15-storey apt.
building to get
new hearing

Jolanda Waskito
. Contributing Writer

VETERANS will have a
new place to drink, the
city will have more
affordable housing and
a developer can finally
build.

Bur changes to the plans
will require a second public
hearing for a proposal to build
a 15-storey, 85-unit aftordable
housing apartment at 123
West 15th Street.

The Royal Canadian

Legion will own the first floor

of the building, consisting of a
licensed establishment, a com-
munity rental hall and a cafe.
Floors two to six, consist-
ing of 33 units, will be owned

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by B.C. Housing, which will
enter into a 35-year contract
with the legion that will sce
the service organization man-
age the affordable housing
units. Eight of the units will be
outfitted to suit people who
have a physicai handicap.

The remaining 52 units will
be sold by developer Bel-Tar
Holdings at 85% of the market
value to ensure affordability.

Thomas Ivanore of Bel-Tar
Holdings breathed a sigh of
relief when council unani-
mously passed an amended
second reading of the devclop-
ment proposal

Ivanore jokingly told media
at the council meeting that he
would commit suicide if coun-
cil didn't pass the proposal
because his company has
already invested a half-million
dollars in the project.

He also said the legion
would be bankrupt if its pro-
ject was turned down at this
point.

During his presentation,
Ivanore told council as much.
He said that if council were to
delay the project any longer —
the proposal has been under
council’s scrutiny since
September 1997 — “the
legion will probably be broke
.. and CHMC will withdraw
funding.”

Although Coun. Bob
Fearnicy voted in favor of the
project, he criticized the devel-
opers for making him feel like
there was “a gun to my head.”

“I have one concern,”

Fearnley said. “We approved a

project and then ther come
ack and change it again. I
don’t like the fact that it’s like
putting a gun to my head, that
the legion would become
broke.”

Fearnley was referring to
the request by the legion and
Bel-Tar to use thicker wall

anels that would censure the
wilding didn’t suffer from
“leaky condo disease.”

But the request to add the

proposed

thicker panels came after
council had already approved
the measurements of the
building.

Ivanore said he could have
added the thicker walls under
council’s approved measure-
ments of the building, but he
didn’t want to sacrifice interior
living space.

Another issue was the
inclusion of a clause in the city
bylaw allowing B.C. Housing
flexibility in who it rents its 33
units to.

Although B.C. Housing
will initially rene 10 units to
people with annual incomes of
$27,000 or less, 10 units to
people with incomes less than
$18,500, five units with subsi-
dized-rent and cight to the
physically handicapped — the
need in the neighborhood may
change.

“We don’t know what the
market will be ... now it’s
$700 a month for one bed-
room, it could go up or down
depending on the market,”
Tom. Reeves of B.C. Housing
told council.

And because B.C. Housing
“doesn't want empty units just
sitting there,” the number of
units reserved for the physical-
ly challenged, for example,
may changed according to
need, Reeves said.

All the units in the building
are adaptable to suit a handi-
capped person, he added.

vanore said previously that
the building is senior-oriented.

“The building is built for
what is called ‘grow oid in

place’,” he said. “You can.

slowly adapt the unit ... you
can add grab bars in the bath-
room, the whole building has
wider corridors and wider
doors, you can lower the sinks.
You can stay there until you
pass away.”
A public hearing for the
amended proposal will take
lace July 27 at 8:30 p.m.
fore it proceeds to a new
third-reading.

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GHeuer’

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