2nd Street Housing Project Parking Discussed by Council

What exactly is happening with BC Housing’s proposed 2nd Street project in Grand Forks? City Council received a presentation last Monday and a recommendation was made to authorize the neighbourhood notification process for a parking space requirement reduction at 7382 2nd Street. The delegation was an architect from Cover Architectural Collaborative in Nelson, a firm hired by BC Housing for technical operations, but the project presented didn’t match what council expected.

Councillor Christine Thompson says she’s annoyed. “I do believe that BC Housing needs to be made aware, that this Councillor in particular and I don’t know about the rest of Council if I would have their support or not, to get this back to the drawing board this is just totally unacceptable and not what was promised.”

A previous City Councillor, Chris Hammett, was in the gallery to read a letter regarding reconsidering that project. “Saying thank-you again for giving me the opportunity to speak to you last Monday September the 24th about BC Housing’s plan to develop a supportive housing project in your community. I have now had an opportunity to carefully assess how best to proceed and would like to inform you that BC Housing is considering a different approach.”

However many of the details possessed by council, the delegation, or the letter, did not sync up in terms of room numbers, room types, services and so on. An up to 50-unit housing project with 24/7 support services was initially proposed in September.

In discussion with Mayor Brian Taylor, Rod Zielinski says it’s up to the proponent to provide the right product, but it’s council’s process to follow. “I’m just going on the idea that we have a development process regardless of what the project is in place, and I would prefer to receive it as information and let staff do their thing and then…” ‘Which would mean sending out information as is?‘ “Yeah it’s not our information it’s our process and I just think we have to be consistent in our process with any developer.”

In the end council postponed the decision until the situation becomes more clear.