After five years in the development queue, the District of North Vancouver council voted against the Maplewood Gardens proposal on Monday.
Darwin Properties and QuadReal Property Group had teamed up on the mixed-use redevelopment, aiming to construct five buildings containing 374 condominiums, 99 market rental homes and 80 below-market rentals, as well as a retail village.
The site’s 4.4-acre lot — located at 2131-2171 Old Dollarton Road, west of Riverside Drive — is currently occupied by light industrial buildings and a rowhouse complex containing 58 apartment units that was built in 1972.
The two-phase development would have replaced those units and transformed an entire city block, constructing North Vancouver’s first mass timber residential building around a 2.9-acre central courtyard.
Underground levels on the site would have accommodated approximately 600 EV-wired parking stalls and 1,000 bicycle spaces.
The developers designed the proposal to meet the district’s official community plan and Maplewood village centre plan, although a split council voted 4-3 to prevent the development from advancing to a public hearing.
Mayor Mike Little specifically opposed the project’s height, with developers envisioning a 12-storey tower as the tallest of Maplewood Gardens’ five buildings.
“I’ve been very open with this developer from the very beginning, very early stages on this one, saying that I didn’t think tower format was appropriate for the Maplewood area,” Little said.
Council members also raised concerns regarding the amount of existing traffic congestion in the area and number of market-priced units included in the proposal.
“In the 2018 election, I made a promise to vote for rental, social, supportive and affordable housing and against market housing,” said councillor Jim Hanson. “There’s too much market housing and too many parking spaces.”
