150 McCarter St. is poised to see development of a four storey residential and commercial property. (City of Parksville)

By Alex Rawnsley

rental housing

Sizable residential complex proceeds in Parksville

Jan 16, 2024 | 5:35 AM

PARKSVILLE — Much needed rental stock in Oceanside is moving ahead after development and variance permits were approved by Parksville city councillors.

Council voted near unanimously in favour on Monday, Jan. 15 for a development permit at 150 McCarter St. to accommodate a four-storey residential complex with 43 units, along with three commercial ground-floor units.

As part of the building’s financing, a quarter of the development’s homes will be classified as affordable housing for at least a decade.

Concerns were raised about the lack of three bedroom suites in the proposed building, with the units broken down into eight, two-bedroom units and 35 one bedroom suits.

Blaine Russell, city director of community planning and building, told councillors the City has limited options in cases such as these to dictate how a developer can build.

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“These variance are to facilitate the envelope of the building but it’s really outside of municipal control the specific floor layout that a particular builder is deciding to develop their private property to. They would base it on what they believe their market is and develop the property accordingly.”

Russell added negotiations can be achieved during re-zoning processes, where the City could have more ability to request certain floor plans or layouts.

Ten of the units are planned to be accessible, with an additional 24 able to be easily converted if needed. Most of the parking will be on-site, while five on-street spaces will be available.

Variances were given to the building’s height, as well as setback on the rear lot line along a laneway, and a parking setback.

Russell said the variances are in place due to three or four parking spaces already in place, which appear to be part of the laneway but are actually on the private property.

“In this case, essentially the variance will be recognizing the existing parking layout where there’s some lane side parking that just happened to be located on private property…because they’re part of the same paved surface, they’re zero metres away from that property boundary.”

Councillors were also concerned with a requested, and ultimately granted, request for no off-street loading zone.

Russell assured councillors carefully placed traffic cones would cause a minimal and temporary interruption for those moving in or out of the building, or businesses on the ground floor accepting deliveries.

Various environmental and comfort considerations were also made in the design, including heat pumps in each unit and setup for electric vehicle charging.

A building permit must still be issued before construction can begin.

The subject property is currently a parking lot one block away from Parksville Community Park.

Coun. Adam Fras was the lone vote against the permits.

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