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ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT
Date: April 19, 1996
Dept. File No.000 264A
TO: Vancouver City Council
FROM: General Manager of Engineering Services
SUBJECT: Proposed Closure of a Portion of the Lane
South of Sixth Avenue, East from St. George Street
RECOMMENDATIONS
A. THAT Council authorize the Director of Legal Services to sign
on behalf of the City, a Reference Plan defining the
horizontal limits of the encroachments onto the lane South of
Sixth Avenue, East from St. George Street (see Appendix "A")
by the building at 2216 to 2218 St. George Street, and apply
to raise title to the portions of the said lane defined on
the said Reference Plan, in the name of the City of
Vancouver.
B. THAT all that volumetric portion of the lane South of Sixth
Avenue, east from St. George Street included within the heavy
outlines and illustrated isometrically on a plan of survey,
completed on the 8th day of April, 1996, and certified
correct by Johnson C. Tam, B.C.L.S. and marginally numbered
SU-946, a reduced copy of which is attached hereto as
Appendix "B", be closed, stopped-up, and that an easement be
granted to the owner of the abutting Lot J, Block 101,
District Lot 264A, Plan LMP 27972, to contain portions of the
existing building which encroach onto the said lane. The
easement to be for the life of the encroaching portion of the
existing building on said Lot J, and to be to the
satisfaction of the Director of Legal Services.
C. THAT the fees for document preparation, registration and use
of the easement referred to in Recommendation B, are to be in
accordance with those charged for in an agreement prepared
pursuant to the Encroachment By-law.
COUNCIL POLICY
The authority for closing and disposing of streets and lanes is set out
in the Vancouver Charter.
The building in question is located within the Mount Pleasant area, is
municipally designated and listed in the "B" evaluation category on the
Vancouver Heritage Register. Permitting the building to remain
encroaching onto the lane will help ensure preservation, and is
therefore consistent with Council's heritage policy.
PURPOSE
The purpose of this report is to obtain Council authority to grant an
easement to contain the encroaching elements of the building located at
2216 to 2218 St. George Street.
BACKGROUND
Council, on April 23, 1996, approved the strata title conversion of the
building at 2216-2218 St. George Street.
As required by the Registrar of Land Titles, the strata corporation
must have control over the portion of lane affected by the building
encroachment, for the life of the building. To accomplish this, the
volumetric portion of lane containing the encroachments must be closed,
stopped-up, and an easement granted for the volumetric portions of the
building that encroach. Registration of the easement requires that a
title be raised for the portion of lane encroached upon.
DISCUSSION
On the south side of the building constructed on Lot J, Block 101,
District Lot 264A, Plan LMP 27972, there is a bay window that
encroaches onto the lane a maximum of 0.75 metres, (30 inches). In
addition, the eaves encroach a maximum of 0.20 metres, (8 inches). The
portion of lane encroached upon was dedicated by the deposit of Plan
4930, in 1920.
We note that the bay window would normally be considered to form
"habitable" space within the definition of the Condominium Act. The
Condominium Act does not allow any portion of a strata lot to be
outside the boundaries of the parent parcel. As such, the bay window
must be rendered non-habitable space, so that it may form part of the
common property of the strata development and then included within a
volumetric easement. The applicant has agreed to render the area
within the bay window non-habitable.
This report seeks Council approval to raise a title as described and to
close, stop-up and to authorize registration of a volumetric easement
over a portion of the new title.
We recommend that fees for document preparation and annual rentals be
charged as per the Encroachment By-law. This is consistent with past
Council direction.
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