Push for affordable housing on edge of downtown encounters pushback
The push for affordable housing is starting to be felt in lightindustrial areas on the edge of Victoria’s downtown, leading to a jobs versus housing debate on council.
A proposal to build 75 belowmarket-price, furnished rental micro-units — billed as workforce housing — at 736 Princess Ave. hit a roadblock this week as some councillors worried its approval would mean the loss of lightindustrial land and possibly open the door to similar proposals.
There is only a limited amount of land in the city designated light industrial, allowing for such small businesses as upholsterers, car detailers and autobody shops, said Coun. Pam Madoff, and they are employers that provide both needed services and good paying jobs.
“I think we have to be very protective of the small area that we have that provides these service-commercial jobs,” Madoff said, adding that city plans allow residential development in the zone, provided that two-fifths of the floor space is designated commercial/employment industrial.
“This is very challenging because our businesses are desperate for workers and we have someone who is going to bring forward workforce housing,” Coun. Margaret Lucas said.
“This is the type of startup for us to attract our college and university students that are leaving this city in droves because they can’t afford a place to live here,” she said.
Large and Co. wants to rezone a vacant lot on the edge of downtown from limited light industrial to a new zone to construct a six-storey building called The Hive.
The 75 self-contained live/work units would be between 220 and 290 square feet in size.
Included on the ground floor would be 3,000 square feet of amenity space, including a communal kitchen, entertainment area, TVs, games and sitting areas, outdoor patio and barbecue space and a small coffee shop.
City staff recommended against approval, citing the site’s “core employment” designation in the official community plan, its size (5,984 square feet, or about the standard size lot for a singlefamily home), and the lack of offstreet parking in the proposal, which would normally require 115 spaces. (It does include 70 bike parking spaces and an electric vehicle car-share program.)
City staff recommended the developer assemble a larger parcel to enable less residential density with a provision for more commercial space — recommendations rejected by the developer as not financially viable.
“It makes no sense to limit residential density to protect commercial space for increased employment at a time when lack of affordable housing is making it extremely difficult to fill the already available jobs,” Kim Colpman wrote on behalf of the applicant.
Coun. Jeremy Loveday said there were enough positive elements to not reject the proposal out of hand.
“In a time of a housing crisis, I don’t know how we can turn down a project like this without even hearing from the public in an official way,” Loveday said, adding Victoria has one of the lowest unemployment rates in Canada and some of the highest housing prices.
“The biggest issue with retaining workers is the lack of housing. This is proposing to create workforce housing and so I think this is the type of proposal we need,” he said.
Coun. Geoff Young said housing pressures on the lightindustrial area on the northern edge of downtown are increasing.
“As the desire to meet the demand for downtown housing grows, I’m concerned that we’re going to see a lot of these sites held vacant, perhaps with the current industrial/light industrial tenants being priced out of the market, and we’ll see proposals for housing,” he said.
“But if we are going to have housing, I think we have to do it in a way that can be done consistently, and I think we need to recognize the requirement for parking. I think we have to do it in a way that allows the industrial users — the old-time industrial users — to remain in place and actually operate successfully during the transition period, which may take decades.”
Several neighbours have objected to the plan, noting that parking is already limited in the area.
Rather than reject the application outright, councillors asked staff to work with the applicant to see if they can come up with a proposal that complies with the land use and density policies in the official community plan and the downtown core area plan.