In terms of Powell River residential development, even in the current building frenzy, the scale of the project brought before City of Powell River’s committee of the whole on April 3 is huge.

If completed, it will include apartment buildings and 82 duplex units built on approximately 50 hectares.

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The two apartment buildings are what city staff and council are the most excited about, as they will bring 112 rentals into a housing market sorely lacking inventory. Residents need only to visit a Powell River “for rent” social media page to have an idea of the demand.

“We plan to develop it in five phases and the first phase, we're hoping to get started on it pretty soon, is going to be for 28 duplex units,” said Cedar Creek Estates co-owner Isador Hawryluk. “Phase two is the application for rezoning and that's going to be two apartment buildings of 56 units each and a total of 112 rental units.”

Current city zoning bylaws cannot accommodate the size of the development, according to senior city planner Jason Gow, so the planning department is recommending two new higher residential density zones.

Hawryluk said building can begin as soon as possible but that hinges on how quickly the city can move the process through planning and city council’s approval.

“We do know this is a complex development, this is a complex rezoning,” said Hawryluk. “It's a regular zoning application to change it into higher density residential because we are going to be exchanging some property for a park and exchanging some park for property, so there’s going to be a swap.”

City planners have regularly brought forward development recommendations to committee of the whole, but the size and scope of the Cedar Creek project was not expected.

“We were shocked there were people thinking along those lines,” said Gow. “Definitely we were challenged from a planning perspective as to, is this the right spot, is this where we should be locating that type of density?

The location is near the convergence of Kemano Street, upper Nootka Street and the Manson Avenue extension.

“You try and stick a five-storey building anywhere else in our community and hear the uproar of adjacent property owners who are losing their view,” said Gow. “In some ways this is actually a good place to put a higher, taller building, if you can buy into the idea that in the long term that could be an area of higher density.”

Hawryluk made a permanent move to Powell River in 2010. Cedar Creek will be the first development he and his partners will build here. He said they think apartments are a good bet because there is nothing currently available and there has not been any new apartments built for a long time.

“We did a full-scale feasibility study for the whole development but we haven't done a solo for the rental project,” said Hawryluk, “but we're feeling pretty good about it and know there's nothing available and people are grabbing whatever they can.”

Hawryluk said the development had gone as far as final approval in 2008, the same year the global recession hit. Now is the time to build in Powell River, he added.

There is, however, one unknown that could impact the project: the future of Catalyst Paper Corporation’s Powell River mill.

“We're trying to keep a very close eye on that and trying to keep our ear to the ground listening to what's going on,” said Hawryluk. “I thought at first, ‘let's hold this up a little bit’ and, of course, if things start changing we're going to react accordingly, but for now we feel confident there's a demand there and we have a decent absorption rate to proceed.”