Council approves 84-unit apartment on Clements Crescent

JOANNE LAYH

It was a bit touch and go for a few minutes, but Porchlight Developments’ proposal for a four-storey 84-unit multi-residential building in the Clements neighbourhood received final adoption from Peachland council on Tuesday night.

As a result, the OCP will be amended from Low Density Residential (LDR) to Medium Density Residential (MDR) for a portion of the property and the parcel will be rezoned from A2 Rural (non-ALR) to RM4 Multi-unit Residential – Medium Density and R1 Single Detached Residential to allow the developer to build rental apartments at 5481 Clements Cres., which is located between Peachland Elementary School and Trepanier Creek.

In his report to council, director of planning and development services Darin Schaal summarized his rationale for recommending the project by stating that the development will help diversify the housing stock in a neighbourhood that is ideally situated for multi-family development and the location is ideally situated for multi-family rental development due to the proximity of the property to the elementary school, outdoor recreational opportunities, public transit, library, grocery store, bank, pharmacy and medical services.

When the proposal came to council for first and second readings last March, Porchlight, also the developer for the Crystal Lake development on the former Todd’s RV site, was initially proposing a stratified building with an affordable homeownership model but later proposed the building consist of rental units.

Schaal noted the developer has committed to ensuring an affordable housing stock in perpetuity using legal covenants to restrict short-term rentals.

In addition, he said that the proposed infill development makes more efficient use of municipal services and the on-site frontage improvements and off-site

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