A small, 70-year-old home on a 29,000 square-foot lot on Railway Avenue will be demolished and developed into a 17-unit townhouse complex that could set a precedent for affordable housing units in such developments.
The City of Richmond’s planning committee chair Coun. Linda McPhail said the developer, 1037533 BC Ltd., has been granted increased density on the site in exchange for building three housing units with lifelong rent-control covenants placed on them by the city.
City planners noted in a report to council that this development is the first townhouse proposal in the city to include built affordable housing units that exceed the city’s Affordable Housing Strategy (15 per cent as opposed to five per cent).
Had the developer not been given permission to build the three-storey units, it could have chosen to contribute cash to the city’s affordable housing fund, at a rate of $4 per square foot of new livable space, per the strategy.
The 14 market units will be larger than the rent-controlled units (one one-bedroom plus den and two three-bedroom units), which will be located along the arterial road.
Each market unit will have two parking spaces, and outdoor amenity space will be located in the middle of the development. The developer will pay $1,000 per unit to the city, in lieu of providing indoor amenity space.
One tree will be spared on city land along Railway, while eight other trees on the property will be cut down as they were deemed in poor condition. With such rezoning applications, those trees will be replaced at a two-to-one ratio.
The house sold for $2.9 million in June, 2015, just prior to its new 2015 land assessment of $3.33 million
McPhail said more high-density townhouse developments can be expected with the city’s new arterial road policy.
