A new petition has been launched to try to get Vancouver City Council and the province to slow down the pace of the Broadway Plan, which is meant to increase density along the new Broadway subway.
The plan was adopted two years ago, 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.
The petition’s author, David Fine, is a resident who’s been watching the proliferation of development boards. He is also a filmmaker putting together a documentary about the changes.
“The plan was supposed to be a measured way of densifying. But what we are seeing is a frenzy of activity,” he said.
“This pace of change is nothing that was set out. So I think council has to look at what’s happening, say ‘hold on, this is not going as planned, we need to step back.’”
Over 100 towers have already been proposed within the 500-block Broadway Corridor, some on streets lined with heritage homes. Some are as high as 32 storeys. Highrises that are 20 storeys must dedicate 20 per cent of their floor space to below-market rental housing.
“I got concerned how it was impacting people who felt giant towers, right smack in the middle of the street, were going to impact them. But I got more moved when speaking with tenants, who were threatened with eviction,” says Fine.
Dislocated tenants are covered by the Tenant Relocation And Protection Policy. Developers have to help evicted tenants find alternative housing, and once the new housing is built, those same tenants will be offered units in the building, at the same rent they were paying before the eviction.
But Fine says while the policy sounds good on paper, tenants have told him they still come away from meetings with landlords and coordinating agencies with a lot of questions.
“There is confusion and a lack of clarity about how this is going to work for tenants,” he said.
“They don’t know where they will be moved to. Hundreds, if not thousands, are going to be evicted. They are competing in the same pool as other people looking for rentals.”
Fine feels bolstered by experts — architects and former city planners — who have also voiced concerns about how the Broadway Plan is playing out. He points out that list includes Larry Beasley, who was co-director of planning for the City of Vancouver, UBC professor Patrick Condon, who wrote a book called Broken City, and retired architect Michael Geller.
Vancouver City Councillor Pete Fry points out a motion to slow the pace of development along the Broadway corridor was defeated last year.
“The ‘pace of change,’ which was a staff recommendation, was ostensibly to ensure that this wasn’t a ‘wild west goldrush’ of development and developer dollars flooding into the area and displacing people willy nilly.”
Fry doubts the petition will convince his colleagues.
“I certainly don’t think that this council would entertain this idea. But I’ve been pretty vocal advocating that we need to make sure there is a commensurate amount of public amenities with increased densities.”
Meanwhile, councillors will have to decide whether to go through with several proposed amendments proposed for the Broadway Plan, none of which include slowing down the rezoning. In fact, many of the amendments are suggesting even higher buildings for neighbourhoods like Fairview and Granville/Burrard slopes.
“The reality is we continue to see population growth. The reality is that we continue to struggle with unaffordable housing. We need to deliver more supply, especially as we see the older stock that is basically at the end of its useful life,” says Fry.