Looking southeast along the Millstone River, highlighting the proposed park land and environmental improvements to the area. (City of Nanaimo/D’Ambrosio Architecture + Urbanism)

By Alex Rawnsley

ongoing saga

Redevelopment of Howard Johnson property in downtown Nanaimo remains on hold

Dec 8, 2023 | 5:20 AM

NANAIMO — Progress is again halted on a major redevelopment in the city’s downtown core.

A proposed residential and commercial complex is set to feature a hotel, over 750 residential units, retail space and more, was passed comfortably by Nanaimo City Council in earlier stages of re-zoning, despite objections from Snuneymuxw First Nation.

However, those objections continued to grow, to a point where councillors rescinded previously approved steps, then opted to not adopt the amended bylaws in October, before making the same decision on Monday, Dec. 4.

“[Monday] afternoon, I did get an email from Tom McCarthy who is the deputy minister [of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation] with the province and they’re recognizing the facilitated session between the Nation, themselves and the property owners is continuing,” City of Nanaimo chief administrative officer Dale Lindsay, told councillors.

The former Howard Johnson hotel and attached restaurant now sit abandoned and boarded up. (File photo/NanaimoNewsNOW)

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Lindsay also admitted the process of bylaws returning to Council only to be deferred was “a bit of an ongoing saga”.

He recommended councillors take no action and defer any vote “until such time that the province has confirmed that their facilitated process has concluded.”

Councillors voted 7-0 in support of Lindsay’s recommendation, with coun. Hilary Eastmure recusing herself due to a conflict of interest, while coun. Tyler Brown was absent for the vote.

Further talks between the three groups are expected in January.

A fourth and final reading, which would signal final adoption of the bylaws, would pave the way for development and building permits to be submitted before shovels go in the ground.

Artist’s rendering of a substantial multi-use redevelopment of the Howard Johnson Hotel site near the base of the Millstone River. (City of Nanaimo)

SFN raised formal objections against the project in September 2022, with acting chief Bill Yoachim suggesting the City’s engagement process with the First Nation was “incomplete”.

Yoachim said the development site is on a former Snuneymuxw village, Sxwayxum.

“Sxwayxum is located on the heart of downtown Nanaimo and recorded as an archaeological site DhRx-1. Just nearby, at Xwsolexwel is where the Snuneymuxw Treaty of 1854 was signed, a treaty that is applicable to…the proposed project.”

Their concerns escalated in May 2023, with a statement from chief Mike Wyse saying a 2019 agreement with the City regarding shared vision on land use was “now single-handedly being put at risk and dismantled” should development continue.

A statement from SFN said any progress made at the site “will be plagued by opposition from our Nation, delays from inevitable archaeological discoveries, and challenges that are insurmountable without us.”

First formally introduced to the City in the summer of 2021, re-developing the property has been under review at various stages by City staff since.

In the fall of 2018, the Howard Johnson Hotel closed and sat in a state of disrepair ever since.

The highly strategic and visible site was intended nearly a decade ago to be transformed into a new hotel and 5,000 seat arena, which didn’t make it to the formal application stage at City Hall.

An animation of the current planned layout of six buildings on the former Howard Johnson site. (NanaimoNewsNOW illustration)

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