POLICY REPORT
DEVELOPMENT AND BUILDING
Date: July 22, 1996
Dept. File No. 3116
TO: Vancouver City Council
FROM: Manager of the Housing Centre, in consultation
with the Director of Central Area Planning
SUBJECT: Text Amendment: 1202-1389 Pacific Boulevard
(Roundhouse Neighbourhood)
RECOMMENDATION
THAT the Director of Land Use and Development be instructed to
make application to amend By-law No. 7156 to reduce the maximum
amenity area excludable from density calculations in the
Roundhouse Neighbourhood from 3,500 m2 to 3,000 m2, and to exempt
the amenity area in the Roundhouse non-market projects from the
3,000 m2 maximum;
FURTHER THAT the Director of Legal Services be instructed to
prepare the necessary by-law for consideration at the Public
Hearing;
AND FURTHER THAT that the application and by-law be directly
referred to Public Hearing.
GENERAL MANAGER'S COMMENTS
The General Manager of Community Services RECOMMENDS approval of
the foregoing.
COUNCIL POLICY
Council policy requires that 20% of the units in major projects be
designated for non-market housing, and that half of these be designed
for families.
PURPOSE
This report seeks approval to refer amendments to the Roundhouse
Neighbourhood CD-1 By-law to Public Hearing that would exclude amenity
spaces in non-market housing projects from the maximum excludable from
density calculations in the neighbourhood.
BACKGROUND
At the November 14, 1995, Public Hearing Council considered a request
to increase the maximum amount of amenity area exclud-able from
density calculations in the Roundhouse Neighbourhood of Concord
Pacific Place. The increase was sought to accommodate the project
proposed by C.A.R.E. (the Community for Affordable Residential
Environments) for the site designated non-market non-family in the
Roundhouse Neighbourhood. C.A.R.E. proposed a congregate care project
that would include substantially more amenity area (dining room,
library, lounges) than a normal social housing project. As a result,
it would have limited the amount of amenity space available for the
other Roundhouse projects. The amendment to the Roundhouse CDŸ1
By-law approved by Council increased the maximum allowable amenity
space excludable from density calculations from 3,000 m2 to 3,500 m2.
DISCUSSION
The family non-market site in the Roundhouse Neighbourhood received an
allocation of 137 units in the 1994 Homes B.C. proposal call. The
sponsor is the Roundhouse Co-operative Housing Association. The
project has now been submitted for a development permit. The design
includes several amenity areas such as a large meeting room on the
main floor and smaller areas on the upper floors. During the design
process, an opportunity emerged to develop a large void as additional
amenity area. This void is created by the blank wall presented by the
condominium project adjacent the co-op. The result is a 3-storey
volume that cannot be used for housing as it does not permit
sufficient window area. What it does allow is up to 7,500 sq. ft.
(700 m2) of available area, depending how the space is divided. The
proposal is to develop, within this volume, a floor of bicycle
storage, a double height multipurpose room that could be used for
social events, teen activities, etc., with the rest developed for
additional storage. As this is a large co-op in a high density
neighbourhood, additional amenity area that allows separate activities
to occur in different rooms at the same time would be very desirable.
The co-op would like to see this volume available as additional
amenity area and Concord Pacific is prepared to develop it as
additional amenity area. The problem is that it would consume most of
the remaining amenity area excludable from density calculations that
is available in the Roundhouse Neighbourhood, leaving insufficient for
the last condominium project. Before Concord Pacific can agree to
provide the additional amenity area in the Roundhouse Co-op, they
require an increase in the total amenity area that can be excluded
from density calcula-tions.
The amenity area excludable from density calculations could be
increased again as it was in November 1995. However, it is
recommended that the non-market sites be excluded from the amenity
space maximum instead. This was the approach taken in the amendment
to the Coal Harbour Marina Neighbourhood CD-1 to deal with the amenity
area required by the Coal Harbour Housing Co-op that was approved at a
Public Hearing on January 18, 1996. In hindsight this is the approach
that should have been taken last November when dealing with the
additional amenity space the C.A.R.E. project required.
Non-market projects and condominium projects have different amenity
requirements and constraints. The limited budgets available for
social housing projects limit the amenity space that can be built so
there is little risk that the mass of a social housing project would
be unacceptably increased because of the inclusion of a very large
amenity area. In the case of this void, it will have to be built
whether or not it is used. Consequently, it is recommended that the
Roundhouse CD-1 By-law be amended to reduce the maximum amenity space
excludable from density calculations from 3,500 m2 to 3,000 m2 and
exclude amenity spaces in the Roundhouse non-market projects from this
maximum. The original maximum of 3,000 m2 of excludable amenity area
will be sufficient for the market projects in the Roundhouse
Neighbourhood.
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