Cheryl Rossi
Van. Courier
More than a year after a proposal to put a Home Depot on West Broadway at Maple Street was defeated at city hall, another development proposal for an adjacent lot is being treated with skepticism by some local residents.
The newest proposal includes a larger liquor store and a slightly smaller grocery store than the B.C. Liquor Store and IGA west across Maple. The proposed six-story building at 1996 West Broadway includes a community policing centre, approximately 49 market condos and three levels of underground parking. The site now comprises a vacant lot and a building housing Finlandia Natural Pharmacy.
Brook Development plans to submit a preliminary development permit application to the city next week on behalf of the site’s owner, Staburn Property Group.
Laurie Schmidt, an associate with Brook Development, said he’s heard concerns about loitering and bottle returns at the liquor store. He said a nearby designated bottle return location is being discussed. He said with extra eyes on the street from the residents above and the community policing centre, any problems would be minimized.
Consulting firm AJ Pottinger & Associates Ltd. has compiled neighbours’ responses to questionnaires but the results were not available at press time. Schmidt said Pottinger is beginning consultations with local strata councils, churches and schools.
Sean McEwan, a member of the Kitsilano-Arbutus Residents Association and an architect, said the size of the development is all wrong.
“It was always the intent of the neighbourhood here, and I’ve been here for a long time, to try to encourage a new kind of Kerrisdale feel to the Arbutus and Broadway area and the character of what’s proposed is exactly the antithesis, as was the Home Depot development where it was very corporately presented and on just too massive a scale as a single building,” he said.
McEwan would like to see the city devise more distinct design guidelines regarding this part of Broadway.
Last year the residents association and other groups helped defeat a proposal to replace the IGA and liquor store with a 70,000-square-foot Home Depot. The company has no development plans at present.
The leases of the IGA and grocery store expire next year.
A mixed-use development will fill the block between Yew and Vine. A London Drugs and a grocery store are expected to fill the commercial space.