New Westminster city council will entertain a proposal for a mixed use project on Carnarvon Street at an upcoming public hearing.
Domus Homes is proposing to build a mixed-use project that would include 204 market condominiums in a 32-storey building and 66 non-market rental units in an eight-storey building, which would be linked by a three-storey podium, at 813 to 823 Carnarvon St. The development would also include at-grade commercial space facing Carnarvon Street.
“Some of the key urban design things we are trying to achieve with this project really relate to the streetscape and the interaction with pedestrians on Carnarvon Street. There has been much discussion about the way Carnarvon Street feels right now, and we think this project will help to improve that condition for pedestrians on the street,” said Richard Wittstock, a managing partner of Domus Homes. “We have a two- to three-storey podium, very human-scale, along Carnarvon Street, with ground-floor retail and restaurant space spilling out onto a public piazza on the corner. The southwest corner of the site should get the maximum natural light and be a great place for pedestrians to sit and relax and rest.”
Domus is building the non-market housing for Performing Arts Lodges Vancouver, a non-profit that will provide veterans of the performing arts industry with affordable housing.
“In keeping with the performing arts, it just seemed natural to play on that in terms of the naming and identity of the project. The project, going forward we are referring to it as Stage New Westminster,” Wittstock said. “We are really proud of the association with the arts that we can bring to this project.”
Gary Glacken, executive director of PAL Vancouver, said the group’s mission is to provide members of the performing arts community with affordable housing in a vibrant and creative community setting.
“We have an unmet demand right now of 100-plus people right now on our waiting list who have been pre-qualified,” he said. “Many of those people are actually living in New Westminster now.”
New Westminster city council will consider a zoning amendment bylaw that would allow the project to proceed at a public hearing on Monday, March 5 at 6 p.m. in council chambers. The applicant is proposing to rezone the site from downtown mixed use districts (high density) to comprehensive development districts (813 Carnarvon St.)
