City of Vancouver aims for 'iconic' downtown core with Granville plan

Vancouver city council voted unanimously last week to approve the 20-year plan governing the future growth of Granville Street and its immediate area, with a number of its goals to create an “iconic” centre for the city’s downtown core.

Its directions include an “electronic video sign zone” with aims of “transforming it into a landmark destination like Times Square in NYC and Piccadilly Circus in London,” and the creation of a plaza at Granville and Robson, which the city says will “become an iconic gathering place to connect Robson Square and the Stadium District.”

Background: The city began work on the Granville Street Plan after council gave staff the go-ahead for the street from False Creek to the Burrard Inlet. The terms work is focused on arts and culture, enhancing the public space, protecting jobs, expanding tourism and improving active transportation and transit.

Since the 2010 Olympics, Granville has struggled with “vacant storefronts, lack of daytime activity, and rising health, safety and street disorder concerns, contributing to a negative perception” for the area, according to a staff report presenting the plan to council.

What’s in the plan? The plan focuses on the city centre area, which includes the Robson and Georgia intersections; the entertainment core, which includes the Smithe, Nelson and Helmcken intersections; and the bridgehead area, which runs from the bridge to Davie Street.

That said, the plan aims to make the entire street, including the central business district and waterfront areas, a full-time pedestrian zone. To accommodate that, the city aims to make transit priority improvements to Howe and Seymour to allow the full relocation of bus routes onto those streets.

Out with SROs: Eight single-room occupancy buildings, totalling 600 rooms, populate the area, including both privately-owned buildings and provincial- and city-owned buildings. While existing SROs will be able to continue operating in the entertainment core, the plan aims to bar any residential development in that part of the plan, largely to avoid noise conflicts.

Existing SROs in the entire plan will be replaced over time with self-contained social housing — whereas SROs tend to have shared amenities like kitchen and washrooms, the self-contained units would have those amenities in the units — through collaboration with senior levels of government. SROs in the entertainment district would be replaced in the bridgehead and city centre areas.

In with electronic billboards: The intersection at Granville and Robson streets is being “reimagined as a central public plaza for large public gatherings” — a plan that includes “vibrant” electronic billboards. Those billboards would be up to 50 feet from the Granville-Robson intersection and between one storey and 90 feet above ground level.

The signs could display ads, public information and public art at different times, and the plan suggests they should dedicate some airtime to announcements around concerts, public art and cultural events, and the city expects an annual contribution from the sign owners to support arts and cultural programming in the plan area.

The area around there will be zoned for residential use, with a focus on rental housing, as well as creating new hotel space. To reduce the impact of the billboards on the residents and hotel occupants, the city says it will situate the residential “well above street level” and require “the highest noise mitigation design standards.”

Cultural spaces: The plan sets a baseline for “no net loss” of cultural space in the Granville entertainment district, with a goal of increasing venue space through redevelopment of the area. That includes using rezoning and development applications, as well as public benefit contributions to preserve existing spaces.

Social housing in the Granville area could also be aimed at housing artists, “including  associated production space, in suitable locations” in the bridgehead and city centre areas.

Existing and new venues: The city specifically cites using zoning and other regulatory tools to secure and improve the Dance Centre on Davie, and the Commodore Ballroom, Orpheum Theatre and Vogue Theatre on Granville. Other existing venues, like Gorg-O-Mish, Golden Age Collectibles, Tyrant Studios, the Harbour Dance Centre and The Roxy could be up for cultural heritage designation.

The plan also seeks to use regulatory tools like zoning to encourage new cultural spaces, including live music venues, small- to mid-size performance art spaces, art galleries and exhibits, and all-ages and family-focused venues. That can be achieved by integrating cultural spaces into hotels, restaurants and bars, along with other commercial spaces in the entertainment district.

Activating the streets: On top of electronic billboards, the city suggests encouraging “low-cost activation of the street for live performances, public art and cultural events,” and emphasizes supporting patios, food trucks, art, busking and public seating.

Where the city centre area would be home to daytime events, the entertainment core would be the “heart of the evening and nightlife activity featuring dynamic outdoor performance spaces,” and the bridgehead area is expected to have a “quieter yet lively street experience.”

What the public had to say: Survey data from the city’s public engagement showed variable popularity for the different suggestions. Overall, just over three-quarters of respondents said they support the proposals, including 34% who strongly agreed with the direction. But not all proposals are quite as broadly supported.

The plan’s development and design features enjoy 77% support, while its public space and transportation directions have 70% support, and its land-use and year-round pedestrian zone proposals each have 66% support. Other proposals have only bare majority support — excluding housing in the entertainment area has the support of just 53% of respondents, while the electronic billboards at Robson and Granville scrape by with 50% support.

The phased approach to the plan also wasn’t overly popular — 53% expressed support, while 21% was neutral and 19% opposed it. Common complaints were that the 20-year timeline was too long, with one commenting that “I might be dead in 20 years, so [I’ll] never live to see the final product!”

What speakers said: The plan was presented to the standing committee on policy and strategic priorities last week, and a number of speakers showed up, largely supporting the plan. Most speakers represented either individual businesses or industry associations, such as hospitality industry groups.

While the speakers broadly supported the plan, some did register concerns — in particular, some suggested the entertainment district shouldn’t bar housing if the housing is high enough up to mitigate noise issues from the street below, while others said the pedestrian-only designation could cause issues for some businesses. TransLink also commented that moving the buses over to parallel streets could cause some issues around accessibility.