Six homes to make way for over 100 condos and townhomes on Mountain Highway neighbourhood

Council was split on these development but a majority vote allowed the rezoning to move to the public hearing stage.

Six single family homes could make way for over 100 condos and townhomes in the Mountain Highway neighbourhood in the District of North Vancouver in the next few months.

Council was split on these development but a majority vote allowed the rezoning to move to the public hearing stage. The first project being planned is on Oxford Street, where the developer plans to redevelop two existing single family lot into a six storey, 88 unit condo building, which would provide market rentals in perpetuity.

The developer is also offering land on the east to the district for affordable housing. With the provision of rental housing in perpetuity, and being close to the Phibbs Exchange transit point won the proposal first reading support from all councillors except Councillor Lisa Muri, who said the council should ask every market rental to have some units below market rental price as the rentals prices can be steep and unaffordable for many people who work and would like to live in the North Shore.

Other councillors, however, were in support of the project. Councillor Robin Hicks said the district is in the middle of a housing crisis and a rental proposal like the one on Oxford Street would be offer relief to people who want to live in the North Shore.

Matthew Bond called the project a viable project and said there needs to be a deep discussion on how such units could only be achieved by taking three of four single family lots and converting them into six-storey apartment buildings with 80 and more units.

Council also sent a similar project to public hearing merely a block north of Oxford street, where the developer is proposing to redevelop five single family lots into a five-storey, 26-unit townhome project. Except Lisa Muri and Jim Hanson, all other councillors were supportive of sending it to public hearing.

“This is absolutely consistent with our OCP and it’s exactly what we need in the community. There is a huge demand for this kind of housing, which is near public transportation and providing family oriented housing, said Councillor Roger Bassam.

Muri, however, wasn’t as convinced. She said those homes would be very expensive luxury townhomes that would sell for as much as $1.3 million and in no way can be terms affordable for families. “There has been so much market housing approved and such a minimum amount of below market affordable housing. We should have been balancing our housing with one market, one below market, one purpose built rentals and we wouldn’t have been in this crisis if we had done that,” she said.

Councillor Jim Hanson agreed with her and said the district needed to take a pause before allowing further development.

“The public sentiment is that there is too much development and the 1.3 million townhomes does nothing to address the missing middle. We need to take a pause and focus our efforts on proposals that are actually going to fill the OCP goals of the missing middle by providing genuinely affordable housing for those who want to live in the North Shore,” he said. The proposal passed first reading with him and Muri opposed.