City staff will unveil a draft concept, which includes a park, lowrise, midrise and sites for two buildings up to 15 storeys, for the potential redevelopment of TransLink’s 13.8-acre transit centre site located near Oakridge Mall at open houses June 18 and 20.
The city, at the request of TransLink, is creating a policy statement to guide future development of the property.
Three concepts were pitched at open houses in February — the preferred option is a hybrid, according to Susan Haid, the city’s assistant director of planning for Vancouver South.
The site, located between 37th and 41st avenues and Oak and Willow streets, is expected to house about 1,250 new units at build-out of the site, for a population of approximately 2,050.
Haid said feedback from the last round of open houses didn’t identify a clear preferred option. The hybrid concept features a number of the desired elements, including a park.
“A really key feature is a large park, an approximately 2.3-acre park at the northern end of the site, which includes a play area and a daycare within it,” she said. “There is an element of a curving street, which was a piece that we saw quite a lot of preference for in the options. That was in option C. However, the hybrid picks up on that notion and some of the area context has a number of curving streets because of the topography. So it’s more picking up on that element versus making it exactly as it was in concept C.”
Haid said proposed heights remain similar to what was presented earlier this year — lowrise in the form of townhouses up to six storeys, midrise buildings up to 12 storeys, and sites for two buildings up to 15 storeys.
“I think working with this current concept, there’s a great opportunity for many units that look to a central greenspace,” she said.
Haid said public feedback gathered in February ranged from those who felt the proposed heights and density were too high, to others who thought it was about right, to still others who thought it was potentially too low for the area, which is close to Oakridge Centre — a site that’s being redeveloped and will feature among other things 11 residential towers.
“We found, in general, from the February open houses there was a reasonable level of support and I think the concepts were generally liked, but that doesn’t go to say everyone supported it,” she said. “There were definitely some that felt it was too dense and too high.”
The city still aims to include a target of 20 per cent affordable housing, the details of which would be addressed at the rezoning phase.
“It’s a very strong element of these large sites and policy statements that is required essentially from the city’s end,” she said.
Feedback will be accepted for several weeks after the June open houses.
“We’ll further develop and refine the concept plan and policy directions based on community feedback in order to prepare the policy statement for council’s consideration in the fall,” Haid told the Courier. “As part of this work, we’ll further assess residential unit and population estimates.”
The policy statement is a long-term plan, so development may occur in phases over time.
The June 18 open house runs from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. The June 20th one runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Both will be held at VanDusen Botanical Garden in Floral Hall, 5251 Oak St.
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