West Vancouver’s newest neighbourhood is taking baby steps up Cypress Mountain. The concept behind the District of West Vancouver’s proposed Cypress Village project is to create a mountainside development clustered around a mixed-use village, with access to mountain recreation as well as housing for a range of ages and incomes.
District of West Vancouver director of planning and development services Jim Bailey said planning the new community will be carried out in two phases.
“The first phase is that we’re setting a number of conditions before getting into detailed physical planning. We want to determine what the key elements are to building a village in that area,” Bailey said.
“The key question is how can we build a sustainable village, served by transit and transportation? We’ve hired a program manager that is leading that work and will work with consultants to get answers and ‘create the sandbox’ we’ll operate in.”
“Over the next year or at least the next several months we’ll be assessing pre-conditions, assessing where we’re at, and come to an agreement,” Bailey added.
The district has also released an Expression of Interest for consulting work on the project.
Bailey said while nothing has been formalized to expect an announcement “soon.”
Further questions include the right mix of amenities and residences, and how the project will be funded, he said.
The project will emphasize density which means balancing between environmental concerns and maximizing multi-use residential and retail.
“In terms of construction challenges, it’s on a slope, which is one of the main issues. We’re also sensitive to topography, water courses and wetlands. British Pacific Properties (BPP) is working to identify and protect those areas,” Bailey said.
BPP owns the land and has a history stretching back to the 1930s as a Vancouver developer.
The company, backed by money from the Guinness brewery family, built the Lions Gate Bridge in 1938.
Similarly, the idea to create a village for the area isn’t new, Bailey said, and is in the current West Vancouver official community plan adopted in 2004.
“BPP has traditionally focused on single family housing,” Bailey said. “This will be more dense, multi-use, and it’s not spreading across the entire hill so there will be parks and other areas.
“It’s more of an evolution than a departure,” Bailey added, citing BPP’s recent work on the nearby Rodgers Creek area, which features not only single-family homes but also apartments and condominiums.
He also pointed out that most people don’t realize the zoning for the project is already in place.
“It’s zoned for single family. It’s not actually a park,” he said, though the Cypress Village project would include residential parkland.
The project, he said, is “not ‘we can’t do it’ but more ‘what’s the appropriate scale?’ We’re digging into it. It’s an exciting time to do this.”
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