Affordable living for renters without cars is coming to downtown Victoria.
A development that’s been in the works since 2017 has been given the stamp of approval at a city council meeting on Thursday, February 22nd.
The development is a 269-unit, 23-storey building, located at 937 View Street and is intended solely for the rental market. It is being built in order to address the city’s growing housing needs.
It is being developed by Nelson Investments, who are a family owned company with ties to Victoria, Vancouver Island and Vancouver.
Nelson Investments says that they saw an opportunity in developing this project because the Harris Green area features a walking score of 98, cycling score of 98 and transit score of 92, making it one of the best locations in the city to live without a car.
They believe that because of the ideal location for those without vehicles, it will be one of Victoria’s most sought after places to live.
To this point, Mayor Marianne Alto commented that she supports this project in part because she’d “rather support homes for people rather than homes for cars.”
Nelson Investments hired Vancouver Island-based, dHK Architects to design the project and they delivered a contemporary building with shared community space in mind.
The new building at 937 View Street will feature a large, shared rooftop amenity space with an outdoor kitchen and plenty of seating and they plan on the entire 6th floor to be a community space for residents with a community garden being the feature.
The first floor designs include three ground-oriented homes and a large café space with outdoor seating.
Rather than committing to a large parkade space, this building is targeting those without vehicles and will instead feature a modern, secure bicycle storage room with room for oversized bikes, e-bike charging, bike repair and wash station.
Nelson Investments says that the aim with this development is to provide affordable purpose-built rentals that are high-quality and welcoming.
The units in this building are small by design, with the average unit being around 389 square feet. Council also commented on this at length, but ultimately they agreed that these units will be able to provide housing to many students, gig workers and those who are employed with low to middle incomes who work downtown.
Victoria’s city council reviewed their development application at length in Thursday’s council meeting, and in the end, the vote to approve the building was seven to two, with Councillors Marg Gardiner and Stephen Hammond being those who opposed.
