It won’t quite be a paved paradise. Affordable housing on the North Shore has been approved despite not having the minimum parking stalls that the city requires.

The apartment at 501 Tranquille Road will only have 16 parking spots, and the minimum needed would be 41. But council said yes anyways, by a 7-1 vote.

“Just as we did with climate change and bold moves… this is a bold move,” councillor Dale Bass says. “Accepting the fact that the people who are going to live there don’t have a lot of money, can’t afford a car. God knows they can’t afford $152.9 on gas today. It answers the missing middle that we talk about, that we want. And here’s a chance to actually do it.”

The apartment will have 40 rental units, with 35 dedicated as affordable housing and five for social housing, with ground floor commercial space.

Councillor Arjun Singh, who manages rental properties in Kamloops, declared a conflict of interest and did not vote.

Mayor Ken Christian voted no to the plan. He says many residents will likely park in the vicinity of that building.

“Unfortunately, the vicinity is the commercial core of the Tranquille corridor. And because we don’t have any parking restrictions within that core, we are going to see both visitors and residents parking along that core. And we are going to see businesses complain to us incessantly.”

Christian says he suspects that will lead to more conversations about restricting parking on the Tranquille corridor – potentially with paid parking.

The city’s development services director Marvin Kwiatkowski pointed out that unlike downtown, where there are two above-ground parkades, there is no such infrastructure on the North Shore for potential overflow parking.

Councillor Denis Walsh says despite the project not having enough parking, he says it is in the right location, saying it’s a walkable area and that public transit there is “excellent.”

(Photo: City of Kamloops)