‘We’ll bring the shovels’: The past, present and future of False Creek South

Along one part of Vancouver’s iconic Seawall lies False Creek South (FCS), a unique planned community, with courtyards, parks, businesses, and amenities conveniently located in Vancouver’s Fairview neighbourhood. A dynamic mix of housing types, limited road access, and an emphasis on pedestrian and wheeled access have come to define the nearly 50-year-old “village-like” community.

Before the mid-1970s, False Creek had most recently been an industrial zone, “with log booms, sewer discharge, noise from factories, trains, bridges and roads… [making] residential neighbourhoods in the area unfathomable,” according to a City of Vancouver presentation on the history of the area. Through a series of land deals, the city acquired most of the land that now makes up FCS. 

The area was designed based on community “charrettes,” an intensive type of planning process that focuses on collaboration between developers, neighbours, and prospective residents. As early as the 1950s, a budding urban planning concept known as “Vancouverism” promoted liveable inner-city districts with an inclusive range of housing types, centred around public open space, view corridors, and robust public transit. 

In the 1970s and 80s, this concept was successfully implemented in False Creek South, which is still considered a model for this type of development. 

Now, however, the future of the unique neighbourhood is uncertain. Some land leases have already expired, while others are coming up for renewal in the next 12 to 15 years. Securing these lease renewals is a key factor in maintaining the affordable, community-oriented housing enjoyed by so many FCS residents.  

A key feature of the new community was a mix of housing types, with an even one-third split between co-op, non-market, and strata buildings. False Creek South includes five land-based co-ops and one marine co-op in False Creek itself for people living on their boats. These co-ops account for about 600 units of housing, which charge members significantly below market rates. 

Community involvement is a vital aspect of the neighbourhood’s character. Representatives for each co-op, strata, freehold, and non-profit building are democratically elected by their neighbours to be their building’s spokesperson at the False Creek South Neighbourhood Association (FCSNA). Co-op members also volunteer for their individual co-op, for committees, as well as choosing, or being, their own representatives for FCSNA. 

Robyn Chan is the project coordinator for RePlan, a sub-committee of FCSNA. Created in 2010, RePlan liaises with the City of Vancouver on lease agreements for the community. This is a crucial task, as most of the long-term leases for non-market buildings, signed in the ’70s, have already expired or are set to run out in the next 15 years. RePlan’s stated goal is to both preserve and enhance the False Creek South neighbourhood. 

“There's a whole community structure of volunteerism and being involved in your community that I think is really unique here,” Chan said. 

“Most neighborhoods come together around an issue or [are] kind of self-selected people. This is each building being represented on the association and working together… since 1976,” Chan told the Lookout over coffee on a mild spring day in Leg-in-Boot Square.

For example, RePlan volunteers donate hundreds of hours of their time every year in an effort to secure lease renewals for the 6,000 residents who live in FCS.

Chan, who recently moved into her first co-op housing building, is the unit’s second occupant. The first occupant lived there for more than 40 years — a testament to the stability and longevity of the co-op model for those lucky enough to get in.

“We’ve kept some little pieces that she had in there… It's definitely more a feeling of permissibility, of what you're allowed to do [in the unit],” Chan said, like wallpapering the closets as the former tenant in her new unit had, or knocking out walls like neighbours did. 

Part of the unique set up is this sense of ownership. Co-op members pay a share price once they’re accepted for a unit, meaning residents collectively own and share responsibility for the building they live in. When someone moves out they get the cost of their share back, plus inflation, but it’s nothing like the huge jumps in real estate prices seen across the region when privately-owned land changes hands.

“I think there's a funny question about fairness that's always at play when people think about what other people pay for their housing,” Chan mused. 

BC Housing defines housing as “affordable” if 30 per cent or less of your household's gross income goes towards paying for your housing costs. 

While some people in co-ops pay 30 per cent of their income, others aren’t, particularly those who are longtime co-op members. Chan can see how this perception of “unfairness” can cause consternation toward co-ops amongst the general public.

“The fact of the matter is, after 50 years of maintaining a co-op, you're not paying 30 per cent, necessarily, because the goal was to remove the housing from the market. That can be judged as unfair, because other people are paying astronomical, unbelievably high amounts for their housing. 

“[But] instead of calling out those injustices, and looking at that [real estate] system, it's like, ‘Well, the people who aren't paying as much should pay more.’ I don’t think that's the answer, either,” Chan said. 

Speaking to Vancouver city council, FCS co-op member Mark White spoke proudly about the self-subsidies in FCS co-ops, where higher-income members paid into a subsidy pool to support lower-income members. White highlighted the merits of co-ops in creating social equity and welcoming those fleeing hardship and oppression in other parts of the world.

Removing land from the direct influence of market forces is exactly the point, Chan said.

Community land trusts (CLTs), like the Kensington and Parkdale trusts in Toronto, are a method of shielding land from market impacts. This can be helpful in cities where the cost of housing has been rising at a breakneck pace. 

“Land trusts are an effective way to separate the ownership of land (and in Vancouver’s case the rapidly-rising values of land) from the cost of building and maintaining homes,” Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung wrote in her motion to support more co-op housing, which passed unanimously at city council. 

Kirby-Yung’s motion highlighted the work of the Co-operative Housing Federation of BC (CHFBC), which established a community land trust in 1993. Their goal is to acquire, develop, and steward co-ops and community-led housing in the province. 

Speaking in support of the motion at city council, the federation’s CEO Thom Armstrong noted there are more than 15,000 co-op homes in BC. Almost 7,000 of them are right here in Vancouver, more than half of them on city-owned land.

“That may sound like a lot,” he said, “but I think we can all agree that relative to the need, it’s literally just a drop in the bucket.”

“The big problem with housing co-ops is there aren’t nearly enough of them. Many are in need of a significant re-investment and this motion represents an opportunity to face those challenges directly in a dynamic partnership between the city and the co-op community,” Armstrong argued 

In her motion, Kirby-Yung points to False Creek South as an example of “co-op sites on city-owned land [that] are very low density today and have the ability to accommodate new co-ops and new co-op homes now.”

But increasing density through demolishing existing affordable housing stock is a thorny proposition.

“We're seeing this all over the city where the areas that are zoned for more density are the areas that are already pretty dense, and have existing affordable walk up apartments, those older stock in the West End, and here” in FCS where density is already nearly double the Vancouver average, Chan, RePlan’s project coordinator, told Vancity Lookout.

“So that kind of mindset, that we’ll just tear down existing affordable housing and build taller, affordable housing, but you're talking about increasing housing charges by like two-and-a-half times. Is that the first move that should be made when we have vacant land where you can develop? [We should keep all of this older housing stock] for as long as possible because it's just going to keep getting more affordable,” Chan argued.  

Kirby-Yung amended her motion based on feedback from False Creek South residents, to preserve existing co-op buildings for as long as is feasible and prioritize vacant land for development first. 

“It does seem obvious that the low-hanging fruit here is the inventory of vacant land in the city. That’s the quickest route to BC Builds funding and we’re ready to tackle that opportunity with you,” Armstrong told Council.

One section of False Creek South that is considered vacant, and could be developed without displacement of long-term residents, is the parking lot adjacent to the Olympic Village station.

There is currently a temporary modular building providing 52 units of supportive housing on that site. While these modular housing buildings can remain there for as long as 10 years, some have been taken down after three to five years since the provincially funded program began in 2017. Temporary modular housing has been closed to make way for permanent buildings at sites like Little Mountain off Main and 37th Avenue and the new Art Gallery site near Cambie and Georgia.

BC Housing has indicated their intention to move current residents into nearby properties when a temporary modular building is closed down.

Sarah Brown, RePlan’s community planning assistant, spoke passionately to council about the potential benefits of developing on this specific site first.

“We know that the success of an early pilot project at the station site would expedite a complete community planning process for the rest of the neighbourhood. Such a plan can take advantage of the many early opportunities in FCS, while keeping the affordability that we’ve worked so hard to maintain here by protecting existing co-op housing…. Getting a project underway there that contains meaningful input from the community would be a huge win for all involved,” Brown said. 

“Immediately building more co-ops on vacant lands would do a lot to ease the burdens of the housing crisis for many Vancouverites, and it would do a lot to ease the concerns of the co-op members in FCS who are worried about their homes,” Brown added.

No new housing has been built in False Creek South since the ’80s according to the city.

Kirby-Yung’s motion admits that an array of city partnerships with the private sector, non-profits, and higher levels of government, have “been largely unsuccessful to date due to numerous challenges with the traditional co-op development model.” One significant part of that puzzle was a dearth of federal funding for housing programs from the 1980s to the 2010s. 

For their part, the City of Vancouver points out that five co-op housing developments have been built in Vancouver between 2019 and 2023, with four more projects in the works. All five of the completed buildings are held in CHFBC’s community land trust. 

“Using publicly owned land to protect existing affordable housing — and to create more new affordable housing — is a vital part of the solution to the housing crisis facing the whole city,” a spokesperson for the city told the Lookout.  

Kirby-Yung, Chan, and Thompson all highlighted the uncommon alignment of municipal, provincial, and federal governments in their current willingness to provide funding opportunities for housing development.

“Until now, the prevailing assumption might have been that market-led options are the only viable way to add density and affordability to co-op communities, but we know that’s not the case today. The co-op form of tenure can easily accommodate the full range of incomes and rents that we need to make new development and redevelopment viable. That is why we’re committed to the principle that co-op sites are for co-op homes, and we’re counting on you to work with us to put that principle into practice,” Thompson said in his comments to city council.

The province is investing $950 million in their newly-announced BC Builds program, which is tasked with expediting new residential rental developments meant for middle-income earners. Additionally, the province announced it would provide $2 billion in low-cost construction financing. The federal government promised to match that contribution, giving an additional $2 billion in financing for BC Builds’ projects.  

“There is this huge moment now, I think, where we can build more non-market housing,” Chan said.  

“We are ready to collaborate and work alongside the city to get something done here,” Brown told council, adding, with the smirk of a performer about to execute a reveal, “we’ll even bring the shovels.”

What’s happening at city hall

The city has committed on various occasions to renewing existing co-ops in False Creek South. 

RePlan and the City of Vancouver are in the midst of negotiating new leases for two co-ops in FCS. These two co-ops had their leases expire in 2022 and 2023, respectively, and are still operating under “overholding” provisions in their current leases, according to the city. 

RePlan is also working to secure long term leases for the other co-op buildings in FCS, whose leases are set to expire between 2036 and 2040. 

Creekside Co-op, which had its lease expire in December 2023, is being offered a “very short lease extension,” according to Chan. An extension of 12 to 15 years would line Creekside up with the same lease tenures as the other co-ops in the community.

The city would not share any details of their extension or renewal talks with RePlan, as they are “under negotiation with each co-op.” 

“Looking at it positively, we all get in line on the same current schedule, then all the co-ops get extensions for another mortgage cycle,” Chan explained. 

In common law cases these overholding leases recur automatically until one party gives sufficient notice to end the contract. It’s unclear if the city would be prepared to evict FCS tenants, or how the tenants would respond, but there are certainly indications from all parties suggesting they would like to get a deal done. 

At 33 per cent co-ops, False Creek South boasts the highest concentration of co-ops in the city. This is likely why Coun. Kirby-Yung and the rest of council put so much focus on that community in the motion, during debate, and through amendments that gave preferential consideration to FCSNA’s concerns. 

Part of Kirby-Yung’s motion called for staff to create an “updated and enhanced” community development plan. The most recent plan was completed in October, 2021, less than three years ago.

“We had developed last term, with lots of great input from the community in False Creek South, a vision for that community, which Council holds true to, but we haven’t actually been able to action any of these projects, and I want us to actually see that moving forward,” Kirby-Yung said while speaking to her motion in council. 

“It was definitely a surprise when the motion came out” Chan told the Lookout. “Our hope,” she continued, “is that because [the direction for an updated development plan] was tied to a motion about co-ops, it will be about increasing the amount of co-op housing in that plan.”

The first phase of the 2021 plan recommended nearly 1,500 new market strata and market rental units to be built, while adding slightly fewer than 500 non-market and co-op units. Controversially, that development plan would have relocated four of the existing co-ops and almost all of the non-market housing in False Creek South to new buildings on the busy southern edge of the community, beside the railway tracks and arterial road along West 6^th Avenue. 

However, False Creek South residents do have some protections. In 2018, the city created a Resident Protection and Retention Plan specifically for FCS. Similar to renter protections in the Broadway Plan, these are meant to provide a “safety net” should residents be displaced as a result of development or the expiration of a land lease. 

These include the right to return to a comparable unit at an affordable rate, financial compensation equivalent to two to six months of rent depending on length of previous tenancy, and minimizing displacement of residents during construction. 

The city is also becoming more involved in directing how co-ops should be setting their rates, Chan told the Lookout.

A 2021 city council report established a new framework for the city to renegotiate co-op leases, which includes “significant changes to the traditional way that co-ops have worked,” Chan said. 

In the 1970s and ‘80s when the first FCS leases were signed, co-ops would prepay their 40- or 60-year leases and roll that in with their building mortgage. Co-ops would then set housing charges based on a budget that co-op members would vote on and agree to.

Now, Chan says, the city wants co-ops to make annual payments based on current member income.

“There's also contingencies in there, where the city has said, you need to set aside this much money for operating costs, and this much money for capital costs, and kind of just giving more specific instructions on how co-ops should be setting their housing charges,” Chan explained. 

According to the city, the changes in how they work with co-ops are driven by their aim to balance the expansion of affordable housing delivery, the interests of existing co-ops and their members, and the responsible stewardship of public assets. 

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