West Vancouver approves plan to redevelop Inglewood Care Centre into 725-unit seniors housing complex

West Vancouver council voted unanimously on Monday, June 29 to approve Baptist Housing's redevelopment of Inglewood Care Centre into a 725-unit seniors housing complex, advancing a project that has been in planning for nine years.

The plan consolidates five buildings into four with lower heights and includes replacing the existing 230 publicly-funded long-term care beds with a new 364-bed facility. All 230 existing beds will remain operational during the first phase of construction while the new long-term care home is built.

A second phase will add an eight-storey, 161-unit seniors rental building with 20 per cent of units below market rates, plus a nine-storey, 200-unit independent-living building. The project includes 349 parking spaces and a larger open space designed as a park-like setting. Baptist Housing also bought four single-family properties on Burley Drive to buffer the care centre from the surrounding neighbourhood.

Council waived $1 million in development cost charges, citing the project's community benefit. The new long-term care facility will use a "household model" with 14 residents per household—a departure from institutional hospital-style environments.

"Institutional style care environments that look like hospitals are no longer fit for today. And the existing Inglewood Care Centre does not meet the needs of today or tomorrow," Baptist Housing CEO Marc Kinna said at the public hearing.

The overwhelming public support at the hearing surprised even council members. Coun. Peter Lambur, who initially walked out in an attempt to delay the vote, acknowledged the massive turnout: "It's unlike anything that I have seen in my tenure on council." B.C.'s Seniors Advocate had called the project "essential," particularly after the province shelved seven planned care homes over escalating costs.