RULE-BENDING 1150 BARCLAY PROJECT CLEAR TO MOVE FORWARD
That’s due to City Council not agreeing with a staff recommendation

by Jake McGrail
(click images to enlarge)

Close to two years ago now, I wrote about a proposal to replace the Shermanor apartment complex at 1150 Barclay Street with a much larger residential tower.

**A RENdering of the proposed new tower at 1150 barclay** (PC Urban)

At the time, I ended the column by noting that the proposal didn’t fully comply with the existing zoning policies for the lot, which is spelled out clearly in its ShapeYourCity page, (see Related Links below) and assumed that this would probably lead to some real back-and-forth between the city and developer before anything could be approved.

The city’s planning staff clearly felt the same way, as when PC Urban’s redevelopment proposal finally had its public hearing this past December, it came with a staff recommendation that council reject the application in its current form, due to how it conflicts with the West End Community Plan.

**The new tower would rise high above its neighbours** (PC URBAN)

In particular, the report stated (amongst other points) the following:

“If approved, this application will likely set expectations that sites within the West End neighbourhoods could be rezoned for significantly more density, contributing to the loss of affordable rental housing stock and displacement of tenants in the absence of a comprehensive approach. Market speculation could have a damaging impact on the existing rental stock.”

However, despite the recommendation to turn down the proposal, City Council approved it following the public hearing, only adding in some minor conditions for PC Urban to follow.

The planned tower’s height, density, frontage and distance from neighbouring property lines are all out of line with the current RM-5B (residential) zoning for the lot, which is the current designation of every property on Barclay between Denman and Thurlow (the latter of which is a block down from Shermanor).

The current approval means that 1150 Barclay is set to be one of precious few spots within the Robson-Denman-Davie-Thurlow box to have CD-1 (comprehensive development) zoning.

**The Shermanor apartment building at 1150 barclay**

When it comes to the planned building itself, the new apartment tower is set to be 20 storeys tall, home to 152 rental homes. They’ll predominantly be either studio or one-bedroom homes, with about a third being either two or three-bedroom.

Twenty percent of the units are earmarked for “below market rentals”, with prices between about $900 and $1,650 per month - although those numbers could well rise alongside general rent rises between now and when the building welcomes in its first tenants. The stated aim for those below market homes is to target seniors as the tenants, with the building also providing a community room space including a large kitchen, as well as a $175,000 donation to the West End Seniors Network.

PC Urban currently has the goal of completing the building by 2029, but given how easily projects like this can get bogged down, we’ll see how optimistic of a date that ends up being. In the meantime, we’ll also see if more proposals that run counter to the West End Community Plan get approved in the near future, and whether we could be heading towards a full review of the current guidelines.