Major amendments to the policies of the City of Vancouver’s Broadway Plan were approved by Vancouver City Council on Thursday.
These revised policies include increased building heights and densities within select areas of the area plan, as well as the removal of the previous restrictions that limited the number of high-rise towers that could be built on each city block, mainly areas within 400 metres of existing and future SkyTrain stations.
Such changes to the Broadway Plan’s prescriptions, regulations, and stipulations are required in order to align with the provincial government’s new transit-oriented development legislation, which has designated each SkyTrain station’s vicinity as a Transit-Oriented Area.
But existing policies on the minimum required distance of tower separation will remain, as well as minimum site frontage and setbacks.
The changes will also introduce some more flexibility for new tower building forms, and increase height and density for projects that are hotels or mixed-use residential with a hotel component — as a measure of improving the financial viability of new hotel projects amid a growing hotel room shortage in the city. It is anticipated such a 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.
Additionally, as part of the amendments, City Council approved a public space and streetscape strategy that doubles down on repurposing under-utilized local road space to create the needed public and green spaces required to accommodate the Broadway Plan’s increased population from densification. The goal is to increase public space by 25 acres, including 13 acres of additional public park and park-like spaces, and the reallocation of at least 11% of road space for public spaces, wider sidewalks, seating areas, and bike lanes.
Also approved was a refined vision to undergo a high-density mixed-use redevelopment of the Vancouver City Hall campus into the “Civic District,” fully integrated with SkyTrain’s Broadway-City Hall 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)
December 2024 amendments to the Broadway Plan showing road space reallocation for new public spaces. (City of Vancouver)
December 2024 amendments to the Broadway Plan showing road space reallocation for new public spaces. (City of Vancouver)
These changes come just two years after the Broadway Plan was approved by the previous makeup of City Council; the area plan was first approved in June 2022, and became effective on September 1, 2022.
The amendments 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.
Ahead of Thursday’s decision to approve the amendments, City Council heard from well over 100 public speakers, including many who opposed the pace of change, were against higher-density building forms, and/or expressed concerns about existing rental residents in the area plan being displaced by the redevelopment of their old apartment building.
In response to the displacement concerns, ABC Vancouver party’s elected members painted a picture of a delicate balance of meeting the needs of the collective good, given the worsening housing affordability and supply conditions, while also upholding and reinforcing the Tenant Relocation and Protection Policy (TRPP) of the Broadway Plan, which is deemed to be the strongest protections for renters in Canada and the United States.
“I know that change is challenging for people, but it will also take years to build those out, and they are fairly dispersed when you look at them. I also think it’s important to recognize that it’s pretty compelling when you have a less than 1% vacancy rate in the city of Vancouver for rental, and people are desperately lining up trying to find a place,” said ABC city councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung during Thursday’s public meeting.
“Today’s units become the affordable housing of tomorrow. Those affordable buildings that people are living in now, they weren’t as affordable when they were built, [but] they become that affordable over time, and a number of them are aging.”
Under the Broadway Plan’s enhanced Tenant Relocation and Protection Policy (TRPP), existing renters affected by development have the right of first refusal to return to the new building at either their current rent or a 20% discount on the city-wide average market rent, whichever is lower.
They may also opt for a temporary rent top-up during construction, covering the difference between their current rent and the rent for a comparable unit. Returning renters will move into new homes appropriately sized for their households.
“In our role in this Council, we have a responsibility to make sure that we’re taking in all this information and we are serving the broadest group of constituents in the city of Vancouver over the next 30 years. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t understand how scary and stressful the situation is, and that doesn’t mean that we’re going to drive towards that goal without making sure we take care of our people, acknowledge what they how they feel, or how like we can empathize with how they feel,” said Mayor Ken Sim.
“I know this is not going to be easy for some individuals, but we can do it in a way where we take care of people, because at the end of the day, we do have to look at what’s the best interest of everyone. And there are a lot of individuals that are currently in a situation where they don’t even have the ability to be in that spot of worry because they can’t live in the city of Vancouver… What we can do is we can act in a in a way that this Council does the best they can to take care of the tenants that have to go through this transition.”
It was also emphasized during the deliberations that the municipal government has a legal obligation to align its policies with the provincial government’s new legislation establishing Transit-Oriented Areas, which add to the City’s previous agreement to significantly densify the Central Broadway area in exchange for the provincial government’s significant investment in building SkyTrain Millennium Line’s Broadway extension to Arbutus.
December 2024 refined concept of the master plan for redeveloping the Vancouver City Hall campus into “Civic District.” (City of Vancouver)
December 2024 refined concept of the master plan for redeveloping the Vancouver City Hall campus into “Civic District.” (City of Vancouver)
December 2024 refined concept of the master plan for redeveloping the Vancouver City Hall campus into “Civic District.” (City of Vancouver)
December 2024 refined concept of the master plan for redeveloping the Vancouver City Hall campus into “Civic District.” (City of Vancouver)
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 newly approved December 2024 amendments to the Broadway Plan 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. Such growth is expected to occur over 30 years.
According to City staff, there are currently 139 projects in the development pipeline, generating a combined total of over 20,300 homes if these projects are fully realized. This includes 15,372 secured purpose-built market rental homes, 3,549 secured purpose-built below-market rental housing and social housing units, 1,403 strata market ownership condominium homes, and over 7.4 million sq ft of job space, such as retail, restaurant, office, and hotel uses.
Over the past month, just before the end of 2024, City Council approved eight rezoning applications to build nine high-rise rental housing towers, creating a combined total of about 1,500 new secured purpose-built rental homes, with a net gain of over 1,300 rental homes.
The Broadway Plan spans about 500 city blocks across a six 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.