Ladysmith council voted on Jan. 17 not to allow 13 lots to go ahead as planned for a parcel of land off Fourth Avenue, but instead to allow the rezoning needed and continue to work with the developer to find a solution.
After touring other sites around the area, most councillors agreed while it would be attractive housing, concerns about lot size, access and parking were still present for the proposed area.
Coun. Lori Evans did not raise her hand for or against the motion, mostly because she does not feel the price point can be considered affordable housing for the Town of Ladysmith.
Evans said after touring the similar homes in the region, she found the homes are still good-size homes on small lots, meaning less the green space.
Evans said she would still like to see the town working with the developer.
Jackson is disappointed and standing by his original statement that his project will not work with less than 13 units and said plans will not be moving ahead.
“Twelve doesn’t work,” said Jackson.
“When I crunched the square footages from the size they want, 11 works,” said Jackson.
However with 11 units, the road costs are still the same and it would raise the price of the units to make up, said Jackson. At a higher price, Jackson does not see them as a hot seller in Ladysmith.
“The price point in Ladysmith is around $300,000.”
Jackson said he wanted to do more business, including a plan to build 23 condos that had already gone through re-zoning. That project is also gone, said Jackson.
“That’s 36 taxpayers and $10 million in work and $400,000 in DCCs,” said Jackson adding the figures of both projects.