A plan for a five-storey downtown Nanaimo residential rental building with 31 micro-units has been approved in a unanimous vote by city council.
Council agreed to issue a development permit for the project in the old city quarter on the west side of downtown.
Units in the project are expected to be 322 to 365 square feet, and the building will take up 100 per cent of its lot at 337 Robson St., which is allowed in Nanaimo’s downtown zone.
Plans call for outdoor amenity space on the fifth floor of the building, which will be partly stepped back. The development permit included a request to build an additional 13 feet, which was granted. That will make the building’s height similar to that of the nearby St. Andrew’s United Church.
The property is currently a gravel parking lot without any trees or significant vegetation, in an area with a mix of commercial and residential uses as well as the church.
The developer is a numbered company based in Surrey, with directors listed on government records as Vishav Jyoti and Ravinder Singh Sidhu.
The building is being developed as a rental property for car-free tenants. The site is close to services and public transit.
A development project had been issued for the project in 2019 but it did not proceed and the permit expired in 2021. The revised plan is for a wood-frame building, rather than a modular structure, as had been proposed earlier.
“It is incredibly encouraging seeing this type of development happening in the downtown,” Coun. Ben Geselbracht said at this past week’s council meeting.
The micro-unit project and others underway will “substantially increase” housing availability, he said, adding that higher density will make downtown more vibrant.
Micro-units, which are typically 200 to 400 square feet, already exist in Victoria and other communities, including Vancouver. Examples of micro-units in the capital region are in the Janion building at 456 Pandora Ave. and at 840 Fort St.
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