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Kensington-Cedar Cottage CityPlan Committee

Meeting Notes

Kensington-Cedar Cottage CityPlan Committee Meeting
Thursday, June 22, 2006
7:00 – 9:00 pm
Cedar Cottage Neighbourhood Pub (Dickens Room), 3728 Clark Drive, Vancouver

Chairperson:	John Buckberrough
Attendees:	• 14 local residents • Aquilini Investment Group — Bob Cabral & Ian Kent • Keith Hemphill of Rositch, Hemphill and Associates, Architects • City of Vancouver Rezoning Planner — Joanne Baxter • City of Vancouver- Planning — Kirsten Baillie

1. Welcome and KCC Business (John Buckberrough)

Invitation to a dialogue with Jim Diers, author of Neighbor Power Building Community the Seattle Way. Jim Diers was also the director of Seattle’s Office of Neighborhoods.

June 28, 2006 in the Labatt Room, Simon Fraser University , Harbour Centre 500 West Hastings. Call Valerie 604-685-7811 to reserve a seat.

2. Guest Speaker: Joanne Baxter (City of Vancouver) — Inquiry for King Edward Village

Joanne Baxter indicated that the City has received an inquiry from Aquilini to add an additional storey to the northwest residential tower (currently 16 storeys-proposed 17 storeys) in King Edward Village (Kingsway and Knight). The inquiry is a CD-1 text amendment and would typically take the City about 6 months to process from date of application to a Public Hearing. However, other extenuating circumstances may influence processing times, including the availability of staff resources in light of other corporate priority work already in the system, as well as, access to Council meetings, when agendas are full.

The proposal:

To increase the height and Floor Space Ratio (FSR) by adding one additional floor (approximately 6,091 sq. ft.) to provide 7 residential dwelling units in the northwest tower.
Proposed height 17 storeys (existing CD-1 By-laws allows 16 storeys).
Request for additional density and height is based on the developer’s desire to achieve a successful lease agreement for the provision of a grocery store in the King Edward Village development.
— Note: there is a Restrictive Covenant registered against the property which does not allow a supermarket or grocery store more than 3,500 sq.ft. or a drugstore more than 6,000 sq.ft. The Restrictive Covenant is in place until 2013.

Joanne Baxter explained that the City has written a letter to the developer recommending that they obtain the support of the Kensington-Cedar Cottage CityPlan Committee regarding the proposal. If the CityPlan Committee indicates general support to increase the FSR and height then the City will consider the inquiry in greater detail. Joanne noted that the City will only pursue the proposal if the City can legally secure a grocery store on the site. Currently, she does not know if Legal Services will be able to develop such an agreement. In addition, if the proposal were to go forward the City would conduct further analysis such as an economic analysis and view/shadow analysis.

Public Notification if the additional storey were approved. Because it is a text amendment residents living in a 2 block radius on all sides of the development would be notified. In addition, a sign would be posted on the site to notify the public. A public meeting would only be held if the City received a significant amount of feedback from the public.

3. Bob Cabral, Aquilini Investment Group (Vice-President, Business Development)

a.	Bob Cabral thanked the Committee for meeting on such short notice. Bob explained that Aquilini has a long term investment in the neighbourhood because they will retain ownership of the commercial space and therefore, have a vested interest in ensuring the success of the commercial component.
b.	He explained that negotiations have taken place with Safeway and another large grocery store to work out a deal to purchase the restrictive covenant from Safeway. He noted that Safeway has negotiated reasonably and they are willing to remove the restrictive covenant for a certain price. He indicated that it is a complex negotiation process which he does not feel comfortable revealing the details of until the deal is complete.
c.	He explained that securing a deal with Safeway to purchase the restrictive covenant is important because they need to secure a retail anchor in order to attract other businesses to the site. The anchor retailer typically pays a low rent because they are used to attract additional businesses. Therefore, to be able to negotiate a financially desirable lease rate from other businesses it is necessary to secure an anchor retailer first.
d.	In addition, he pointed out that construction costs are increasing at a rate of 1% per month which adds additional pressure. The majority of the units were presales at a price that is lower than what they would have gotten for them now therefore their revenue is fixed so the increase in construction prices is eating into their bottom line. They pre-sold the units because financial investors wanted to see a certain number of presales before they provided financial backing to the project.
e.	Therefore, although Aquilini wants to see a grocery store on the site there are a variety of factors which are straining the business deal. An additional storey would help the financial bottom line but there is no guarantee that an additional storey will be enough to cover all of the costs.

4. King Edward Village Architect (Keith Hemphill of Rositch, Hemphill and Associates, Architects)

a.	Presented both the view and shadow analysis for the northwest tower with 16 storeys and an additional storey (17 storeys) taken from approximately 3 blocks away. He indicated that the additional storey would have a limited impact on either the view or shadowing.
b.	Keith indicated that the additional storey would be a regular height unit not an additional penthouse suite with high ceilings.

Question and Answer Period

Committee asked if the 7 additional residential units would cause parking problems? In addition, if parking would be a problem because the second floor retail has been converted to residential?

Aquilini explained that the original parking calculations were done after it was decided that the second storey of retail would be converted into residential. Aquilini noted that with the additional 7 residential units they would be short 4 parking spots. However, according to the new parking by-laws the development actually has excess parking. Therefore, they do not anticipate that parking will be a significant problem.

The committee wondered when the project will be completed by and Aquilini stated that they anticipate the tower would be completed by the end of 2007. The Committee agreed that 6 years was too long to wait until the restrictive covenant ran out in 2013.

The committee asked why Aquilini would not consider a small grocery store which would not exceed the square footage indicated in the resistive convent?

Aquilini said that they are looking to have a full service grocery store in the site and the space available is already small for a full service grocery store.

Committee expressed concern that Safeway could break their own covenant and return to the site. The Committee stated that they did not want Safeway back on the site and wondered if it was possible to ensure that Safeway did not go into King Edward Village? In addition, the Committee indicated that they would be interested in having a variety of national and independent retailers on the site.

Aquilini indicated that currently Safeway has not expressed an interest in the site but that they could not guarantee Safeway would not return; however, it would not be a good business decision to have Safeway in there if the community would not shop there. In addition, Aquilini said that they are interested in having a mix of national and independent retailers that meet the broader community’s needs.

The committee said that they thought the City was going to make Safeway remove the restrictive covenant on the site and they wonder why that did not happen?

Aquilini indicated that as far as they know the Mayor, at the time, had tried to negotiate with Safeway to have the restrictive covenant removed but Safeway was unwilling.

Committee wondered why Aquilini would not consider adding two additional storeys to the development?

Aquilini told them that the building would not support an additional two storeys so that was not an option.

5. Discussion on the location of a cooling unit on top of the southeast residential tower (Keith Hemphill)

Keith Hemphill explained that there is a mechanical cooling unit that needs to be located on the site. The unit is a large box approximately 9 ft. by 9 ft. which could be located in the central plaza or on top of the southeast residential tower. He presented view analysis of what the cooling unit would look like on top of the tower and indicated that it would be very difficult to see because the unit would be located in the middle of the roof and hidden from sight.

The Committee agreed that they would prefer the cooling unit to be located on the top of the tower and they definitely did not want it in the middle of the courtyard.

6. In-camera discussion

The committee asked Aquilini to leave so that they could hold an in-camera discussion.

Conclusion

Following the in-camera discussion the committee indicted their general support for the additional storey provided the City could legally secure a grocery store on the site. However, the committee indicated that they would like to work with Aquilini on the design and signage for the retail space. The committee asked Aquilini if they were amenable to Kerry Williams (Cedar Cottage Neighbourhood Pub) being the KCC CityPlan liaison person.

Aquilini agreed to the committee’s request.

7. Next Meeting (John Buckberrough)

September 7, 2006 at Trout Lake Community Centre, 7 pm to 9 pm

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