A rally was held in Vancouver on Saturday against the city’s draft plan, which will add density to the city’s centrally located 860 hectares.
The Broadway plan, which includes plans to add housing and jobs to the “second city center”, covers an area from 1st Avenue to the north and 16th Avenue to the south, Clark Drive to the east and Vine Street to the west.
The area is home to more than 78,000 people, and the plan envisions adding another 50,000 residents and 24,000 to 30,000 additional homes over the next 30 years. It is also home to more than 84,400 jobs, with as many as 42,000 jobs added over the next three decades.
According to the plan, mixed-use buildings up to 40 storeys may be allowed near SkyTrain stations. Older rents can be replaced by residential complexes between 15 and 20 floors with 20 percent of the area for rent below market.
Bill Tillman, the organizer of Saturday’s rally in front of City Hall, which included representatives from 20 neighborhoods in Vancouver, said the plan would create too much density and change the city’s nature.
“We want to stop the concrete canyons,” he said.
Tilleman says the plan will displace tenants, as older, more affordable rents will be demolished to make way for the towers.
“They will be inaccessible,” he said. “We already know that the new buildings in Vancouver are very inaccessible.”
The Broadway plan will allow greater density in the “second center of Vancouver”, which covers the area of 1st Avenue to the north and 16th Avenue to the south, Clark Drive to the east and Vine Street to the west.
Owen Brady, director of Abundant Housing Vancouver, says concerns about relocating tenants are justified.
“But we also have to worry about resettlement because people just can’t find a place to live,” he said.
“We need a lot more apartments. We will have to have higher altitudes. We will have to have denser buildings.”
Brady said figures from the Vancouver Housing Report show that 136,000 households will need adequate housing over the next 10 years.
“We need to act fast, and this needs to be more than Broadway,” he said.
Earlier this week, Mayor Kennedy Stewart promised changes to the plan that would protect tenants if older buildings were demolished and rebuilt.
“Moving tenants would be a rare occurrence, but these people will be fully compensated either by cash payments or the right to return to a new building with or under their current rent,” Stewart said.
Stewart said displaced tenants could return to converted buildings and pay up to 20 percent below market prices.
Andy Ian, a city planner and associate professor at Simon Fraser University, says he has questions about the plan, noting that units in newer buildings are usually smaller than those in older buildings.
“Will these be units of a similar size? Will they be small units?” he said. “It doesn’t necessarily go into the details of this plan, but it will still have a dramatic effect on these rental neighborhoods.”
In a statement, the city said it had heard from residents who said they wanted an approach that focused on building more housing, supporting the economy and tackling the climate crisis.
The draft plan is scheduled to be submitted to the city council later this month.
On shore 11:08 Broadway rental protection measures
Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart is joining us to discuss rent protection for residents living on Broadway Corridor, which was announced this morning. 11:08
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