201/207/211 First Ave. West -Update

Project gets thumbs down?

There was a full house at council chambers on October 16 2024 for the presentation of a proposal for the development of a five storey mixed use building at 201/207/211 First Ave. West. Unfortunately, the public was not permitted to provide comments due to Bill 44's restriction against public hearings.

As reported in an earlier article, the proposed building consists of 57 residential units, 3 commercial units and a medical clinic with 14 examination rooms. 47 parking stalls are proposed for the building.

The applicant's team stressed the location of the project, being close to all amenities, highly walkable and pedestrian friendly. They also mentioned that there was a lot of planning for bicycles with bike racks and storage. Presumably, the focus on walkability and bicycles was an attempt to deal with the lack of parking.

The medical clinic proposed for the project was emphasized and appeared to be the cornerstone of the development. The presentation emphasized the need for medical facilities and gave examples of initiatives in other towns to build facilities. Of course, the elephant in the room is the lack of medical professionals and the difficulty in attracting them. As to be expected, the presentation did not provide any comfort that if we build it, they (the medical professionals) will come. All that we were told is that if we pass on this project, no one else will take it up. The presentation seemed to be that if you want a medical clinic then you must agree to the whole project. As one councillor noted, we cannot lose sight that this is essentially a residential building, with the main problem that it is just too darn big.

The discussion by council dealt with the lack of parking, the height and mass of the building, that building the clinic will not guarantee the arrival of medical professionals and the probable cutting of the large Arbutus tree on First Avenue to provide for a proposed courtyard. As with other proposed projects in town, trees and parking seem to be major hurdles for developers to overcome.

Mayor Westbroek commented that he would have liked to see a building that more matched the community. He also stated that this council ran for office because it saw buildings going up six storeys and did not want this to happen on its watch. This must have been a surprise to the developer and his team as they noted earlier in the presentation that they came up with this proposal after working with the town's planner. Perhaps a meeting between council and planning department should be held so that resources, those of the town and those of potential developers, are not wasted on projects that do not meet council's mandate.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Mayor Westbroek stated that council was not making a decision at this time. Rather the purpose of the meeting was to provide the developer and the public with council's view of the proposal.

So what happens next? If I were a betting person, I would wager that we will see another iteration of the same at some point in the future. Will the provision of more parking and saving the Arbutus tree be enough? Put your money down.

Jim Noel

October 18th 2024

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See related letters here.