A 55-unit rental project above the Millstone River in Nanaimo has been approved by city council after being rejected two years ago.
The development planned for the steeply sloping 1.37-acre lot was redesigned by the Vancouver-based developer to address city hall concerns about the impact on the fish-bearing river at the bottom of the bank the building will sit on.
Now the building will be situated closer to the sidewalk at 591 Bradley St. and farther from the river below. The entire project will be more compact and will be built on a kind of flat platform at the top of the site, architect Raymond de Beeld told a recent council meeting.
The new plan is for a five-storey, 44,681-square-foot building rather than a larger six-storey structure. Parking will be under the building.
Because of the site’s grade, the building will be three storeys on the street-facing side and five storeys on the river side.
Coun. Erin Hemmens supported the project, saying its footprint mirrors the development next door, and it’s in a densely populated area with housing all around it.
Coun. Sheryl Armstrong, who had been opposed to the earlier version, also supported the new plan, noting city staff are in favour and the developer has addressed the protection of riparian land — land next to the river — as much as possible. A detailed riparian restoration plan with new plants will be part of the development permit.
A development permit had been approved in 2019 for a 59-unit project on the site on the south side of Bradley Street. But it expired in 2021 before a building permit was taken out. When the developer — 591 Bradley Homes Ltd. of Vancouver — returned with the same proposal, it was turned down by the previous council.
A city staff report said since then, several environmental improvements have been added, including saving more trees and adding more permeable surfaces and better rainfall retention, which allows water to filter more slowly back into the environment to help capture unwanted materials and stabilize soils.
The new plan also reduces the amount of encroachment on the slope at the top of the bank. A covenant to protect habitat has been increased to 60 per cent of the site from 50 per cent.
The developer will provide $50,000 toward traffic calming, and will keep the building, which will include seven studio units, 30 one-bedroom units and 18 two-bedroom units, as rental housing for at least 10 years.
