Dan Fumano: Bike lanes, towers, renter protections — Broadway plan debate drags on
Opinion: Vancouver council worked through more than 20 amendments over the course of about six hours, but failed to reach a decision on the Broadway plan
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Vancouver’s council made significant amendments to the long-awaited and widely debated Broadway plan on Thursday, including committing to bike infrastructure along the corridor, strengthening tenant protections, and boosting the development of towers in the area.
But by the time they adjourned late that night, the fifth day of council meetings on the Broadway plan, over three weeks, following three years of public engagement and staff work — councillors had not reached a final decision on the plan.
The plan considers how almost 500 city blocks along the Broadway subway line now under construction will change in the next 30 years, including significant increases of residential and commercial density.
Councillors worked through more than 20 amendments over the course of about six hours. It is not clear how many amendments will remain for council’s consideration when they resume debate on the plan on June 22. Some planned amendments could be abandoned, and new ones might be introduced.
One amendment approved Thursday reduced the minimum property width required to build a tower. The plan had originally called a minimum 150-foot frontage for towers, in all parts of the plan. The amendment, introduced by ABC Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung, means the city can consider towers on sites at little as 99 feet wide.
Her amendment included a limit of three towers per block in the highest-density transit hub areas, and did not alter the two-tower-per-block limit for other parts of the Broadway area. So while the change will not increase the number of towers allowed on any given block, it could make them easier to develop.
The aim, Kirby-Yung said, is to “speed up delivery of affordable housing.”
The amendment was supported by most of council, but opposed by Green councillors Adriane Carr and Michael Wiebe, and TEAM Coun. Colleen Hardwick. Hardwick said the change “dramatically increases the number of sites that can be redeveloped and it will be a big win for developers and real estate agents.”
While the 150-foot minimum would generally have required developers to assemble between three to five lots, depending on their size, to develop a tower, now they may be able to proceed by assembling just two or three lots, said Mark Goodman, principal of Goodman Commercial, a Vancouver real estate firm specializing in rental housing and development sites.
“It adds more flexibility. That, I think, would in turn translate into more rental units being built,” said Goodman. “It’s positive if you’re a proponent for density.”
But while that amendment seems likely to boost the viability of real estate developments, another seems likely to impede it.
Mayor Kennedy Stewart introduced a series of amendments, which he had publicly unveiled last month, to add what he called the strongest tenant protections in Canada.
The mayor’s proposed measures go beyond the city’s existing tenant protections, and will mean renters in the Broadway area whose homes are redeveloped will have the option to return to a new unit in the new building at the same rent they were paying before, or, in some cases, less.
COPE Coun. Jean Swanson proposed an amendment to Stewart’s amendment, seeking to require that tenants in buildings being demolished for redevelopment “are offered units appropriate for them,” and to ensure the city does not issue demolition permits until after developers have met their obligations.
Developers and some experts have said such measures will reduce future rental housing supply by hurting the financial viability of redevelopment projects, but council unanimously approved Stewart’s proposals and Swanson’s amendments.
Another amendment, from OneCity Coun. Christine Boyle, had council commit to a future for Broadway “deprioritizing personal private vehicles,” and prioritizing buses, emergency vehicles, the movement of goods, pedestrians, access for people with disabilities, and active transportation such as cycling.
The amendment committed to building a “safe active transportation lane” along Broadway, and directs staff to study recommended designs and funding sources. That means it is likely that Vancouver’s next council, after the October election, would make any final decisions on a Broadway bike lane.
Boyle’s bike lane proposal was opposed by Hardwick and NPA Coun. Melissa De Genova.
As the meeting neared 10 p.m., Stewart proposed extending the meeting to finished the Broadway plan discussion and vote. His proposal to extend the meeting, which requires unanimous council support, failed when Hardwick and De Genova said no. De Genova said she would have been willing to stay late, if she did not have to attend an event for civic business in the morning.
After the meeting adjourned late Thursday night, live microphones in council chambers caught some of the chatter among colleagues.
Someone let out an extended sigh.
It sounded like Coun. Pete Fry started to say: “That was …”
Before Stewart finished Fry’s sentence: “Epic. Epic.”
It was not clear whether the mayor meant “epic” in the modern, colloquial meaning of “cool,” or in the more classical sense, like Homer’s Iliad: vast in scope, full of violent clashes, and very, very, very, very long.
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