With the hoopla over and anniversaries of the 2010 Winter Olympics lying ahead, the long-term impact of the Games is a matter of speculation.
The questions being asked this year by the business community as the first anniversary approaches touch on common themes.
The twin benefits of most Olympics are infrastructure development and international exposure, both of which garnered Vancouver significant capital it now has a chance to use to its advantage.
Conference Board of Canada economist Mario Lefebvre summarized the situation best in his January 27 address to Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association members.
“Use it wisely, and make sure you maximize all the possibilities that you can have,” he said of the infrastructure and so-called legacy projects developed in the city in the run-up to the Games.
But the built environment isn’t all; for it to be successful, people must occupy it.
“Other than the Olympics – not that I want to disregard this amazing event that you guys did a great job organizing – to me, as an economist, the fundamental element that’s in play here remains population,” Lefebvre said.
While a resilient economy has helped the region weather a tough business climate and smooth the slump in commercial leasing activity expected after the Games, the city still needs people to support its growth prospects.
“True, Vancouver is a magnet to people around the world – same way as Toronto is and Montreal is as well – [but there’s] no place for complacency, not at all,” Lefebvre said. “We’re not the only country in the world that needs immigrants.”
Developers are optimistic, however, that this is the case.
Speaking to the Urban Development Institute a week earlier, Polygon Homes Ltd. president and CEO Neil Chrystal said the Olympics gave a boost to Vancouver, which he quipped was “the last market standing” in North America so far as real estate goes.
“It helped Vancouver learn how to become an international city, and it gave the swagger back to the citizens. … We’re a better people because of the Olympics.”
Games-related construction projects gave people jobs at a time when other sectors were flagging (“It couldn’t have come at a better time,” according to industrial developer Ryan Beedie), but the exposure will help channel current interest well into the future.
“It’s similar to Expo 86,” said Eric Carlson, president of Anthem Properties Group. “It exposed the incredible assets of our region – the scenery, the cool spaces – to the whole world, which reinforces the direction of the immigration that’s already coming here, and the capital influence coming our way.”
A special meeting last week of the Urban Development Institute worked over Metro Vancouver’s new Regional Growth Strategy (RGS), highlighting the fears and concerns developers have regarding the document. The strategy is awaiting approval from the region’s 22 municipalities.
While acknowledging the successes of the 15-year-old Livable Regional Strategic Plan – elements of which Coquitlam planning and development general manager Jim McIntyre credited with having “really helped define what the region is” – the session also wrestled with the new strategy’s shift from a leadership document to a regulatory instrument.
Clark Wilson LLP partner Peter Kenward noted that a good plan should be responsive to change rather than tethering the region to a particular end. Where a land use is needed now might not be where it’s needed in the future. Moreover, by mandating that local plans be consistent with the regional context statements that will harmonize municipal planning objectives with the RGS, Kenward said regional objectives might trump local planning.
“As the plan gets more and more out of date,” he said, “Metro’s jurisdiction grows.”
Subsequent speakers warned that such centralization will hamper development across the region, lengthening approval times and raising development costs – making housing less affordable and Metro Vancouver a less competitive place to do business.
“It adds another layer of government regulation and takes away from local governments some of their ability to adapt to local issues and priorities,” said Andrew Grant, president of PCI Group.
“This will not only impact the time it takes to make a change for some land uses, but it also adds to both the direct and indirect cost of governing for both housing and business.”
Grant’s call for a flexible, cost-efficient program was backed by Kevin Layden, president and CEO of Wesbild Holdings Ltd.
“Whenever you add layers, and cost, it just drives up the whole program,” he said. “And whenever you drive costs up, you make your region, your business or your community uncompetitive. … We’ve got to find a way to take costs out.”
Layden, previously president and CEO of Best Buy Canada, acknowledged that eliminating costs isn’t as easy with real estate as with television sets, but a dynamic growth plan that doesn’t over-govern the planning and approvals process helps.
“I agree with the principles,” he said of the RGS. “It’s not so much the what, it’s the how.”