Elizabeth Murphy: Sustainable Future Requires New Approach in Vancouver

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There are many different ways to accommodate the necessary growth of the city. To achieve positive outcomes that avoid negative impacts on climate, affordability and livability, growth must be managed very carefully. This requires a holistic approach to planning that considers the local context of each neighborhood.

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Yet Vancouver continues with arbitrary citywide rezonings without neighborhood context. The Vancouver Plan simply implements the previous council’s initiatives without any significant planning process.

One of the “quick starts” of the Vancouver Plan, which will be presented at the public hearing on November 2, is called Rental Home Optimization. This citywide rezoning of up to six stories is for rentals in all commercial areas of the C2 zone and pre-approved spot rezonings on arteries and off-arteries in RS / RT zones of individual single-family homes. These can include multi-site assemblies of up to a full block per project, with no limits on the number of projects in any one area. This has no neighborhood context, no notification of affected residents, and no consideration of the cumulative effects of other developments that may be happening in these areas.

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For example, this rental rezoning policy affects West Point Gray, but does not consider the proposed 90-acre Jericho Lands redevelopment alone to increase West Point Gray’s current population by 250 percent. There is no planning to assess the impacts on the neighborhood and the infrastructure as a whole.

The city must first consider the broader consequences of growth. The council called for more transparent data to recalibrate housing targets that are currently nearly three times what can be justified with a census population growth of about one percent per year. This critical work that is needed to guide planning has not yet been completed.

Over a year ago there were calls to pause and pivot. Dr. Ann McAfee and, more recently, Larry Beasley, former co-directors of planning for the City of Vancouver, have said that it is time for cities to reconsider the future impacts of COVID-19, especially with the shift to working at least to part-time from home and how that affects housing, office and transportation plans in the Greater Vancouver area. A sustainable future requires a new approach.

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Climate change: Environmental impact studies are needed for embedded carbon in all development and transportation infrastructure. Embodied carbon includes all supply chain impacts on the environment from resource harvesting, manufacturing, transportation, demolition, groundwater, landscaping, urban forests, construction, services, and use. of energy. The focus should be on the three Rs of reducing, reusing and recycling as much as possible, such as adaptive reuse of existing buildings. Planning should meet the needs of the community, not just promote unlimited growth. For example, a subway extension to the University of British Columbia that is not a regional priority now, or possibly never, is being used to justify large tower developments in Jericho Lands, which would add a significant amount of embodied carbon.

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Affordability: After a decade of record amounts of rezoning and development, Vancouver is one of the most unaffordable cities in the world. One-off rezonings, land assemblies, land displacement, speculation, and inflation all contribute. We need to do things differently. Most of the new large market rental projects are sold to real estate investment trusts (REITs) with huge profits that inflate the values ​​and rents of the surrounding land.

Habitability: Planning should consider what scale of growth can be supported by existing amenities such as schools, community centers, parks, libraries, day care centers, utilities and services. Adding a new development next to a school does not mean that those new residents will be able to bring their children to that school, which often requires competing in a lottery. The school board makes this worse by closing local schools for housing development sites. Without increased local school capacity, most parents have to transfer their children across town to other schools independently. The same goes for community center programs.

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Simply adding more density does not make neighborhoods complete or walkable. Even if traffic is close, busy parents often drive their children to school and other programs just to fit into a tight schedule. Most households will still need at least one vehicle. The proposed elimination of on-site parking minima shifts parking to street and eliminates options for on-site electric vehicle charging.

All neighborhoods are overwhelmed by disconnected arbitrary rezonings without neighborhood-based planning or transparent and accurate data.

To be a livable, affordable, and sustainable city, Vancouver must be built for real needs, at a scale and location that suits each neighborhood with significant community input, backed by affordable transportation, amenities, and electric services. Pausing and pivoting is what needs to happen to address climate change and affordability now.

Elizabeth Murphy is a private sector project manager. Previously, he was a Property Development Officer for the City of Vancouver Housing and Property Department and for BC Housing.

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