North Cowichan - 2983 Drinkwater Road
Creating safe homes for people in North Cowichan
BC Housing is building 51 new permanent supportive homes at 2983 Drinkwater Road. The housing will be operated by Lookout Housing and Health Society. Lookout Housing and Health Society will have staff onsite 24/7. They will also work with community service partners to provide supports to residents. We expect construction to begin in February 2021.
Design Details
The development permit for this project was submitted in the fall of 2020. You can learn more about the design for this site below:
Property and Landscaping Design
Design Considerations
This property is located in the Bell McKinnon Local Area Plan (BMLAP) area:
- Improving the range of housing choices in the neighbourhood for a range of incomes
- Supporting initiatives and program that alleviate poverty
- Using colours and materials that fit with the cultural and historical context of the location
- Being pedestrian friendly
- Providing green spaces and functional landscape design
- Using an energy efficient design
Tree Protection and Placement Considerations
There are 56 trees on the property. The landscape design preserves as many of the trees as possible. It also adds new trees to the property. You can see the tree placement plan in the Property and Landscaping Design presentation
The development permit requires 40% tree canopy cover on the property. This plan exceeds this threshold at full development.
The following guidelines were followed when choosing tree locations (distances measured from centre of trunk):
- 2 metres from all driveways
- 1.0 metre from the back of a sidewalk
- 2.5 metres from the back of a curb
- 1.5 metres from all sewer and drainage connections
- 1.5 metres from all water services
- 1.5 metres from all fire hydrants
- 6.0 metres from all streetlight poles
- 3.0 Metres from all utility poles
What is Supportive Housing?
You can learn more about supportive housing here
Engaging with Neighbours
BC Housing held two virtual neighbourhood dialogue sessions to discuss the project with neighbours on August 18, 2020.
If you have any questions about this project please contact us at communityrelations@bchousing.org. You can also leave comments and questions below.
Please share your ideas for how we can support and build an inclusive community where everyone has the opportunity for a safe and healthy place to live.