Don't make it even worse.
Two years in, the Broadway Plan is displacing renters from the housing they can afford and threatening livability – everywhere from Vine Street to Clark Drive and 1st Avenue to 16th – with enormous, looming towers.
You can see the development signboards that are popping up on tree-lined side streets of low-rise apartments and character homes, to the dismay of thousands of residents.
From Greek Day on West Broadway to Commercial Drive Car-free Day, through all of TEAM’s summer events, we heard the people in these communities expressing shock at what is coming and fear for their neighbourhoods.
TEAM predicted this outcome and campaigned in 2022 on withdrawing the Broadway Plan in order to create – in collaboration with local residents – neighbourhood-specific plans for densifying and managing population growth, including a healthy mix of affordable housing options and accompanying services such as parks and schools.
Where is the affordable housing in the Broadway Plan? Where are parks and schools even contemplated?
TEAM is pro-housing and committed to supporting the kind of housing that Vancouver needs for the people that live here and want to stay here.
Given the abundance of darkened windows in luxury high-rises in the West End, it is clear that Vancouver does not need more of the same in our remaining historic residential neighbourhoods.
The Broadway Plan recognizes nothing already on the ground.
From east to west, north to south, the Broadway Plan is blind to its impacts on the people who have made their homes there, who deserve daylight in their windows, a park for their dog to run in and a school for their kids to attend – none of which it promises.
The homes around East 16th and St. George are to be overlooked by a tower and the low-rise apartments to be eclipsed by 20 storeys uphill from them on West 1st and Yew, just because they are unlucky enough to be on the wrong side of the street an arbitrary distance from Broadway. How is this a “plan”?
It’s not a plan at all. It’s a mistake. And it’s about to get worse.
Eight subway stations are within the Broadway Plan boundaries: VCC-Clark, Great Northern Way-Emily Carr, Mount Pleasant, Olympic Village, Broadway-City Hall, Oak-VGH, South Granville and Arbutus.
Each brings provincially-mandated height and density within a circle of 800 metre radius, with the station at the centre. The closer you get to the station, the greater the minimum density mandated. This is the infamous Bill 47 (Transit-Oriented Areas, or TOAs).
Within TOAs, city council may not
deny a rezoning application based solely on the level of density or height proposed if it is at or below the density and height set out in the regulation;
require the provision of off-street residential parking spaces.
Exemptions do not apply.
The regulation measures height in storeys, but storeys aren't all the same. We picked four current tower proposals at random, divided the height in metres by the number of storeys in each and averaged the results to generate the numbers below. Floor space ratio (FSR), or floor area ratio (FAR), is the measure of density. To find it you add up all the floor area in a building and divide the sum by the area of the lot it’s sitting on.
In our traditional residential neighbourhoods of houses and duplexes, the FSR is 0.6 and the maximum building height is “6.1 m and 1 storey” (see RT-1 Schedule), about 30 feet. The megatower under construction at Broadway and Granville is more than twenty times denser at FSR 12.16, and more than thirteen times taller at 125 metres (410 feet), 39 storeys.
Just numbers, right? This graphic compares heights of existing or proposed structures in the Broadway Plan area.
They are: the proposed tower at 2158-2170 West 1st Avenue (I), the Fairmont Medical Building at 750 West Broadway (II), the house at 475 East 16th Avenue (III), the tower proposed to replace it and its neighbours at 461-479 East 16th (IV), Broadway and Granville megatower at 1477 West Broadway (V) and City Hall (VI).
Here are the densities and heights the TOA requires council to allow around transit stations: Within 200 metres as the crow flies, 20 storeys (about Fairmont Building height), with FSR 5. Between 200 and 400 metres away, 12 storeys and FSR 4. Between 400 and 800 metres, 8 storeys with FSR 3.
Vancouver’s TOA by-law, passed last June, gives an idea of how these numbers play out on the ground. Take a look at the station in a neighbourhood you know and picture what we have no control over.
The provincial legislation leaves Vancouver no choice but to conform to Bill 47. But that’s the most we must do.
Amendments to the Broadway Plan are scheduled to go before Council in November. The whole review report can be found here, but the key takeaway is that more and taller buildings than mandated are being recommended, and these proposals are carefully blended in with the revisions that must be made to comply with the provincial laws.
Some examples of "more and taller":
Remove limits on the number of towers per block in areas deemed to have “easy access to transit, shops, services, and amenities.” (See page 7 of review report linked above) The 2022 Broadway Plan contains the phrase “towers per block” 42 times, including in the goal of “limiting the number of towers per block in residential neighbourhoods” (page 284). Not a goal now, it seems.
Increase allowable height from 6 to 8 storeys in certain residential areas mostly along 16th Avenue.
In Creative District Area B near the Great Northern Way-Emily Carr station, amendments “that will align with and exceed the legislative requirements” include doubling height to 20 storeys, increasing density (to 7 FSR) and removing the requirement that residential areas be for artists. (page 9)
In Fairview Slopes, mostly along 6th Avenue, increase heights to 20 storeys from 12 near Oak-VGH subway station, and to 12 from 6 near South Granville Station. (page 10)
On either side of Granville north of Broadway, up to 25 storeys and 8 FSR, well exceeding the TOA requirements. On the west side of Burrard from 1st Avenue to 8th, double height to 20 storeys with 6.5 FSR (currently 4.5). (page 11)
On Granville south of 10th Avenue within the TOA, the new provincial rules apply with the change of no commercial uses allowed above ground level. On Main Street, the City recognizes that "Main Street Village is a cherished and distinctive local shopping area, regarded by many as the heart of Mount Pleasant" and seems to be attempting to mitigate the damage but, sadly, Main Street Village is a TOA as designated by somebody from somewhere else. (page 12)
Around Cambie Street north to False Creek, allow mixed use residential up to 30 storeys. (page 13)
In most of the Broadway Plan area that hasn’t already been impacted, building height limits may be relaxed (2 to 5 storeys) to increase open public space. (page 14)
City Hall created this monster.
Outside of Transit Oriented Areas where new provincial law has usurped local planning authority, City Hall can stop it in its tracks.
How? First, do no more harm.
When faced with staff recommendations at a meeting likely to be held in late November, Vancouver City Council should make no amendment to the Broadway Plan other than what is necessary to comply with Provincial law.
Then, stop doing harm at all.
Halt development under the Broadway Plan - outside of TOAs - and amend the plan to include the following:
A consultation process that uses the voices of neighbourhood and community groups to guide the work of city staff and by extension real estate developers.
An implementation of height restrictions for new developments, ensuring that densification outside of the downtown core happens at scale with pre-existing communities and neighbourhoods.
And finally, a reorientation of the plan to include more below market housing that is actually affordable for median salary earners.
That’s what a TEAM city council would do.
That's what we knew would need doing more than two years ago when the Broadway Plan passed by a vote of 7-4. The opposing votes came from councillors across the political spectrum - TEAM, COPE, Green and NPA - who listened to their constituents and to the opinions of planning and building experts with no stake in the outcome but a sustainable, livable Vancouver.
TEAM has not stopped listening.