A proposal for a 56-unit apartment building in downtown Mission was rejected by council on Monday (Oct. 7).
Councillors Angel Elias, Jag Gill, Mark Davies and Ken Herar voted against the project in a 4-3 decision after a third reading report was presented at the meeting.
“There's passion on both sides … it's a project that's not providing social benefit to Mission. It is providing housing and a benefit to the downtown business. It's really tough,” Davies said before the vote.
“It's going to be a real challenge to vote on this. I do understand the developer needs to move on with this business. I do understand that maybe we need to be a lot more sticky about our policies around massing and how buildings are going to look going forward.”
The project was intended to feature smaller, well-appointed units that would be more affordable to missing-middle buyers, an earlier letter from the applicant said. It was introduced at a meeting in July and council had comments and questions that touched on design alterations, parking and financial incentives.
The property was purchased while the city was offering the Downtown Development Incentive Program (DDIP) intended to stimulate investment in the downtown core.
The project was expected to receive four of the incentives offered through the program – including a property tax exemption – amounting to financial benefits totalling $ 2,127,632.
Mission Mayor Paul Horn voted in favour of the project and said the incentive program was the most “immovable part of this”. He outlined the importance of respecting the regime under which properties are bought and the council's judgment of the time.
“I think probably there has been no property I have seen a developer go back and forth and try to meet the needs of our regulations and community on as much as this one. And in fact, at different points, they have come to us with things like affordable housing but the problem is affordable housing would have taken away all the parking – or darn close to all the parking – and so that was a bigger challenge for that neighbourhood,” Horn said.
The mayor said the official community plan calls for the area to have missing middle housing and the project would meet the Downtown Business Association's desire for a dense, walkable population.
Meanwhile, Gill had “major concerns” with the application. He agreed it was the correct location for density but was concerned that alterations to form and character didn’t change enough. He also said the return on the $2.1 million of incentives wasn’t enough.
“This is a deal that's very favoured towards a developer and not the community,” Gill said.
The development would also have required three homes on 2nd Avenue to be demolished – all three of which are over 75 years old.
The residence on 32980 2nd Avenue was constructed in 1914 and was occupied by Agnes Fabry, widow of the manager of Bellevue Hotel and is on Mission’s heritage inventory list. However, staff previously told council the list could use an update.
A report to council last month detailing the city’s approach to heritage said the inventory is a pre-register step that captures sites with potential heritage value.
“Mission has an informal heritage inventory of approximately 200 sites that have very little or no integrity as they have not been vetted by a heritage professional. This is primarily due to the subjective nature (i.e. no professional heritage review) of identifying the sites,” the report reads.
The applicant provided plans to council to maintain heritage value through the installation of a plaque and an updated rendering of the building incorporating materials and colours inspired by its predecessor.
