The Canadian Princess Resort will take another crack at an expansion proposal after hearing concerns from the community during a special council meeting last week.
The resort is proposing a new 50-room addition to its 1943 Peninsula Road location that would stand roughly 15 metres high as well as a new sidewalk and extensive landscaping in the area, which sits adjacent to Ucluelet’s inner harbour.
The resort currently consists of 46 hotel rooms in three buildings, as well as an office building at the front of the property. The Canadian Princess vessel, which once housed an additional 32 hotel rooms as well as a restaurant and lounge, was removed in 2016.
The site is zoned for hotel use and the additional 50 rooms proposed would not have pushed the resort over its allowable density, but the height triggered a public input process for a development variance permit because the maximum allowable height for a building in Ucluelet is 12 metres. The resort also requested a decrease in the amount of required parking spaces from 99 to 92.
That process played out during Aug. 21’s special council meeting, where locals expressed vehement concern over both variances, suggesting the height and parking requirements should be enforced.
Resident Jens Heyduck said the new building would “stick out like a sore thumb” and dominate Peninsula Road’s harbour view.
“It just boggles my mind a little bit,” he said. “It’s not an improvement, it’s going in the exact opposite way. It feels like a sell out and not much more than that. I don’t think we’d be having this discussion and this design proposal if we were in Tofino.”
Brent Hohlweg said Ucluelet must keep its “quaint fishing village” feel and not allow a “box building that [tourists] just left Nanaimo and looked at,” to be built in such a prominent location.
“Building a 51-foot building as our welcome entrance to basically the core of our economy, which is these tourists coming here, seems almost ludicrous,” he said.
The expansion’s architect Alan Lowe explained the added height was needed to create 50 additional rooms within a narrow building to preserve the view of the harbour from Peninsula Road, rather than creating a lower, 12 metre, building that spanned across the harbour front.
Council agreed with the residents’ concerns and unanimously voted to direct their staff to work with the applicant on a new proposal.
“I do like the elements that have been used in the construction and the landscaping looks like it’s going to be a great plan but, having said that, the feeling in the room tonight is definitely not 100 per cent in favour of this design. So, I’m thinking, there might be room to improve somewhat,” said Coun. Marilyn McEwen.
The expansion’s project manager Kevin Ryu told the Westerly News on Aug. 23 that he appreciated hearing the community’s input and that work on a new design began immediately after the meeting.
“We are already working on new drawings right now, exploring different options,” he said adding the resort will likely submit a new proposal that does not include variances on height or parking.
“What I understood from the meeting was that the development permit variance was the problem. So, we are thinking not to ask for any variance and keep everything inside what the current zoning says.
Maybe, that way, we can make the council and the community a little more satisfied with our plans.”
He added that the resort’s initial plan had been for a shorter, wider, building.
“We did have a lower building planned, but our thought was that the lower building would block more view. That’s why we went with a taller building,” he said.
Ucluelet’s Manager of Planning Bruce Greig told the Westerly News that if the resort submits a new proposal without asking for the increased height or parking variances, they would not need to go through the same public input process.
“The variance triggers a requirement for notification and public input, a development permit without variances does not,” he said.
He said a development permit application would be considered by council at an open meeting.
“Council should be authorizing that permit if it complies with the guidelines that are adopted in the OCP [Official Community Plan] and they’re really about the form and character of the development,” he said.
“Design is subjective…The guidelines point to a number of elements that the design should incorporate, but ultimately council is the deciding body on whether they are adequately meeting those guidelines.”
He said district staff believed the taller building the resort had proposed would have protected Peninsula Road’s views of the small craft harbour.
“We were recommending support for that design, which would have been taller, but would have been narrower to keep a wider view corridor,” he said. “And, with the way they had designed the street improvements with the walkway in there, there would be quite a bit that the public would gain both visually and in access on the water front.”
He added the applicant had offered a right of way that would have allowed the district to create a public path along the water front.
“That’s something that we can’t require, but they were offering that up with this proposal. So we’ll see, if they make a revised proposal, what elements are in there if they’re having to shrink or change the building,” he said.
