Vancouver's shifting patterns of development

Good morning,

I’m always looking for stories that our community cares about. It’s the little things that grab my attention. Earlier in August, we noticed a big response to our story about how FIFA restrictions may impact and cancel popular local events next year.

The reader response was massive. So it got us thinking — FIFA is projected to be one of the biggest events in Vancouver since the 2010 Winter Games. What will the impact be? Is our city ready? Will there be any lasting legacy? 

And now, on to a tag-teamed collection of stories about Vancouver developments and how they are shaping the neighbourhoods you live in (or might soon).

— Geoff Sharpe, Lookout managing editor

PS - If you find this newsletter valuable, please consider forwarding it to your friends. New to the Lookout? Sign-up for free. 

WEATHER

Wednesday: 26 🌡️ 16 | 🌤️

Thursday: 24 🌡️ 17 | 🌤️

Friday: 23 🌡️ 16 | 🌤️

WEST END

West End tower proposal offers insights into the city’s shifting pattern of development

By Jake McGrail

Since 2018, the lot at 1111 Broughton has stood empty after a fire destroyed the more than 100-year-old building that previously stood there. After years of inaction, a redevelopment plan for the site was submitted to the city back in January.

That plan calls for a 25-storey apartment tower with 136 rental units, just about all of which would be either studios or one-bedrooms. What makes this project a little bit different from some others in the West End is that it’s led by The Bloom Group, a nonprofit organization that already operates the Nicholson Tower, which is just a 10-minute walk away at 1115 Nelson St.

Similar to the Nicholson Tower, the planned Broughton tower would consist of social housing — homes that are partially subsidized by the government, to make them more affordable. The target tenants would likely be people with low to moderate incomes who would apply for any vacant units through the BC Housing Registry.

Designed by architecture firm Arcadis, the apartments would range from around 400 to 700 square feet, with some shared community spaces on both the ground floor and an outdoor garden area near the top of the building. 

Since the city has not yet officially approved the project (it’s been waiting in the active application stage for a little over six months now), there’s no publicly shared time frame as to how long the construction process might take.

Perhaps the most notable part of this application, though, is how the project showcases the shifting guidelines under which these types of proposals come forward. Since the beginning of 2024 – and especially since Josh White, the city’s new GM of Planning, took over the position in May of that year – there have been some notable changes that shine through in the proposed Broughton tower.

The application (in its current form) is only possible to begin with due to the relaxation of the city’s “view cones” policies last year, which allows for greater building height in certain places. As a whole, the city is currently working to streamline the process. It’s not expected to be finished until sometime next year, but there will almost certainly be some more repealing or modifying of different design guidelines for the West End.

Another relatively recent change that is a major factor in the Broughton project is that there’s no underground parking planned for the tower, only bike stalls. That’s because, as of January 2024, there are no longer any minimums for required parking spots at new developments in either the West End or the Broadway Plan area, a roughly 500 block rectangle of land directly south of False Creek.

Given the high cost of adding extra underground lots to the potential new building and the narrowness of the site, there wouldn’t be any additional parking in the area to compensate for the major increase in homes. The city is banking on a high number of people who move to Broughton being happy not to have their own vehicle. Time will tell whether that’s the case. 

While it’s unknown just how long we’ll be waiting to hear the next update on this project, it’s certainly one to keep an eye on, as a potential sign of similar applications and developments to come.

THE VANCOUVER NUMBER

300+

The number of complaints about rats and mice in Vancouver schools last year. CBC has created a searchable database of the staff complaints, showing which schools and classrooms had the most issues last year. Happy back to school 🙃. Read more. [CBC]

THE AGENDA

🪧 Some B.C. Public Servants participated in picket lines at offices across the province on Tuesday. Government employees are asking for an 8.25 per cent wage increase over two years and a cost-of-living adjustment. Read more. [Global News]

⛴️ Speaking of striking, 91 per cent of Hullo Ferry employees have voted to strike. Next steps on potential job action will be discussed at a meeting on Wednesday evening, according to the BC Ferry & Marine Workers’ Union. Read more. [Daily Hive]

👉 Councillor Pete Fry has penned an op-ed in the Vancouver Sun about his complaint to the city’s integrity commissioner, which led to a finding that Mayor Ken Sim and his ABC Party violated the city’s code of conduct. Fry pushed back against Sim’s allegation that his complaint cost taxpayers significant money, arguing instead that it was ABC members who unnecessarily extended the legal process. Read more. [Vancouver Sun]

🏠 Despite keeping more than 100 housing and shelter units empty during the April 2023 Hastings Street decampment, internal emails released under FOI by BC Housing and the City of Vancouver show that neither organization could confirm that anyone displaced during the decampment was housed. Meanwhile, desperately-needed units sat empty. Read more. [The Mainlander]

🚌 TransLink’s September service updates have been implemented, with increased service on 53 routes, including to schools, while decreasing service to popular summer tourist destinations. Read more. [TransLink]

🪶 The Sim'oogit Laay' totem pole is returning home to the Nisga'a Nation’s Nisga'a Museum in Laxgalts'ap, northwest of Terrace, after almost 80 years at UBC’s Museum of Anthropology, where it has been since 1947. Read more. [CBC]

🐶 Visitors to the PNE decreased this year, with about 612,000 attendees heading to the Fair, down 25,000 from 2024. 235,000 people still managed to see the SuperDogs, though. Read more. [City News]

🥼 A Vancouver RMT is no longer permitted to treat female patients after providing a non-therapeutic treatment without receiving a patient’s informed consent and violating professional boundaries between a client and service provider. Read more. [City News]

HOME OF THE WEEK

It’s been a while since we ventured to North Vancouver, so today, we’re featuring a lovely two-bedroom there. While the building's location is not in a great spot, it does have some amazing features, including a mountain view, lots of natural light, and a well-built modern kitchen.

A place with a view will set you back this much in North Van.

DEVELOPMENT

Great Northern Way proposals invite the latest transformation in False Creek Flats

By Nate Lewis

What happened: A flurry of rezoning applications and new developments around Broadway Subway stations in False Creek Flats promise to bring more housing, office and retail space, childcare, and expanded school facilities to the growing area around Great Northern Way. 

• In total, Vancity Lookout was able to identify ten projects in the area, most of which are either nearing completion or still in the permitting stage. 

The ‘Big Three’: The various projects propose over 3,250 units of housing, about two-thirds of which would come by way of three multi-tower developments positioned directly beside and on top of SkyTrain stations at either end of the area. 

On the Clark Drive side, there’s a proposal to build two 35-storey rental towers and a 19-storey office tower directly between VCC-Clark Station and Vancouver Community College’s new eight-storey addition to its campus. A former parking lot, VCC’s new building is still in early stages of construction, having only recently completed excavation. 

• There’s also a nearly completed 10-storey honeycomb-like office building nearby that sits in front of the East Van Cross. 

On the Main Street side, there are two major applications surrounding the future Emily Carr Station. A proposed development that would sit on top of the new station is very similar in specs to the one near Clark, with both having three towers of similar size and use, including commercial spaces, a childcare facility, and all rental housing with 20 per cent of unit space offered at below-market rents. 

But it’s the other proposal next door that’s a statistical showstopper. Tucked up against the train tracks beside Emily Carr is an open pit awaiting a building. Scratch that — four buildings, ranging in size from 35 to 40 storeys tall, with strata, rental, and hotel rooms, plus commercial and office space, built on top of a large publicly-accessible atrium. That’s according to a rezoning application filed in December 2024, which was only shared publicly by the city this week.  

In 2019, the developer, Onni Group, was eyeing a four-tower development with heights between seven and 15 stories, according to Urbanized. Their ambitions have changed significantly with the introduction of the province’s new transit-oriented development area policies in Fall 2023. 

Each of the three major development sites, plus three other tower proposals around Main, were made after the new provincial laws were passed. None of this could have feasibly happened without government investments in high-quality transit. 

However: Of the over 3,000 new units being teased for the area, only 10 per cent – about 330 of them – have been built. It’s highly improbable all these get built, and housing delivery of that magnitude is highly reliant on a small handful of huge projects.  

• The ‘Big Three’ are all still at the rezoning stage, and are likely to be subject to significant scrutiny from the public and City Hall.

For other proposals – which are for single 18-22 storey towers – there are certain drawbacks. At one site, currently an older apartment building, a resident has expressed concerns about falling through tenant protection loopholes under the Broadway Plan. That proposal had its rezoning approved in March. 

Another of the proposed redevelopment sites at 1888 Main is currently home to The Narrow Lounge, a popular dive bar, and Skylight Warehouse, a community event space. Both are the type of gritty, character spots that get pushed out when old, cheaper buildings are redeveloped. 

Fundamental transformation: The fundamental transformation of the area began in the early 2000s with a donation of 18 acres of land by the machinery company Finning International to four major universities (UBC, SFU, BCIT, and Emily Carr), which led to the creation of the Centre for Digital Media, and the new Emily Carr campus, according to BC Business. Walk down the street today and you’ll encounter flagship offices for companies like EA Sports, Tesla, MEC, and Nature’s Path. 

• In 2017, the city created and approved an area plan that focused on creating thousands of new employment opportunities, particularly in the “innovation economy.” 

It remains to be seen how much of this comes to pass, but it’s not an overstatement to say these proposed projects – especially the big ones – have the potential to capitalize on the confluence of scholastics, industry, transit, and political will that’s been brewing in False Creek Flats for over 20 years. Over time, it might just turn into the city’s newest complete neighbourhood.

VANCOUVER ARTS GUIDE

Performance + Music

There’s still time to see the classical full operatic production La Tragédie de Carmen, reimagined as taking place in high school. The show runs until Sept. 7.

Spanish dance fans rejoice—the Vancouver International Flamenco Festival is back from Sept. 20-28. The festival’s 35th anniversary features a packed schedule. 

Bard on the Beach is wrapping up in mid-September, and there’s still an opportunity to see all four shows - Much Ado About Nothing, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised] [again] and The Dark Lady

The fourth annual Indigenous-led festival ʔəm̓i ce:p xʷiwəl Come Toward the Fire takes place on Sept. 20 and 21 at the Chan Centre for Performing Arts, with a powwow, dancing drum group, music, poetry and more. 

The start of the Vancouver Symphony season is Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, performed by one of the brightest young stars in the classical music scene, pianist Alexander Malofeev. Catch the performance Sept. 12-13.

Art

VIVO Media Arts Centre has a new exhibit, Shiki & Kū, a large audio-visual installation bringing together calligraphy, visuals, acoustic sound, flute and more, designed around the Japanese concepts of shiki (form) and kū (emptiness). Showing from Sept. 13-28

We’ve written about the impact of neighbourhood development on the Renfrew Ravine Moon Festival, but the festival is on most of September, with scavenger hunts, mural painting, art shows, lantern workshops, afternoon music… Honestly, there’s a lot happening.

Movies

VIFF announced its festival lineup last week, and it promises to be a spectacular edition of the film festival. Big movies set to play big on the awards circuit include likely Best Picture contender Sentimental Value, Brendan Fraser in Rental Family, Park Chan-wook’s Parasite-like movie No Other Choice, Luca Guadagnino's After the Hunt and Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly. Full list here. 

For a more experimental series, the Small File Media Festival is on at Cinematheque Oct. 18-19. It features films that are small in size (megabytes that is) to reflect on and make people think about the environmental impact of streaming. 

And last but not least, the Latin American Film Festival will be held from Sept. 4-14, with multiple films each day. 

— Written by Geoff Sharpe, Lookout founder and managing editor

GAME TIME

Today’s Wordle has a real back-to-school energy. Can you work out what it is?

COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHTS

• If you’re interested in helping a B.C. teacher buy supplies for their students, a few local classroom wish lists are available here. You can filter by city and province. [Get Your Teach On]

• This Vancouver cocktail and raw bar is trying to buck the pretentious trend that plague other places.

• Red Bull's Dance Your Style freestyle dancing national finals will be held in Vancouver this week. [Vancouver is Awesome]

• Here are 20 free and cheap things to do around the city. [Daily Hive]

• Saturday, September 6th is a Car Free Day on Commercial Drive. [Buzzer]

• An insightful and heartbreaking/warming thread of advice and personal stories about facing bullies at school. [Reddit]

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Some excellent late summer rays the other evening. 🌞