Hays Cove Apartment plans head to statutory notification with not a mention from Council members on Monday night

Considering the focus that City Council has attached to housing since they took office last November, it was somewhat surprising that no one made mention of a proposed apartment project introduced to Council at their Monday night session.

As we outlined on Monday morning, the project part of the City's Rapid Housing initiative project, would see 34 housing units built on the vacant lot along Hays Cove Avenue and the corner of Frederick Street. 

The four storey structure to feature 1 to 4 bedroom apartments to help alleviate some of the rental crunch in the community.

The report which was tucked into the Variance Reviews of the night for Council was a fairly expansive document that outlined the vision for the empty lot at 1300 Hays Cove.

The key takeaway from the document the work that the city has put into moving the plan forward towards more affordable housing.

The multifamily building is proposed by the City of Prince Rupert under the Rapid Housing Initiative program to serve those in severe housing need, specifically serving women or women and their children. 

The City worked with contractors at no cost to develop designs, budget, and plans for this development on City owned property that would be funded in full under the Rapid Housing Initiative funding through Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation. This location offered a site that would not require any rezoning to allow the proposed density, and allowed the City to provide land in order to score higher on the application criteria for funding. These designs included providing only 28 parking stalls to serve 34 units, as well as a taller building to accommodate density without needing to add significant extra cost for earth works. 

The proposed height variance and parking reduction is largely due to physical constraints of the property. The proposed location on the site is the only place as determined by contractors to blast bedrock and place the building with parking. These designs were used to determine the contribution ask for the Rapid Housing Initiative funding from CMHC. 

The City will know whether the application will receive funding at the beginning of July, but if successful will be required to reach occupancy within 18 months. Consequently, the City is seeking permits ahead of July so that contractors may begin land clearing and construction immediately after funding is confirmed.

As Planning Manager Myfannwy Pope notes in her report, the city will know by July if they have received the funding to move forward, so perhaps that will mark the point that City Council members may have something to say about the proposed housing for the east side.

Though considering the urgency towards housing need in Prince Rupert, Monday seems like a lost opportunity now for Council to show some progress towards their hopes of delivering on their housing themes.

As it was, Monday brought only the approval of Council to send the initiative to statutory notification without a comment.

The City's own recap of the Monday session leaving the housing plan lumped in with the rest of the Variance work on the night.

The project seems somewhat similar to some previous moves towards building more affordable housing for the community. 

In January the City outlined some potential housing plans for the downtown area, with two lots identified as locations for Non Market Housing and Non Market Senior Housing for the community.

The locations noted at the time included the empty lot across from Northern Savings Credit Union at Third and McBride, with the other the site of the current debris of rubble from the former Belmont Hotel.

So far there have been no further updates from council towards the progress for either of those housing initiatives.

More on Monday's Council Session can be reviewed from our archive page here.

A wider overview of housing themes in Prince Rupert can be explored from our archive.