The District of North Vancouver Council will decide today on giving the green light to a development permit for a six-storey affordable rental housing project on Lillooet Road. The proposal would bring 188 new rental units to the Lynnmour Inter-River neighbourhood.
More Than a Roof Housing Society, represented by Public Architecture, is seeking approval for the two-building development on a District-owned, 2.4-acre site at the southwest corner of Old Lillooet Road and Lillooet Road.
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The project has been years in the making. Council rezoned the site in December 2023 to allow apartment-style affordable housing, and BC Housing announced funding for the project through its Community Housing Fund in March 2024. At the time of rezoning, no detailed architectural drawings had been completed, and the Council pledged another round of public consultation once a design was ready.
According to the report, the unit mix would include 16 studios, 77 one-bedroom units, 53 two-bedroom units, 36 three-bedroom units, and six four-bedroom units, ranging in size from roughly 35 to 117 square metres. A total of 131 vehicle parking stalls and 351 bicycle parking spaces would be provided.
The underground parkade, accessed from Old Lillooet Road, would be designed to meet Transportation Association of Canada standards, the report to council notes.
Amenities would include indoor common spaces, a community garden, a children’s play area, and outdoor seating. The development would carry no natural gas connection and no gas-fired appliances, leaving it with zero operational greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels. The buildings are also on track to meet Step 4 of the BC Energy Step Code.
Planned off-site works, valued at roughly $1.2 million, would include sidewalk and bike lane upgrades along Old Lillooet Road, a left-turn lane extension at the Lillooet and Old Lillooet intersection, a new sidewalk along Lillooet Road, and a water main upgrade.
The proposal drew considerable public response. According to the report, about 118 pieces of public input were received, with parking, traffic congestion, road access, and density topping the list of concerns. Roughly 56 people attended the in-person session, while 126 visited the virtual meeting page.
The District has since acted on some of those concerns. Signal timing at the Lillooet and Old Lillooet intersection has been improved, and a delineator has been installed. The parking count was also raised from 107 to 131 stalls — the maximum the single-level parkade can hold while still accommodating bike storage, garbage and recycling, and mechanical rooms.
The southern slope, identified as the most ecologically sensitive part of the site, would remain largely undisturbed. According to the report, invasive species — including English ivy, Himalayan blackberry, and Japanese knotweed — blanket roughly 7,206 square metres of the property. An environmental management plan calls for their removal and replacement with native plantings. About 35 new trees would be added along the Lillooet Road boulevard to offset on-site tree loss.
