Staff recommend Vancouver council choose slowest pace of development for Broadway Plan
City of Vancouver planners are recommending council choose the slowest pace of development for some areas of the Broadway Plan.
The recommendation would see five projects built per year in designated locations covered by the plan, and is part of the “pace-of-change” policy, designed to prevent people from being displaced at some of the city's oldest and most affordable apartments.
Coun. Pete Fry said under this option, staff are anticipating that about 180 households per year would be displaced. He said developers who are frustrated with the potential policy should look to other areas along the Broadway Corridor.
“There’s still open season on redeveloping the station areas, and parking lots, warehouses and what have you,” Fry said. “It’s just, we’re concerned about the loss of the affordable rentals in the area, and we want to make sure we do it slow and measured.”
Sasha Faris, president of First Track Development, a group with a few projects proposed along Broadway, called the staff recommendation an “about-face.”
"Trying to shore up the ability to have more densification by only five projects per year, this is the complete opposite direction of trying to fix the housing crisis,” Faris said.
Other stakeholders – such as Landlord BC – agree. That group calls the proposed policy “unnecessary overkill.” The province also encouraged council to not go this route.
“We’re in a housing crisis and we’ve already gone through this public consultation," said Ravi Khalon, B.C.'s Housing Minister. "We’ve approved this project over three years and it’s about time we get to work.”
Mazdak Gharibnavaz, a volunteer with the Vancouver Tenants Union said the group would like to see as little displacement as possible. He told CTV News the VTU conducted a survey of renters that would be impacted by the redevelopment of the Broadway Corridor and found that over a quarter of residents have been there for at least a decade.
“It’s really the people that live in these neighborhoods that have made these neighborhoods and if you tear out the people from the neigbourhoods, then you’re destroy the neighborhoods themselves,” he said.
Coun. Rebecca Bligh told CTV News all options are on the table when council votes on March 29, including scrapping the policy.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
Stormy Daniels describes meeting Trump during occasionally graphic testimony in hush money trial
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
U.S. paused bomb shipment to Israel to signal concerns over Rafah invasion, official says
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Former homicide detective explains how police will investigate shooting outside Drake's Bridle Path mansion
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
Northern Ont. woman makes 'eggstraordinary' find
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, who played spirited cheerleader Patty Simcox in 'Grease,' dead at 72
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Jeremy Skibicki has 'uphill battle' to prove he's not criminally responsible in Winnipeg killings: legal analysts
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
Bye-bye bag fee: Calgary repeals single-use bylaw
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Alcohol believed to be a factor in boating incident after 2 men die: N.S. RCMP
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.