The City of Williams Lake is placing a bid to redevelop property at the former Poplar Glade Site.
The bid that’s being placed follows School District 27’s request for offers earlier this month. With the City placing a bid, they plan to put up housing on the property when everything concludes. It’s still unclear when exactly the housing would start construction.
“As soon as possible. That was the idea of us putting in the bid, so we would have some ability to get something right away.” says Walt Cobb, Mayor of Williams Lake.
“We will not be the developers. We will find a developer to develop it.”
Mayor Cobb also points out that it’s unclear what housing would be in place. This would be apartments, houses, and whether it’ll fall under low income housing or not.
“It would be a combination, I would think. We did a housing study here years ago, and it indicated how many homes we needed and what kind of homes.”
In 2021, a joint housing study commissioned by the City of Williams Lake and Cariboo Regional District recognized a need for 800 new housing units within a decade.
The City has been preparing for the site availability since discussions started with School District 27 in 2019.
Mayor Cobb said that the City is looking forward to working with any developer or partner that shares the Council’s vision to increase the City’s housing stock.