How Vancouver got $115M from the federal government

Good morning,

I went to my first Vancouver Canadians game this weekend, and I’m not going to lie — I don’t understand baseball. It’s not a sport that was designed for my ADHD brain.

How is a person supposed to watch a bunch of guys standing around, throwing a ball back and forth, all the while drinking expensive beers ($11! For a can! You can get a six pack for that!) and hanging out with friends, and somehow have paid enough attention to understand what is happening?

That being said, I’m fascinated by the way the sport, which spends 95% of its duration as just some guys hanging out in a field, can suddenly turn on with impressive displays of athleticism, before flipping back to some guys hanging out in a field.

Today, we’ve got a look at what went into Vancouver’s application for the Housing Accelerator Fund.

Let’s get to it.

— Dustin Godfrey, freelancer

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WEATHER

Monday: 19 🌡️ 13 | 🌧️

Tuesday: 18 🌡️ 11 | ☀️

Wednesday: 19 🌡️ 14 | 🌤️

HOUSING

What’s in Vancouver’s Housing Accelerator Fund application?

What: The federal government officially approved the City of Vancouver’s Housing Accelerator Fund application in December last year, with the parties claiming the $115-million deal would see Vancouver increase its housing construction by 3,200 units over the next three years, and by 40,000 over the next decade.

The deal is one of dozens struck by the federal government, which has been pushing cities to make way for the market to build more housing across Canada, with a total fund of $4 billion.

How: A December press release from the Prime Minister’s Office noted the city would “allow for high density development including multiplexes and apartment buildings, help fast-track development processes, and build housing near public transit.”

The specifics: But how the city believes those measures would achieve 3,200 additional units over the next three years hasn’t been fleshed out in public — it has effectively remained simply accepted that they would.

The city’s application form, obtained by The Bind through a freedom of information request, outlines to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation how the city claims it will achieve those goals. (Note: The Bind has not yet published the document, as it is part of a larger project with other municipalities’ applications, but you’re getting a sneak peak at it today.)

The application: The city would expect to approve 12,500 units of housing over the next three years without the HAF incentives, a growth rate of about 1.24% over the existing housing stock of 336,865. The city expects that figure to increase to 15,700 with the HAF incentives, for a growth rate of 1.55%.

• Given the enormity of the housing crisis, and the housing that is needed to tackle it, 3,200 may seem like peanuts. And perhaps it is, but it should also be noted that this represents an increase of 25.6% in the growth rate.

What kind of housing: All 15,700 of those units are described as multi-unit housing in close proximity to transit. And while 22% of all units would have been “affordable” without HAF incentives, that projection increases slightly to 23% with HAF incentives.

• A Canada Housing and Mortgage Corporation guide for applicant cities only defines “affordable housing” as “housing units that are intended for households whose needs are not met by the marketplace.”

So what are those incentives? The application outlines seven different initiatives that the city claims will incentivize those 3,200 units, including high-density zoning as part of the Vancouver Plan, digitization of city work and systems, streamlining permit conditions, non-market housing projects, and more.

Missing middle housing: The first initiative on the application is streamlining missing middle, and it is expected to incentivize 1,055 units over three years (about a third of all units), and 3,165 units over 10 years. The initiative has four components that could remove up to 18 months off the application process in some cases.

It includes allowing pre-zoning for up to six storeys in commercial zones, for townhouses on 220 lots on the Cambie corridor, and for three to six units on single lots. It also includes reducing the city’s nine different low-density zones down to just one.

Inclusionary zoning: The city says its inclusionary zoning policies, which encourages below-market units in rental buildings, has had “high” uptake, including “thousands of new units in the development pipeline,” but those units are at risk from high interest rates.

• The city proposed to standardize policies and bylaws to streamline processing of applications, but it also proposed to change below-market rental rates “to improve project viability.” The initiative is expected to incentivize 1,248 units over three years and 3,744 over 10 years.

Broadway Plan: The city is also touting implementation of the Broadway Plan as an initiative that will incentivize 359 units over three years, 7,000 over the next decade, and 40,000 over the lifespan of the plan.

• Policies expected to go before council over the next year or two, include pre-zoning for rental density in industrial and commercial areas, a fixed rate for community amenity contributions, removing parking minimums and clarifying infrastructure requirements.

“Unlocking” non-market housing: The city has two items under this initiative, though much of the first item was redacted by the city, saying releasing the information would harm “the financial or economic interests” of the city. That includes redacting the number of units the initiative would incentivize.

• The second item has more clarity: the city planned to amend the False Creek North Official Development Plan to enable more non-market density in three sites.

Streamlining permit conditions: This initiative has no incentivized units attached to it, but comes with a $2-million implementation price tag. The application acknowledges that each condition for development, such as design, sustainability or parking, “may have a specific intended purpose and rationale.” But “the combined impact of all conditions can often result in significant complexity and time for city staff and development applicants.”

• The city is aiming to streamline permit conditions through a “comprehensive review to reduce development permit conditions,” including “eliminating, simplifying, and streamlining development conditions, taking a risk-based approach, with the goal of shrinking review times and simplifying development requirements.”

Digitization: This initiative will see the city digitize its regulations, which it says will “save time spent on [development] reviews, improve the quality of application and reduce the time from ideation to shovels in the ground, which in turn will lower the overall project costs.” And the city says it will “enable transparency, reliability and predictability of the system.”

High-density zoning: This final initiative is a pilot to find ways to simplify the zoning amendment process for higher-density housing to eventually be put into effect across the city.

The city says this will take some time to implement, and won’t see any increased units during the three-year HAF period, but “will lead to a significant increase in housing units beyond 2026.” However, it adds that it doesn’t know how many permitted units the initiative will incentivize beyond 2026 either.

Okay, but: One challenge with reading through the application put forward by the city (as well as those I’ve read from other municipalities) is that they don’t say how they came up with the numbers they provide.

• Another challenge is that a number of these initiatives aren’t exactly incentivized by the HAF program. The Broadway Plan initiative makes little effort to explain how HAF factors in, and most programs are marked as beginning in January 2023, before the program started.

This gets a little strange, with the city setting milestones that it had already achieved by the time the application had been submitted to the federal government, including the first Broadway Plan milestone — approving the water strategy — being completed in July 2022.

VANCOUVER NUMBERS

🚐 600: A tentative agreement between the HandyDART service and the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724 may have averted a work stoppage by more than this many workers, after an overwhelming strike vote in June. [The Canadian Press]

🏢 $2.8 million: Westbank and Peterson Alberni, two Vancouver-based developers, are being sued by the construction manager on their 43-storey West End project Alberni by Kengo Kuma for this much in allegedly unpaid invoices. [Storeys]

📈 48%: A new poll commissioned by the BC Chamber of Commerce found nearly half of people in BC believe the province is going in the wrong direction — though, despite this, the BC NDP (43%) still holds a lead over the BC Conservatives (35%), according to the poll. [CTV]

☔️ 26.7: Vancouver saw this many millimetres of rain on Saturday, making it one of 17 communities in BC to see record rainfall for Aug. 24. It beat the 2008 record of 17.6 mm. [CTV]

NEW JOBS

Discover a new job in Vancouver:

• Senior Proposal Coordinator at Binnie

• Social Media & Events Coordinator at Better Business Bureau of Mainland BC

• Prevention Information Assistant at WorkSafeBC

• Assistant Archivist City of Burnaby

• Development Coordinator, Cause Marketing & Corporate Partnerships at Canuck Place Children’s Hospice

Local jobs are selected by the Lookout team and are not paid ads, unless specifically noted.

THE AGENDA

🏚️ A Mount Pleasant building that caught fire three times in just over a year is under threat of foreclosure by the credit union Vancity, which filed a claim with the BC Supreme Court before the most recent fire, claiming the owners didn’t adequately insure the building and didn’t address the first fire. [CTV]

🔥 On that note, one former tenant displaced in the first fire of that building, in July last year, said he wasn’t surprised to learn of yet another fire in the building, saying there was a “big safety hazard” that was left there, “waiting for another disaster to happen.” [Global]

💰 BC municipalities may be missing out on millions of dollars in property tax revenue due to low assessments, according to a former appraiser with BC Assessment. [CityNews]

🪲 Ash trees in Vancouver may be under threat from a “highly destructive” beetle — the emerald ash borer — which was detected in five locations in the city this spring. The city and federal government put the city under federal regulations in an effort to limit or halt their spread. [CTV] 

👀 The owners of a dog killed on Second Beach earlier this month have put up a reward for information leading to the identification of the owner of the other dog involved in the attack. [Global]

🚆 The Canadian Industrial Relations Board has set a “dangerous precedent” in ordering the Teamsters back to work on the railways and barring further labour disruptions during arbitration, according to the union, which is challenging the decision. [Global]

🚞 On that note, the West Coast Express was expected to be up and running by today with workers sent back to work, though it may be delayed due to a backlog in freight traffic. [CTV]

🏘️ A community in North Burnaby is leaning on legal covenants from the 1950s to shield their neighbourhood from density prescribed by BC legislation last fall. The neighbourhood falls in the transit-oriented development areas, and its tactics, if successful, may be imported to Vancouver. [CBC]

EVENT GUIDE

Deckchair Cinema | The Polygon Gallery | Thursday | Last chance to hop on the SeaBus for a movie on the North Vancouver Quay | Tickets by donation

Summer Cinema Series | Second Beach | Tomorrow | Also your last chance to check out a movie in Stanley Park | Free admission

Kings of Leon | Rogers Arena | Saturday, 8 pm | Check out the band’s tour supporting their ninth studio album, Can We Please Have Fun | Tickets $80

PNE Fair | Pacific National Exhibition | Until Sept. 2 | We’re halfway through this year’s PNE run! | Tickets $15 and up

Vegan Night Market | Locarno Beach | Thursday, 6 pm | It’s the last chance of the year to check out the Vegan Night Market | Free admission

RESTAURANT REVIEW

Gary’s is turning heads in South Granville

The text message from the restaurant buzzes, inquiring if I’ll still be coming to the restaurant. Frantically I reply yes. 

As someone who, as I’ve told my friends repeatedly, is mortified by being late, there’s nothing more stressful than telling a restaurant that, yes, you plan to still be there, but secretly knowing you have no idea when your friends will arrive. 

Restaurants are controlled chaos, a well-orchestrated dance between guests, front of house and cooks that can go off the rails if a guest, or in my case, multiple guests, are late (or very late). It’s not the best way to start a visit, especially one you’ve been anticipating for weeks.

GOOD NEWS MONDAY

Start your Monday off with some good news:

A group of coworkers at Foy’s Irish Bar in Vancouver went in on a lottery ticket together for the first time this month — and the group of 15 came out of this inaugural lottery pool with $1 million between them. Well, actually they won $1,000,020, when one of their tickets won $20, bringing each of their winnings from a measly $66,666.67 up to an even $66,668. So, uh, anyone wanna start a lottery pool? [CTV]

COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHTS

• A staple for Vancouver sewers and clothing-makers is closing. [Vancouver Sun]

• For the love of God, don’t ride your e-scooter on Highway 1. [CTV]

• A few local Softies released their first album in a couple dozen years. [CBC]

• Remember when Beatlemania came to Vancouver? [Vancouver Sun]

• That Stanley Park Train derailment? Could’ve been avoided. [Vancouver Sun]

• Want to have your announcement featured? Learn how here.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

A Reddit user posted about this “Exclusive Poolside Event @ Kits For Canada’s Elite (no humans allowed).”

QUIZ

Today’s quiz question that you can find in the newsletter — how did the city come up with the number of units its Housing Accelerator Fund would create? Reply with the correct answer and your name to be featured in the newsletter.