The City of Williams Lake continues to look for solutions when it comes to addressing the need for more affordable housing.
Councilor Scott Nelson said the City is looking to develop a huge lot, one of the bigger ones within the City, on 9th and McKinnon Street which he also said is in a great location for multi-family development.
He added that the City has had many discussions with BC Housing regarding the redevelopment of the old Jamboree Hotel as well.
“We’ve encouraged them even to the point that we are now going to be rezoning it in advance to allow a bit of a high rise in that area, 3 to 4 stories high, 5 stories high, and that will allow them to be able to put into their plan to knock that down and build a huge affordable housing project there.”
He noted that the City is prepared to negotiate with BC Housing on that lot on 9th and Mckinnon Street and put in 10 to 15 units right there.
“You have a vacant lot right now and there’s no sense paving it we (the City) much prefer to put housing into it and at the same time encourage BC Housing to take their existing properties that they have on key pieces of property, and don’t leave them single level, go multi-level, go 3 to 5 stories high, and that’s what we need to do. So that’s what we’re encouraging the government to do, the private sector to do, and that’s what we want to do as a City as well” Nelson said.
He said the City is currently at the Union of BC Municipalities convention trying to encourage a partnership between local government and the province, or the private sector, to put housing in our community.