposed
3	0	0

Revitalization Program and Economic Viability: The owners propose to restore the exteriors of the heritage houses. All original material will be retained and restored or matched where it has deteriorated beyond repair. The building at 615 Princess will be converted to two dwelling units.

A financial analysis of the proposed subdivision was reviewed by Real Estate Services who advise there is no excess profit with the proposed agreement. The owners are prepared to enter into the HRA and designate both houses. The have agreed that the variances to the Subdivision and Zoning & Development By-laws represent fair, full and complete compensation for the heritage designation.

Notification: As part of the Development Application review process, a sign was placed on the site and the surrounding property owners were notified. A letter from the Strathcona Residents Association was the only response received from the notification of area residents. The Association strongly supports the project, its design and the relaxations provided.

Comments of the Vancouver Heritage Commission: The Vancouver Heritage Commission reviewed and supported the Development Applications and Subdivision Application on October 4, 1999, and recommended that the applicant follow the accepted conservation principle in rehabilitating the houses.

CONCLUSION

Staff advise that the houses located at 615 and 621 Princess Avenue are valuable fragments of the history of Strathcona. In the face of the joint owners having differing ownership objectives, the HRA provides a mechanism to enable separate ownership through subdivision which in turn allows certain zoning, life safety and heritage objectives to be met. The requested subdivision and zoning variances represent fair, full and complete compensation to the owners for the conservation of the houses. Therefore, the Director of Current Planning recommends that Council add the two houses to the Heritage Register; designate them as Protected Heritage Property; and authorize the requisite HRA and side agreement to ensure prompt restoration.

* * * * *

(c) 1998 City of Vancouver