The Vancouver City Council has rescheduled its final public hearing on the controversial and long-delayed development plan for the Commercial-Broadway SkyTrain station area until the end of the year, likely after the municipal election.
The move means the proposal to replace a Safeway and adjacent parking garage with multiple residential towers and retail commercial spaces will likely be considered by three different councils since it was first introduced.
A city spokesman said Thursday’s hearing was postponed “due to the volume of rezoning requests pending for Council consideration and limited meeting time available before the summer break.”
No final date was given for the hearing, but the spokesman said the meeting will be brought forward “towards” the end of the year.
Voters will choose the next mayor and council on October 15.
Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart said Tuesday that he fought to get the project addressed before the council completes its work this month, but blamed marathon council meetings and multiple private member motions for the delay.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if more things fell off the agenda, depending on how the next few meetings go,” he told reporters.
“I think it’s a shame.”
The development has been controversial since it was first unveiled in 2016, as part of the larger Grandview-Woodland Community Plan approved by the council led by then-Mayor Gregor Robertson.
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Coming to that plan was a challenge in itself. Neighborhood groups rejected the city’s initial plan, arguing that it would radically change the character of the neighborhood. The city formed a citizens’ assembly, whose comments were eventually integrated into the 2016 plan.
When it was finally approved, the community plan set the maximum height of residential towers in the neighborhood at 24 stories. The proposal for the Broadway Safeway featured two towers, one that would reach that threshold.
However, the current proposal before the council now features three towers, the tallest of which would be 29 stories. It is actually one floor less than a previous proposal submitted in September 2020.
The plan would see the residential towers, which will include 438 insured rental units, including 93 insured at below-market rates, along with 215 condominium units, be built on top of retail commercial space that would include a reconstructed Safeway. A public plaza would run parallel to the Expo Line platform of the Commercial-Broadway SkyTrain station, along with office and gym space and underground parking.
The proposed development at 1780 East Broadway in Vancouver, effective November 2021.
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Community members have rejected the plan for years, as well as the larger vision of higher density in a neighborhood known for single-family homes and ample green space.
But housing advocates say more density is needed throughout the city, including in areas long untouched by multi-story development like Grandview-Woodland and Point Grey.
The city has spent years pushing a transit corridor-centric approach to development that emphasizes higher density near SkyTrain stations and rapid bus lines. The Commercial-Broadway Station is the busiest public transportation hub in North America.
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That approach culminated in the battle over the controversial Broadway Plan, which was passed last month and will seek to turn the bustling Broadway corridor between Clark Drive and Vine Street into Vancouver’s “second city center” for the next 30 years.
Urban Planner and SFU City Program Director Andy Yan told Global News after the final vote that the sometimes heated debate over the Broadway Plan is indicative of future development struggles in Vancouver.
“We lack land that is easy to develop and the land that we have left is currently occupied or is land that has neighbors,” he said.
“Development and change in the city of Vancouver will be much more complicated. It will take another level of leadership, a new level of leadership that deals not just with what could be there, but what is there.”
The city’s new Vancouver Plan also pushes for multi-family zoning throughout the city, with an emphasis on increasing rental stock and mixed-use developments that boost commercial space in traditionally residential communities.
— With files from Simon Little
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