After a month of negotiations between city staff and developers from Onni Group, a new proposal has emerged that includes more money and temporary rental discounts for the city to potentially install a new library at Imperial Landing on Steveston’s waterfront boardwalk.
But is it enough? Not according to at least one city councillor.
“I’m not impressed,” said Coun. Evelina Halsey-Brandt.
“Community contributions for up-zoning like this need to be much more substantial than what they’re offering,” she added.
The proposal — included in a staff report tabled at the city’s planning committee on Tuesday — from Onni is intended to persuade city council to re-zone the land where six new buildings presently rest empty.
The developers built Imperial Landing knowing it was zoned for maritime purposes. It then claimed there was no market for such use and now wants to lease the properties to retail businesses instead.
In April, Onni offered $1.5 million cash, among other, smaller contributions and provisions. City councillors refused to accept the package and told city staff to negotiate better contributions, including discounted rental rates for a potential library (emulating the deal the city struck with developers of Ironwood Plaza to install Ironwood Library).
This time around, Onni has offered an extra $500,000 and 4,000 square feet of rent-free space for the city for the first five years.
The report stated the offers are “the best they (Onni) are willing to provide,” while noting Ironwood receives 8,000 square feet rent-free and pays $20 per square foot for the remaining space it occupies.
Aside from the temporary rent-free provisions, Onni offered the city annual rates of $25-30 per square foot for up to 20 years. City staff noted $25 is a “reasonable market rate.” But the report also added that several factors, such as operating costs and tenant rights and responsibilities, had not been negotiated on top of the rates listed by Onni.
The report notes that a new library in Steveston requires at least 13,000 square feet, which is about the size of one of the buildings.
A theory floated at April’s planning committee meeting is the existing library at Steveston Community Centre would become an expanded gym.
The move alone could cost $3.6 million, according to the report.
A proposal from the Steveston Merchants Association last month was to retain 25 per cent of the 60,000 square feet of floor space at Imperial Landing for maritime purposes and restrict retail space to one quarter as well. According to the report, Onni would only accept such a proposal if it could lower the cash contribution.
Coun. Chak Au said he would consider two things at Tuesday’s meeting.
“Many merchants in Steveston Village are telling us they are struggling or barely surviving. Right from the beginning Onni knew what they were getting into with the ‘Maritime Mixed Use’ zoning. There is no justification to lift Onni from their difficulty at the expenses of existing business in the village. Secondly, there must be real benefits to the community. This is how we treat other rezoning applications and we should treat Onni’s application in the same way,” said Au in an email.
The report also indicated the city has hired a marine engineering consultant to assess dredging needs required for a civic marina. The parks department will provide a report in the future on the potential for a marina.
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