Ex-motel site step closer to legal rental units

The owner of 3025 Douglas St. is moving forward on long-standing plans to convert the property to a rental apartment building from its existing motel use.

A rezoning application from Vancouver-based FC Douglas Properties was submitted to the City of Victoria last month.

If council approves a rezoning following a public hearing, that means residents would be able to live in the units as tenants. Right now, occupants of the 48 units are living in limbo, in a building zoned for transient accommodation while the zoning process goes ahead.

City hall asked the owner to seek a rezoning last year.

The application is to simply change the zoning and does not involve any changes to the site, said Robert Rocheleau of Praxis Architects Inc., which works for the owner. “I think it is very much needed.”

Tenants had received eviction notices in November, but those were rescinded to allow the rezoning application to proceed.

This modest building has been in the middle of debates in recent years over the best way to use it to help alleviate the region’s rental housing crisis. With a vacancy rate of only 0.5 per cent, lowincome renters are desperate to find a home in a community with little to offer.

The site was originally part of the failed Traveller’s Inn hotel chain. It was purchased by Mike Kelly, who failed to win support in 2011 in his efforts to convert the property to rental apartment use. At one point, he considered tearing the entire building down. Another plan was to use it to house students. Another time, a frustrated Kelly said he would put a chain link fence around the property and leave it there for 10 to 20 years.

Eventually, a renovation was completed and the current owner wants the building to comply with the bylaw.

Units are about 355 to 538 square feet and rent is about $600 to $700 per month, according to a Burnside Gorge Community Association document.