A proposal to redevelop the old Dominion Hotel into boutique studio apartments will go to public hearing, but not without some city councillors raising concerns about the project.
GMC Projects wants to breathe new life into the 125-year-old, 100-room hotel at Yates and Blanshard streets, but first needs a variance to allow it to substitute bicycle parking for vehicle parking. City staff have supported the request for a variance.
The proposal for a 97-suite residential building includes 72 bike parking spaces in the building — half in bike rooms and the other half through in-suite wall mounts. Space for another 24 bikes would be made available through eight outdoor racks.
Councillors forwarded the proposal to public hearing last week, but several said they hope the hearing will provide more details about issues such as room and common-area design so they can properly consider whether to approve it.
“I need to have a sense of how realistic is it to accommodate the bike storage in this way,” said Coun. Pam Madoff. “So for me it’s [a matter of] are the public circulation areas in the building adequate for moving through with your bike and your neighbour’s bike and all those other bikes.”
Until those “practical issues” are outlined, she said, it’s impossible to say whether the proposed bike storage is adequate.
In addition, Madoff said, the outdoor racks wouldn’t increase the amount of bike parking available to the public.
“Those are the issues that I’m dealing with in trying to understand whether this would be a really desirable place to live with my bicycle or whether it’s going to be a hassle every time I’m trying to get it in and out of my unit,” Madoff said, noting that the size of the units will determine how realistic it is to expect residents to store a bicycle there.
When the application came before councillors in December, they were told the proposed units would be equipped with private bathrooms and kitchenettes — including fridge, sink and microwave — but no stove. A communal kitchen would be located on the building’s second floor.
“I think there’s issues related to this project,” said Coun. Ben Isitt, adding that he doesn’t have enough information — including details about how the building would be used — to do his due diligence on the project.
“I don’t know if the parking is adequate without actually knowing what the plans are for the building.”
Under existing zoning, a 97-unit residential building would normally require 68 parking stalls. Because the building already has a 50-stall parking variance — this is related to the fact that no parking stalls were provided when the hotel was built in the 1800s — that requirement is reduced to 18 stalls.
The developer has proposed the bike parking as a way to compensate for the lack of vehicle parking. The five-storey hotel is built to the property lines and there’s no place to put parking stalls.
GMC initially proposed providing 73 bike parking spaces — 49 within the development (28 in bike rooms and 21 in units equipped with wall mounts) and 24 along the street — in exchange for not having to provide 18 vehicle parking stalls.
Council requested that the developer provide more onsite bicycle parking.
