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Vancouver Plan: A long range plan to guide growth and change

 

RECOMMENDATION

A. THAT Council approve the Vancouver Plan, a long-term land use strategy, generally as attached in Appendix A.
B. THAT Council receive for information, Population Projections and Employment Forecast, generally as attached in Appendix C.
C. THAT Council receive for information, Phase 4 – Engagement Summary, generally as attached in Appendix D.
D. THAT Council endorse the Implementation Scope of Work for the Vancouver Plan, generally as attached in Appendix E, with the following amendment:

That Appendix E of the above noted report, page 222, section entitled “Scope”, in regards to Land Use Development Plan, be amended by adding the following section:

“Establish clear expectations for developer contributions to provide affordable housing and public benefits in each area to prevent speculation, including Development Costs Expectations ahead of all future detailed area planning processes.”;

FURTHER THAT Council direct staff to proceed with Implementation work with the existing and approved 2022 project budget.

E. THAT staff report back on the implications and feasibility of applying the same tenant protections required in the Broadway Plan area to renters and co-op residents, city-wide, with an estimated budget for implementation of these measures.
F. THAT Council ask staff to report back on the feasibility of designating all residential areas so that non profit housing can be built without going through the rezoning process.

FURTHER THAT Council direct staff to report back through the implementation phase, with options to allow social housing proposals through a DP process, that exceed current zoning provisions for height, with recommendations for maximum heights in specific areas with a commensurate increase in floor area.

G. THAT Appendix F of the report dated June 22, 2022, entitled “Vancouver Plan: A long range plan to guide growth and change”, page 228, section entitled “Action”, in regards to Housing Vancouver’s Three Year Action Plan, be struck and replaced with the following paragraph:

“Develop a new 3 year housing action plan with concrete policies and programs that prioritize how Vancouver, along with senior government and non profit partners, can meet the housing needs of seniors, families, as well as actions towards more equitable housing options, with a priority on low income and homeless individuals, including a lobbying strategy to senior governments. The housing action plan will be coordinated with the Housing Targets Refresh work, with a report back in 2023 that includes an option to address housing affordability for the 52,000 individuals and households in housing need because of high rents and low incomes, including those who are homeless, earning under $15,000 a year, under $30,000 a year and under $50,000 a year.”

H. THAT Council direct staff explore the application of the Tenant Relocation and Protection Policy to single lot developments in RS and RT zoning districts, including requirements to provide alternative accommodation at rates that do not exceed current rents, and report back to Council with implications for legal authority, staffing and budget implications, and impacts on permit processing times.
I. THAT the City acknowledge Harland Bartholomew’s public record as a segregationist devoted to enshrining race and class segregation in city planning and acknowledge the longstanding and ongoing harm that has been inflicted on Indigenous, Black and racialized communities in Vancouver stemming from the racism that the Bartholomew Plan and urban renewal was premised upon, including laying the foundation for the erasure of Hogan’s Alley;

FURTHER THAT Council recognize that the City has committed to enacting policies that address racism, including anti-Indigenous, anti-Black and anti-Asian racism, in all civic service areas through its adoption of the Equity Framework, ongoing UNDRIP Task Force, and direction to staff to develop an anti-racism action plan, and that work to implement the Equity Framework and develop an anti-racism plan are underway;

FURTHER THAT the City of Vancouver enables and resources community-led/centric organizations and residents that represent the spectrum of racialized communities to lead engagement efforts with their communities that will inform City policy work in ways that address racism and ensure that racialized residents of Vancouver are supported to fully participate in civic life free from discrimination, exclusion, or marginalization of any kind;

AND FURTHER THAT Council recognize that staff are currently working with an advisory committee of Black and African diaspora community members to prioritize work to address historic discrimination and ongoing racism experienced by the Black and African diaspora communities in Vancouver, including consideration of a formal apology, and that an update report on this work is planned for a Special Council meeting scheduled for September 27, 2022.

J. THAT Council direct staff to bring back an implementation timeline that will see substantial aspects of the Vancouver Plan, including a plan for phasing of land use changes, implemented over the next four years;

FURTHER THAT Council direct staff to identify immediate actions to advance land use changes in neighbourhoods with declining populations to advance Vancouver Plan objectives.

K. THAT Council direct staff to explore and report back on a work program to assess options for re-zoning for up to 4 floors of strata housing or up to 6 floors of rental or co-op housing, across all residential areas, with appropriate land value capture mechanisms to improve affordability and secure dedications or rights of way, infrastructure and other needed amenities triggered by development. And that this report back be included in the next Vancouver Plan update.
L. THAT council direct staff to explore and report back on ways to incorporate a wellbeing framework into the implementation plan including centering the First Nation concepts of wellbeing from the BC Assembly of First Nations so people of all ages and abilities can live healthy, happy, and fulfilled lives in the City of Vancouver;

FURTHER THAT staff investigate the feasibility of opportunities to redefine the measures of economic success beyond GDP and include a just transition lens to the plan’s implementation phase.

M. THAT as part of Plan implementation and future area planning, acknowledge the unique identity of Vancouver’s distinct neighbourhoods and recognize the existing conditions unique to each area, including: important shops and services, key public spaces, social and cultural amenities, tangible and intangible heritage features, important buildings and landscape features, as well as the overall strategies articulated in the Vancouver Plan.
N. THAT Council direct staff to receive for information, the motion below, as resolved by the City of Vancouver’s Renters Advisory Committee (RAC) the attached “Motion to Recommend That Mayor and Council Amend, Improve, and Adopt The Vancouver Plan” for consideration in the Implementation Scope of Work for the Vancouver Plan, generally as attached in Appendix E.

MOTION: A Motion to Recommend That Mayor and Council Amend, Improve, and Adopt The Vancouver Plan

WHEREAS

  1. Mayor and Council are currently considering The Vancouver Plan proposal;
  1. The plan is the culmination of a four-and-a-half year city-wide consultation that will provide Vancouver with the first comprehensive planning document in the city’s history;
  1. The Vancouver Plan goes a long way in addressing the many overlapping crises facing the City of Vancouver;
  1. The Vancouver Plan provides a high level strategic plan from which to steward sustainable growth and development for the City of Vancouver over the course of the next 30 years;
  1. The City of Vancouver Renters’ Advisory Committee believes that the most important issues facing the City of Vancouver and its citizens are a lack of diverse, affordable, and available rental housing supply, and supply of all kinds of affordable housing;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED

  1. THAT the City of Vancouver Renters’ Advisory Committee recommend and request that the Mayor and Council of the City of Vancouver amend, improve, and adopt the Vancouver Plan, subject to the following:
  • Inclusion of AAA Bike Lane & Active Transportation Infrastructure on all Arterials and Greenways, because Renters are most likely to not have alternative modes of transportation such as personal vehicles;
  • Introduction of Parking Maximums City-wide;
  • Allowing Low Rise Construction (up to 6 Stories), as of right, everywhere in the city;
  • Allow Mid Rise Construction (up to 12 Stories) for Affordable and Supportive Housing, as of right, everywhere in the city;
  • Allowing Corner Stores and mixed Commercial Uses across more areas of the City;
  • Recommending a narrowing of lot width down to 16 feet, including exterior walls, to facilitate construction of Fee Simple Row Houses, and Stacked Townhouses of up to 6 stories on Single Family Lots, as of right;
  • Allowing Fee Simple Row Houses, Stacked Townhouses, and Co-Op Housing, as of right, everywhere in the city;
  • Including as of right land use approvals, everywhere in the City, for proposals that meet form and character guidelines of a “21st Century Vancouver Special”;
  • Introducing policy to encourage the densification of High Streets off Arterials by focusing density one lot back across the laneways in order to move density away from noisy and polluted transportation corridors;
  • Amend policy 1.6.1 to read: “Increase the supply of new purpose built market and below market rental housing and co-op housing through supportive land use policy and zoning, financial incentives, additional height and density, and streamlined hearing and approval processes;
  • Expanding Broadway Plan Renter Protections including Right of Return and Right of First Refusal in the Vancouver Plan;
  • Expanding 25% 2 bedroom plus unit requirement and 10% 3 bedroom plus unit requirement for all Multiplexes over 6 units;
  • Basing housing planning in the Vancouver Plan on the Housing Needs Report for the City of Vancouver.

 

  1. FURTHER THAT the City of Vancouver Renters’ Advisory Committee recommend and request that Mayor and Council direct staff to perform financial feasibility testing on vacancy control to determine its impact on rental supply.
O. THAT Council direct staff to explore and report back on the development of a heritage values map of the City’s neighbourhoods that will serve as a basis for a Historic Context Statement of the Vancouver Plan to ensure the city’s heritage, both tangible and intangible, is recognized, rejuvenated, and sustained.
P. THAT, in order to achieve our Climate Emergency Action Plan goals, which are currently not on track to reduce Vancouver’s Greenhouse Gas (GHG)  emissions by 50% by 2030 and become a net zero carbon city by 2050, Council direct staff to explore and report back to Council on accelerated and additional measures in the Vancouver Plan’s Implementation and Phasing Plan that most deeply reduce carbon emissions including expanding active transportation and transit infrastructure, reallocating a minimum of 11% of streets for non-car neighbourhood amenities,  zoning for a range of higher density affordable housing options with access to transit, requiring low carbon construction materials, restoring natural ecosystems, increasing green space and the city-wide tree canopy , and developing walkable, complete neighbourhoods city-wide.
Q. THAT Council direct Staff to explore a Pre-emptive Right By-law (aka Right of First Refusal By-Law) which gives the municipality the priority to purchase buildings or lands to provide more affordable housing choices equitably distributed throughout the city, and report back with opportunities and challenges related to applying this approach to Vancouver;

FURTHER THAT Staff consider the Pre-emptive Right By-law application and implementation in other cities; including but not limited to Montreal.

R. THAT Council instruct Staff to consider approaches to improving livability in multi-family housing, including new requirements for minimum unit sizes, and updates to the High Density Housing for Families and Children Guidelines; and report back with strategies and implications to Council as an early action through the implementation of the Vancouver Plan.
Three people of varying heights standing with umbrellas.