By Ian Holmes

Ambitious redevelopment plans for Nanaimo’s Brechin Hill neighbourhood

Mar 8, 2017 | 2:02 PM

NANAIMO — Plans are well underway to tear down a Nanaimo landmark, but a new era for Brechin United Church will have a much deeper meaning.

Brechin United Church redevelopment team co-chair Linda Braid said they worked for several years to replace the approximately 60-year-old Estevan Rd. church.

She told NanaimoNewsNOW their congregation wants to build a new church on the same piece of property, along with 74 rental apartment units, including 38 spaces dedicated for affordable housing.

“We’re very aware of the fact that people are struggling to find residences and they’re struggling to find rentals that they can afford,” she said. “For that reason we decided on apartment rentals and not condominiums for sale.”

Braid said BC Housing has agreed to fund the housing component. She expects demolition will happen next spring, with redevelopment in 2020.

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She said the vision is for the new Brechin United Church to be a much more efficient, scaled down 7,500 sq/ft building, down from the current “inefficient” design of 10,000 sq/ft.

“We received very positive comments from the community. We’re hoping that we’ll be able to carry on.”

Braid said those comments were made by nearly 100 people, many from the local area, who attended an open house at the church this week. She added the new church design will better serve a range of user groups.

She said re-zoning of the site would include a requirement to allow the apartment building to be five storeys high.

The City of Nanaimo appears to be on board with the dramatic transition. In an emailed statement to NanaimoNewsNOW, the City’s director of community development, Dale Lindsay, noted the City is completing a formal review of the application.

“But (I) can confirm that we support in principle the proposed development and associated bylaw amendments,” Lindsay stated.

Ian.holmes@jbpg.ca

On Twitter: @reporterholmes