A proposal for 25 townhouses with a commercial component at the corner of West Saanich and Keating X roads is back before Central Saanich council.
The application, on behalf of Artisan Properties, would require an official community plan amendment and rezoning to allow for a multi-family development of 25 townhouses on the eastern 1.86 acres of the four-property site plus amending just over an acre of the western portion to neighbourhood commercial.
It would require an OCP amendment to include the properties within the urban settlement area, change the land use designation area from tourist commerical to commercial mixed use and multi-family residential and rezone the properties from tourist commercial to residential attached and neighbourhood commercial.
Because it would mean changes to the regional context statement, Capital Regional District approval is necessary for the proposal to move forward and council was tasked with deciding how and when to move the proposal to the regional board.
“It was a discussion between option two and three,” said committee chair Coun. Adam Olsen. “I put it out there that … if committee decided to send this after first reading there wouldn’t be significantly more information.”
Option three would have meant sending the initial application to the CRD as is, without any drafts of proposed bylaws.
Olsen’s preference for the more timely option was overshadowed by support for option two. That means staff, should the decision be ratified, would work on a report that goes back to council before going to the advisory planning commission in time for its June meeting. A full report is then expected back to council with draft bylaws, when it could be referred to the CRD.