Agenda Index City of Vancouver

POLICY REPORT
DEVELOPMENT AND BUILDING

TO:

Vancouver City Council

FROM:

Director of Current Planning

SUBJECT:

CD-1 Text Amendment - 2001 Nanton Avenue (Arbutus Club)

 

RECOMMENDATION

GENERAL MANAGER'S COMMENTS

COUNCIL POLICY

On December 19, 1963, Council enacted CD-1 By-law No. 4085 which applies to this site.

PURPOSE AND SUMMARY

This report assesses an application to amend the existing CD-1 By-law for the Arbutus Club to allow relocation and expansion of an existing tennis bubble, and to create an additional 68 on-site parking spaces in two phases.

Staff support the proposed amendments which would reduce the on-street parking impact on residential neighbours. Staff recommend that the application be referred to a Public Hearing, with a recommendation that it be approved subject to conditions.

DISCUSSION

Background: The existing CD-1 By-law, enacted in 1963, defines the use of the site as a social and recreational club. The original CD-1 allowed for a floor space ratio (FSR) of 0.45, which has been increased over time to 0.67 FSR. A history of rezoning and development activity is contained in Appendix C.

Density: The application does not propose any changes to the existing building but seeks changes to a temporary structure, the tennis bubble. The site's current density of 0.67 FSR includes floor area under the existing tennis bubble. The application proposes to eliminate the bubble over two tennis courts and replace it with a larger bubble over four courts in a different location on the site. Staff support the proposal with the recommendation that density be allocated separately for permanent and temporary structures. The density for permanent structures (existing buildings) would be 0.63 FSR and for temporary structures (new tennis bubble) would be 0.09 FSR for a total of 0.72 FSR.

Form of Development: As illustrated in Appendix E (on file in City Clerk's Office), the application proposes the following changes, in two phases:

Phase 1
· remove two tennis courts and a tennis bubble at the southeast corner of the site and replace them with 41 new surface parking spaces, two of which will be removed in Phase 2;
· add a temporary tennis bubble over four existing tennis courts on the roof of the tennis building on the southwest corner of the site; and
· add traffic control measures, islands and stop signs at the exits along Nanton Street.

Phase 2
· add a new access road and 29 parking spaces along the east side of the site for a net total of 68 new parking spaces.

The application includes a photographic analysis illustrating the impact of the proposed tennis bubble on views from several surrounding locations. The analysis shows that as a result of existing mature trees and natural topography the bubble would intrude very little on existing public or private views. At the Public Information meeting, a neighbour questioned whether southerly views of St. George's Creek Orthodox Church from Arbutus Street would be affected. The analysis shows this view of the church is unobstructed.

The applicant and staff have assessed the visual impact of the new bubble and concluded that the use of a light coloured material or fabric will minimize the appearance of the bubble. Use of a light colour will allow the portion of the bubble above the tree tops to blend into the colour of the sky. A condition of approval is proposed to specify the possible colour of the bubble.

A normal practice for temporary structures, such as tennis bubbles, is to establish specific months during which the structures can be in place. The existing bubble is permitted between October 15th and April 15th of each year. Staff recommend that the same time limit also apply to the proposed bubble. (Appendix B)

Parking: The applicant is proposing a relocated tennis bubble partly to provide more on-site parking in response to neighbours' concerns about on-street parking. Although the Arbutus Club has not increased its membership, it finds that its members are attending the facilities on a more regular basis and, consequently, there has been increased pressure on parking. The loss of two tennis courts will result in a decrease in overall activity in summer months, but the addition of the new bubble will allow more tennis courts to be used throughout the year. Staff support this proposed increase in parking which will help reduce parking by Club members and visitors on the adjacent streets.

Staff recommend that additional landscaping and permeable areas should be provided within the parking areas to reduce the amount of pavement and this may result in a slight reduction in the number of new parking spaces. To take this into account, staff recommend that the CD-1 By-law be amended to require slightly less parking than is being proposed, that is a minimum of 275 spaces (38 new spaces) instead of 278 spaces for Phase 1 and 299 spaces (62 new spaces) instead of 305 spaces for Phase 2.

Access Road: The application also proposes a new access road along the east side of the property which will improve circulation on the site, enable more vehicles to exit the site onto Arbutus Street instead of onto Nanton Street, and provide access to 29 new parking spaces along the east edge. A similar proposal for an access road and parking but limited to the northeast corner, was proposed in 1990 but Council did not support the parking because three residents on Maple Crescent raised concerns about loss of landscaping and increased noise. One of these residents has raised the same concerns with the current proposal.

Staff believe that these impacts would be minimized. The conditions of rezoning approval specify landscape requirements which include a continuous evergreen hedge between the parking and the property line. The intervening City street (Maple Crescent) and railway right of way create considerable distance, about 30.0 m (100 ft.) plus front setbacks, between the site and the houses along Maple Crescent. As an additional condition of rezoning, the applicant would be asked to address any potential noise emanating from the new parking area by identify other measures, such as increased landscaping or use of acoustical materials.

The Club held a meeting with its neighbours to discuss the proposal. The meeting was attended primarily by residents south of the site who supported the proposal to increase on-site parking and reduce the number of cars exiting onto Nanton Street. Although there continues to be concern from at least three neighbours to the east, on balance, staff recommend the proposed access road with parking because of the public benefit to the neighbourhood as a whole.

CONCLUSION

Staff support a minor increase in density for relocation of the tennis bubble to allow the addition of off-street parking for Club members and visitors. The bubble would not significantly impact public or private views. The resulting decreased demand for on-street parking and improved access to and from the site would benefit the majority of the surrounding neighbourhood. Staff also support the proposed access road with parking along the east side of the site as it will improve access and add more off-street parking with minimal impact on the neighbours to the east. Staff recommend that the application be referred to a Public Hearing, subject to the proposed conditions of approval presented in Appendix B.

- - - - -

APPENDIX A

DRAFT AMENDMENTS TO CD-1 (27) BY-LAW NO. 4085

Section 3 (Floor Space Ratio)

Section 4 (Parking)

Miscellaneous Administrative Changes

APPENDIX B

PROPOSED CONDITIONS OF APPROVAL

(a) That the proposed form of development be approved by Council in principle, generally as prepared by Richard Bernstein, Architectura, and stamped "Received City Planning Department, November 29, 2000", provided that the Director of Planning may allow minor alterations to this form of development when approving the detailed scheme of development as outlined in (b) below.

(b) That, prior to approval by Council of the form of development, the applicant shall obtain approval of a development application by the Director of Planning, who shall have particular regard to the following:

(c) That, prior to enactment of the CD-1 By-law, the registered owner shall:

APPENDIX C

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Site, Surrounding Zoning and Development: This 26 870 m² (289,238 sq. ft.) site is comprised of a single parcel on the east side of Arbutus Street and on the north side of Nanton Avenue. The irregular-shaped site has a frontage of 586.77 m (1,925 ft.) along Arbutus Street and a frontage of 645.43 m (2,118 ft.) along Nanton Avenue. CD-1 zoning for this private social and recreational club was enacted in 1963.

North of the site is a BC Hydro substation. West of the site, across Arbutus Street, is the Arbutus Shopping Centre. Lands to the south and east are zoned RS-1 and RS-5 respectively, and developed with single family dwellings.

Background: The site was originally zoned to CD-1 in December 1963, with a maximum density of 0.45 FSR. Since then, amendments to the zoning in 1980 and 1990, have increased the FSR to 0.67 to allow for expansion of the Club.

At a Public Hearing on June 28, 1979, to increase the density to 0.50 FSR, some neighbours had concerns about noise from the Club. Council approved the proposal with mitigation measures to reduce noise. Council also approved a motion that no further rezoning applications would be considered for additional development of the Arbutus Club.

In December 1989, Council rescinded the motion which allowed the submission of a rezoning application to increase the density to 0.67 FSR. Engineering Services recommended a parking provision of 268 spaces to meet Parking By-law standards. But Council approved the rezoning with a lower parking requirement (237 parking spaces), prohibited parking at the northeast corner because of neighbours concerns about the potential for noise and required noise attenuation measures for the proposed driveway at the northeast corner.

Proposed Development: The proposal would increase parking in two phases and enlarge and relocate a tennis bubble. Specifically, the following changes are proposed:

Phase 1
· remove an existing two-court tennis bubble over two tennis courts located on the southeast corner of the site and replace with 41 new surface parking spaces, two of which will be removed in Phase 2;
· add a temporary air-supported bubble to cover four existing tennis courts on the roof of the existing tennis building on the southwest corner of the site; and
· install improved traffic control measures, islands and stop signs, at both exits along Nanton Avenue.

Phase 2
· add 29 parking spaces along the east property line and a new access road around the back of the property. This 2nd phase of parking may occur concurrently with Phase 1 parking or at a later date.

Environmental Implications: The proposed rezoning neither contributes to nor detracts from the objective of reducing atmospheric pollution.

Social Implications: There are no major positive or negative social implications to this proposal. There are no implications with respect to the Vancouver Children's Policy or Statement of Children's Entitlements.

APPENDIX D

COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC, REVIEWING AGENCIES AND THE APPLICANT

Public Input: A notification letter was sent to 733 nearby property owners on December 8, 2000 and rezoning information signs were posted on the site on December 20, 2000. The Arbutus Club sponsored a public information meeting on June 15, 2000, in advance of the rezoning application submission. Twenty residents attended, most of whom lived south of the site and were in support of the proposed changes.

Two phone calls and one letter were received from residents living east of the site and one person came to City Hall to view plans. The callers and letter-writers were concerned about the potential for increased noise and loss of landscaping that could result from the addition of the access road and parking spaces along the east side of the site.

Comments of the General Manager of Engineering Services: Engineering Services has no objections to this proposal provided the applicant complies with the conditions as shown in Appendix B.

Comments of the Applicant: The applicant has been provided with a copy of this report and has provided the following comments:

"We have reviewed the City of Vancouver Policy Report dated August 22, 2001 regarding the above application and fully understand the proposed conditions of approval as indicated in Appendix B of the report."

APPENDIX E

1 PHOTOGRAPH AND 3 MAPS ON FILE IN CITY CLERK'S OFFICE

APPENDIX F

APPLICANT, PROPERTY, AND DEVELOPMENT PROPOSAL INFORMATION

APPLICANT AND PROPERTY INFORMATION

Street Address

2001 Nanton Street (formerly 4226 Arbutus Street)

Legal Description

Lot B, Block 76, D.L. 526, Plan 11136

Applicant

Richard Bernstein, Architectura

Property Owner

Arbutus Club

SITE STATISTICS

 

GROSS

DEDICATIONS

NET

SITE AREA

26 870 m² (289,238 sq. ft.)

--

26 870 m² (289,238sq. ft.)

DEVELOPMENT STATISTICS

 

DEVELOPMENT PERMITTED UNDER EXISTING ZONING

PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT

RECOMMENDED
DEVELOPMENT (if different than proposed)

ZONING

CD-1

CD-1

  

USES

Social and Recreational Club

Social and Recreational Club

  

MAX. FLOOR SPACE RATIO

0.67

0.72 for all structures, noting that air-supported structures would be seasonal (October to April)

0.63 for permanent structures and 0.09 for temporary air-supported structure

PARKING SPACES

Minimum of 237

Minimum of 278 spaces (phase 1) and minimum of 305 spaces (phase 2)

Minimum of 275 spaces (phase1) and minimum of 299 spaces (phase 2)

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