The city has received a development permit application to turn a single-family home with a garden in Steveston into a three-storey building with residential and commercial units.
Carol-Lyn Sakata is the co-owner of the property and she is working with a partner to develop it with a plan consistent with the local area plan. She said she plans to live in the new building, in what she calls the “perfect” location for her with shops and services within walking distance.
“The bottom line for me is I want to live there,” she said. “I want to live in Steveston.”
Her mother, Kay Sakata, lived on the property from the end of the Second World War until she passed away two years ago at the age of 100.
Sakata said she likes the garden, but the heritage value of the lot isn’t the garden, something her mother really developed in the 1980s, rather its heritage value lies in the fact it represents a typical family home from the 1950s.
Sakata said she doesn’t have the time to keep up the garden.
“It’s nothing like the garden it was – it’s a mess,” she said. The trees are also not very healthy, she added.
The two lots are zoned CS3, which is Commercial Steveston allowing for three-storey buildings.
The development permit is for four commercial units and four residential units.
Sakata had to apply for a heritage alteration permit because the property is located within the Steveston Heritage Conservation Area, but city spokesperson Ted Townsend said the proposal fits in with the Steveston Area Plan.
Evaluation of the proposed redevelopment will be based on the city’s Heritage Conservation Guidelines for Steveston Village and the official community plan, Townsend said.
“Although the property is not formally protected as a heritage resource, staff recognize that the garden is valued by the community and it is one of the few remaining residential properties in the Steveston Village,” he said in an email.
Richmond resident Anne Lerner has written to mayor and council asking that the city buy the Sakata garden.
Lerner said there is very little left that shows Richmond’s history and that this would be an opportunity for the city to preserve something historic and authentic.
“There is such a loss of greenspace,” she said.
