Lower Lonsdale Development Guide

Here is a quick look at the meat & potato's of what is going on in Lower Lonsdale in terms of existing and future development.

Quite frankly the City of North Vancouver's web site (www.cnv.org) is so poorly produced it is difficult to sift through it to find the interesting bits. Some of their links don't work, many pages are old & very little is dated so it's hard to tell what's current .

Use the zoom in / out control on Acrobat Reader to get a better look at the pictures and buildings.

This model of "The Pier" development and waterfront plan is the most accurate to date in regards to the new development. If you compare the model to some of the pictures I've included from summer of 2007 you will understand where everything is located. Essentially, looking at the first model picture on the left just remember the hotel is on the south east corner of Esplanade & Lonsdale. The second model picture would be looking south from the lane just north of Esplanade. (The red roofed buildings are now gone to hopefully make way for a maritime museum.)

Click the picture to view larger versions.

Here are some great photos of the soon to be built hotel. I've labeled some of the streets in yellow.

Click the photos for larger pictures.

The picture of what appears to be the model on the left is the retail / office / live work building being built by Pinnacle as part of the Pier project on the N.E. corner of Lonsdale & Esplanade.

The rendering on the right is the hotel. These images came off Pinnacle's web site.

Here's a quick map I've made showing the location of these buildings for anyone not really familiar with Lower Lonsdale.

I had to make it fairly large to show the building numbers and streets around these developments any smaller and it would be too small to read.

You can download the above & below PDFs for maps showing the Pier and other projects.

The hideous dirt lot at 83 Chesterfield is for sale. This is directly north across the lane from the movie theater. Proposed 7 stories commercial / residential with 3 levels of underground parking. Asking approx. 2,980,000

Proposed - National Maritime Centre for the Pacific and the Arctic

Click one of the above images to download the 31 page 7,831 KB colour PDF titled:
"Town Hall Meeting, City of North Vancouver May 25th, 2006"

Click here for a link to the "Waterfront Project" page at the City.

Potential View Corridors East of Lonsdale

Click to open a larger version.

Looking north from east Esplanade
with The Pier in the foreground.

A good look at the currently "on hold" Site 10 and Site 12 on east 1st.

Looking east at Site 10. This plan shows it being built on the City's parking lot.

Looking southbound with the Olympic on the right. This is the real view corridor.

The City currently has Sites 10 & 12 on hold purportedly due to over work. However, based on their previous decisions this could very well be what it will look like.

I feel strongly that they will build on the parking lot so if any changes were to be made it would probably be eliminating site 12 and increasing the height of site 10 which I would agree with. I always felt "Time" should have been one tall tower instead of two medium sized view blockers.

The above is only speculation I have know idea what the City may due.

NEW - At their March 3, 2008 meeting, Council adopted the following staff recommendation:

NEW - " The applicants, Millennium Development, and the City have received considerable input on this application since it was referred to the public last fall. As a result of public concerns over the height of the proposed 410 ft tower, Millennium has decided to amend their application and they are no longer pursuing that option.

Millennium is currently investigating alternative development options for a lower building that takes into account a variety of factors including site constraints, market feasibility and City needs/aspirations for both Site 8 & the Foot of Lonsdale. This includes a reconsideration of possible public amenities and future phasing.

This new information being prepared by Millennium will be assessed by staff and presented to Council for preliminary consideration in March. At that time, Council will decide how to process this revised application. Any further consideration of a new proposal would be referred to a new public process for further input.

A recent Information Report presents the latest status of this application. Both the City and applicant appreciate people having taken the time to provide input. " - Quoted directly from the City of North Vancouver Web Page.

" The City of North Vancouver has received a combined Official Community Plan (OCP) Amendment and Rezoning application for the Foot of Lonsdale Avenue and 119, 127 and 131 West Esplanade/120 Carrie Cates Court (known as Site 8).

The application proposes to revitalize the Foot of Lonsdale with new waterfront access, public pier, floating public swimming pool, streetcar stationary display, commercial uses and a new location for the Presentation House Gallery. The density to be applied to this site is 2.6 FSR with a limited amount to be built on-site and the remainder to be transferred to Site 8.

Site 8 would be developed with a new mixed use building at 2.6 FSR plus the transferred density from the Ft. of Lonsdale. The new building would include 65,000 sq ft of retail/office space and 245,000 sq.ft. of residential space (total 310,000 sq.ft.). This is proposed to include a 36 storey landmark building designed to serve as a marker for the Lonsdale Town Centre. The building height requires an OCP amendment. " - Quoted directly from the City of North Vancouver Web Page.

Central Lonsdale Development Guide

The Lower Lonsdale Neighbourhood Development Guide page was starting to get a little long so I have created a new page for Central Lonsdale. As far as I know there is no actual City produced Central Lonsdale Guide like there is for Lower Lonsdale, however, for continuity I'm calling it a guide as well. We'll just consider it my guide.

This page for now, sticks to the now under construction Library Civic Centre Plaza and surrounding buildings. All I am doing here is providing the same info the City has on it's web site, just in a more concise form.

I actually use the library quite a lot & as far as I am concerned this area really is the center of downtown North Van.

This is a nice rendering of the now under construction Library Civic Centre Plaza. This is looking eastward from 14th and Chesterfield.

This is a picture I took on March 8th, 2007 of the model at City hall. We are looking at it from the S.W. corner of 13th & Chesterfield. The two towers (Intracorp's "Vista", see below) appear to be lit up.

The model also shows the rental apartment tower being built directly to the north of the west Vista tower - 1332 - 1360 Chesterfield.

Click here or on the rendering above
to download the 4,176 kb 15 page colour
library PDF produced by the City.