The Dze L’Kant Friendship Centre through its housing society is embarking upon a plan to build a housing complex containing approximately 35 subsidized units.
It would be built at 3553 11th St. on 1.25 acres on property now owned by the District of Houston but which would be leased to the friendship centre for $1 a year for 60 years.
The lease provides Dze L’Kant with the surety it needs to support an application to the provincially-owned BC Housing agency for a grant to fully develop a proposal for construction monies.
News of the lease agreement was released from in camera by the council at its May 21 meeting.
Construction of an affordable housing complex would help fill a gap in badly needed housing of this category, consultants for the District of Houston have said.
Also released at the same meeting was another in camera item in which the District will lease a portion of the same 11 St. property to Dze L’Kant for a daycare centre for $1 a year for 20 years.
The Dze L’Kant Friendship Centre’s daycare plan for Houston would see it build a facility suitable for a blend of care options ranging from care during the day for newborns and up, to before and after school care, to pre-school and even 24-hour care for parents who work outside of regular working hours.
In both lease agreements, Dze L’Kant will bear the cost of subdividing the properties and meeting development costs.
The 11th St. property is already zoned to permit multi-family residential developments and day cares.
The location is right beside the Houston Retirement Society’s Pleasant Valley Village complex on 11th St. and is part of just over 13 acres purchased by the District of Houston in 2022.
Consultants who looked over the site did recommend the District protect a road right-of-way to the remainder of the 13 acres once an exact size of the leased property is determined.
That’s because the remainder of the property is not accessible from other directions.
The District purchased the 13-plus acres for $229,900.
As such the property fits the District’s long-term plan to establish a form of a land bank on which would be located any number of civic or other purpose-built structures.
