Moving ahead: Government Road development opened up for comment at public hearing
By Timothy Schafer Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The re-envisioning of the Government Road project has taken another step forward to reality.
A public hearing on Tuesday, May 9 in city council chambers turned up no objections to the bylaw amendments to allow for a mixed-use development within the existing unfinished building at 45 Government Road.
According to the applicant — Gerrard Station Development Co Inc — attracting uses that would fit within the confines of the existing (MU4) zone and within the constraints of the existing building has not been successful.
“The MU3 zone would allow greater flexibility for the land owner and help with attracting various tenants,” said City director of Development Services and Climate Leadership, Sebastien Arcand, in his report to city council at the hearing. “From a land use perspective, the major difference between these zones is that the MU3 allows for ‘multi-unit residential’ as a main use as well as allows for ‘professional offices.’”
Arcand said the proposed use should not create any conflicts with the existing uses of buildings in the area.
“In the future, the adjacent MU4 zoned properties could allow for other uses such as light industrial, warehousing and commercial storage,” he wrote. “However, staff are of the opinion that these uses would be similar to what is currently existing and therefore the risk for incompatibility in land uses should be fairly low.”
After beginning construction as a cannabis operation that offered various services for the growing industry three years ago, the 45 Government Road development ground to a halt a few months into construction.
Citing “changing financial times and a drop in the price of cannabis,” the owners at the time — Nelson Cannabis Collective — began envisioning the four-storey building not as a processing facility for cannabis, but a commercial, light industrial for-lease property.
Fast forward two years and the owners — now called the Gerrard Station Development Co. Inc. which includes Phil Pinfold, Pete Pinfold and Mitchell Scott — of the unfinished building are shuffling the deck again, looking to create a mix of commercial and residential use in order to complete the concrete construct.
Under an MU3 zone — that is specific to the Railtown neighbourhood — the owners’ tentative plan is for the building to be finished in a way to accommodate an occupancy of 70 per cent residential (up to 24 units) and 30 per cent commercial, with the option to create tourist accommodation as well.
Amendments
The applicant is seeking the following amendments:
• mixed-use commercial/industrial designation to mixed-use residential;
• from MU4 “waterfront mixed use – industrial commercial” to MU3 “Railtown mixed-use – residential and commercial” and tourist accommodation use; and
• downtown parking amendment.
“Staff believe the bylaws are appropriate and generally consistent with the OCP,” said Arcand.
The road to here
The property was rezoned in 2020 from MU4 (waterfront mixed use — industrial and commercial zone) to MU4 with a site-specific use to allow for a cannabis operation.
“Due to various reasons … the applicant is no longer able to pursue this specific land use,” said Arcand. “The applicant is seeking a zone that would allow for broader flexibility in the type of commercial uses as well as residential.”
The MU3 zone is specific to the Railtown neighbourhood and would be aligned with the new project proposal, requiring that the designation be changed to mixed-use residential.
At this time, the tentative plan is for the building to be finished in a way to accommodate an occupancy of 70 per cent residential (up to 24 units) and 30 per cent commercial, with an option to create tourist accommodation.
“This use is not specifically permitted and would need to be added as a specific permitted use for this property only,” said Arcand.
The current site plan provides for 53 parking stalls.
“However, under the current Off-Street Parking and Landscape Bylaw, if this building is fully occupied with a mix of residential and commercial as proposed, the parking requirement would be 65 stalls which won’t be achievable on-site,” Arcand explained. “Therefore, the applicant is requesting that the subject property be included in the downtown parking area.”
Affordable housing
Gerrard Station Development Co Inc can voluntarily provide one or both of the following in order to meet the need for affordable housing in Nelson:
• developments which are proposed to contain 20 or more residential units to designate a minimum of five per cent of all residential dwelling units as affordable housing units; and
• voluntary contribution to the City’s affordable housing fund.
Arcand said common practice has been to encourage a voluntary contribution of $500 to $1,000 per unit, but since the project is not adding additional density — the building footprint is not changing — it is offering greater flexibility for residential uses.
Under the current proposal, the project would include, in addition to commercial space, 31 small units in the 500 sq.ft. range.
“These would be market rent but will likely fall under the affordability criteria for a segment of the population,” said Arcand in his report. “At this time, the applicant is exploring various options which may create affordability within the development. One of these options is to work within the CMHC MLI Select program financing which requires a component of affordable rent.”
Site contamination
The Ministry of Environment issued a Certificate of Compliance (COC) for the subject property in May 2016.
The COC confirmed that the site was satisfactorily remediated to meet applicable contaminated sites regulation remediation standards and hazardous waste regulation standards, on the following conditions, which are all met by the present application:
• new buildings on site must be slab-on-grade construction;
• no fruit or nut-bearing trees are to be established;
• structures or facilities that would attract children (i.e. playgrounds) must not be constructed; and
• groundwater must not be used for drinking.
Given the new proposal, which will likely include residential, the applicant retained an environmental consultant to conduct a human health and ecological risk evaluation.
Source: City council agenda, April 11
