Forthcoming amendments to the policies and regulations of the City of Vancouver’s Broadway Plan would increase allowable tower heights and densities in select areas.
Following public consultation in June 2024, the amendments being recommended by City staff will be presented to Vancouver City Council next week for deliberation and final approval before the end of December 2024.
When the Broadway Plan was first approved in June 2022 by the previous City Council, the densification policies were expected to enable 30,000 net new additional homes for 50,000 net new additional residents, plus 42,000 net new additional jobs.
This would serve to further grow the Central Broadway area into Vancouver’s second city centre. This area is already the second-largest employment hub in Metro Vancouver regarding the number of jobs.
The forthcoming December 2024 amendments to the Broadway Plan would enable further growth — increasing the number of net new additional homes to 41,500 for up to 64,000 net new additional residents, plus 45,000 net new additional jobs. Compared to the original 2022-approved plan, this represents a 28% increase in future additional homes, a 38% increase in future additional residents, and a 7% increase in future additional jobs.
These estimated figures, covering 30 years, represent the potential physical spatial capacity for additional residents and jobs — not the growth projections, forecasts, or targets.
The Broadway Plan spans a 6 sq km area roughly framed by 1st Avenue to the north, Clark Drive to the east, 16th Avenue to the south, and Vine Street to the west, covering a portion or most of the districts and neighbourhoods of Kitsilano, Fairview, and Mount Pleasant.
The prescribed new densities and mixed uses within the area plan are anchored by the six new subway stations of SkyTrain’s Millennium Line Broadway extension reaching Arbutus, which is expected to open in 2027.
City staff’s proposed changes to the Broadway Plan’s policies are grounded on the requirement to align with the Government of British Columbia’s new transit-oriented development legislation, which has established 800-metre radius Transit-Oriented Areas (TOAs) for each of the six new subway stations, along with the impact of City Council’s recent decision to amend the protected mountain view cone policies, which has in turn enabled taller and denser building development opportunities across large tracts of the area plan.
The amendments are also based on feedback received to date from residents, developers, the business community, stakeholders, and other members of the public, along with the influx of preliminary interest and formal rezoning applications received to date to pursue new high-rise tower-based projects.
As of early October 2024, there are 139 projects in the development pipeline within the Broadway Plan area, including 44 rezoning enquiries, 66 rezoning applications, and 29 rezonings approved. This includes 109 residential or mixed-use residential projects, creating a combined total of 20,324 homes, including 15,372 secured purpose-built market rental homes, 3,549 secured purpose-built below-market rental homes and social housing, and 1,403 strata ownership market condominium homes.
Also, 30 projects contain 100% non-residential uses, and 66 projects are mixed-use residential projects with a non-residential component comprised of a total of about 7.4 million sq ft of non-residential uses. It is also noted that 30 of these projects within existing residential areas include a minor local-serving commercial space for a cafe, restaurant, and/or retail.
To date, these projects in the development pipeline will also create childcare facilities with a combined total capacity for over 500 kids. Some projects with notable community and public space benefits include a mixed-use condominium tower development that provides a new replacement and expanded space for La Maison de la Francophonie (Francophone Community and Cultural Centre), and PCI Developments and Low Tide Properties’ project of a mixed-use complex with significant publicly accessible spaces integrated into SkyTrain’s future Great Northern Way-Emily Carr Station.
December 2024 amendments to the Broadway Plan removing existing rules limiting the number of high-rise towers per city block in select areas. (City of Vancouver)
As for some of City staff’s key policy change recommendations, the Broadway Plan’s existing regulations that limit the number of high-rise towers per city block would be eliminated for areas closest to public transit, retail areas, services, and amenities — generally within 400 metres of the future subway stations. This particular change is based on the need to better align the Broadway Plan with the provincially legislated TOAs and the impacts seen to date with such restrictions.
Other areas with such regulations generally limit the number of high-rise towers to one or two per block face (each side of an east-west street).
Given the growing shortage of hotel rooms in Vancouver, City staff have also outlined proposed incentives to attract more new hotel developments within the area plan, such as added building height and density for projects with hotel uses, including mixed-use hotel and residential projects. This move could more than double the number of net new additional hotel rooms within the Broadway Plan area from 1,200 to 3,000 — potentially in up to 18 hotel projects.
In addition to increasing permissible building heights due to the recent change to the view cones, greater flexibility in building height would enable a wider range of building forms, allow for on-site public open spaces by creating smaller building footprints that redistribute the density vertically and address other design flexibility considerations for larger sites and properties with heritage conservation needs.
To date, some of the public criticism about the Broadway Plan centres on the need for major additional new and improved parks, plazas, and other types of public spaces, as well as new community and recreation centres. City staff stated the area plan sets a target of adding 25 acres of such public spaces, which would represent a 30% increase from the existing 83 acres of existing public space. About half of that 25 acres of public spaces will be parks and park-like spaces, including a reallocation of 11% of existing road space.
A portion of this new public space area will be created by the major civic plaza planned for the new high-density mixed-use redevelopment of the Vancouver City Hall campus next to SkyTrain’s Broadway-City Hall Station.
The municipal government expects to spend about $58 million on parkland acquisition and development over the first 10 years of the Broadway Plan.