More than 20 planning and development experts have signed an open letter urging the City of Vancouver to pause and reevaluate the Broadway development plan.
The plan was adopted in June 2022, with the goal of getting more rental towers built along the new Broadway Subway. The aim was to see 30,000 housing units built over the course of 30 years.
Over 100 towers, some as high as 32 storeys, have already been proposed within the 500-block Broadway Corridor, some on streets lined with heritage homes. Last month, the first proposed tower, a 19-storey highrise at 523 East 10th, passed unanimously at a city council meeting.
“We appreciate and support the good intentions of bringing more housing and affordability to Vancouver’s crippling housing crisis, but as experts with years of high level experience in planning, development and architecture, we write to ask that Mayor and Council pause and consider the many issues with the particulars of the Plan and how it will impact our city,” the letter stated.
The signatories say that while the plan was supposed to ensure a “measure buildout,” so far, “we are seeing a frenzy of profit speculation, land banking, flipping and land inflation into the heart of vulnerable established, mixed-use neighbourhoods.”
The letter states that by the city’s estimates, the plan will “demolish thousands of existing, affordable homes, resulting in forced resettlement to thousands of people in pursuit of what may be little if any net increase in affordable housing.”
Patrick Condon, a professor at UBC’s School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, is one of the 22 experts asking Vancouver city council to rethink the project.
Condon says it’s a false assumption that the reason housing in the city isn’t affordable is because we’re not building enough of it.
He adds vulnerable people, including seniors and low-income individuals, will be affected by the plan.
More to come.