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93 apartments planned in Nanaimo's newly named 'Midtown Gateway' area

Design advisory panel recommends project advance to next stage of development permit process

Connecting roads for Nanaimo’s 'Midtown Gateway' project has cleared a path for a 93-unit apartment building in central Nanaimo.

At a meeting Thursday, Jan. 9, the city’s design advisory panel had a look at plans for Lumière, a project comprised of three three-storey multi-family rental apartment buildings with a single-storey common amenity building, at 1960 Mountain Vista Dr. on 2.26 hectares between Mountain Vista Drive and Powder Works Road. Both roads were recently connected to Boxwood and Rosstown roads as part of the Midtown Gateway project. 

The project’s three residential buildings will offer a combined total of 32 studio apartments ranging in size from 377 to 484 square feet; 37 one-bedroom units 592 to 646 sq. ft.; 18 two-bedroom suites 840 to 860 sq. ft.; and six three-bedroom apartments 1,109 sq. ft. Of the 93 units, 15 per cent are designed to be accessible.

The property is a brownfield site once used for coal mining. As part of site remediation, coal tailings were piled onto two hills and planted with native trees and vegetation to create forests. 

“The proposed building layout is carefully planned to respect the existing mine shaft location and leverage the surrounding private forest established during the remediation of the site,” said Darren Moss, representative of project owner Loxley Developments Inc.

Moss said the project prioritizes energy efficiency and resiliency through its form, materials and mechanical systems and described the buildings as “simple stack building forms” that use exterior materials chosen for resilience and low maintenance. 

Moss said the project will meet or exceed Step 3 of the B.C. Building Code and a minimum 25 kilowatts of solar cells will be installed as part of the original construction. David Poiron, architect, noted that more solar power generating capacity could be added to the residential buildings in the future.

“We can’t commit to it yet, but it’s something we’ve been discussing … All of those residential buildings will be solar ready, so the intent is to go in that direction,” Poiron said.  

The panel recommended the project despite building height and parking variance requests. The area’s zoning limits maximum height for a building with a flat roof to seven metres. Applicant, Checkwitch Poiron Architects Inc., proposed heights of 10.1 to 10.8 metres for the three residential buildings to create the density needed to offset additional costs and challenges of building on the brownfield site. 

Lumière also proposed 94 on-site parking stalls, with electrical charging to meet the bylaw requirements, for its 93 residential units – about 40 fewer than normally required by the city this size project – plus 30 on-street parking stalls on the east side of Mountain Vista Drive. 

“We are not requesting any additional density, however, the building heights and parking variances we are requesting balances the unique site constraints against the need to create a financially viable project,” Moss said.

Hilary Eastmure, city councillor and panel member, said she had no problem with the height variance request. She noted positive aspects of the project, including the technologies employed to reduce energy consumption, and indicated she was pleased to see a brownfield site "re-imagined in this way.”

The panel unanimously sending the project to the next stage of development permitting, while also making several recommendations that included adding on-site visitor parking spots, and adding planting for privacy in consideration of neighbouring homes.

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Chris Bush

About the Author: Chris Bush

As a photographer/reporter with the Nanaimo News Bulletin since 1998.
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