The lack of updated official community plans (OCPs) in many Vancouver city areas isn’t stopping developers from proposing ambitious new residential and commercial projects.
And the city’s top planner says that outdated OCPs aren’t necessarily going to stop development, even as some formal and ad-hoc community groups call for updated OCPs before new developments proceed in their communities.
Brent Toderian, the City of Vancouver’s director of planning, told Marpole residents who gathered at Marpole Place for a September 20 public consultation about the proposed redevelopment of the community’s Safeway that “it’s always best to have as up-to-date as possible policy guiding, driving and defining change within the community.”
Due to their recent growth and the age of their OCPs, Marpole, Grandview-Woodlands and the West End are slated to receive updated plans.
But in a followup interview with Business in Vancouver, Toderian said that such plans aren’t always necessary for development to be approved.
“Where there’s not a community plan,” he said, “it’s not a black-or-white answer for us as to whether rezoning is premature. We ask ourselves questions about the nature of the application – whether considering it would prejudice a community plan or paint us in a corner.”
In neighbourhoods without updated OCPs, developers are submitting “spot” re-zoning applications to increase density and height for proposed developments.
Henriquez Partners Architects and developer Westbank Projects have applied to rezone the Safeway lot at Granville Street and 70th Avenue to build three residential towers – the highest being 24 storeys – atop a new Safeway.
Near Cambie Street and Marine Drive in Marpole, the PCI Group is proposing a 377-foot, 440-unit residential and office tower.
The Marpole Business Association (MBA) supports new area development, but since its inception in 2000 the organization has been advocating for a new Marpole OCP. The current plan was created in 1979.
During the public consultation for the proposed new Safeway, the MBA’s Claudia Laroye said the association doesn’t see a substitute for the kind of robust planning process that’s included in an OCP.
“With the amount of fundamental change being proposed in our community, we feel that we’re facing more future paradigm shifts in Marpole than any other existing neighbourhood that is looking at a new [OCP],” she said.
Gudrun Langolf, president of the Marpole-Oakridge Area Council Society, said during the consultation that there should be no major development or rezoning in Marpole without an updated OCP.
“There are many changes happening, and to [develop] without consideration to what it will do to the nature of the community would be foolhardy.”
Langolf’s comments echoed those from some residents in the West End, where a number of projects have been proposed, but a quick look at Mount Pleasant suggests that outdated community plans don’t impede development.
While city council is expected to pass Mount Pleasant’s updated OCP this fall, neighbourhood properties have already been rezoned and ground broken on numerous new area developments.
Vancouver-based developer Amacon is building the District condo buildings at Main Street and 7th Avenue. Rob Vrooman, the company’s director of development, said developers take on more risk when submitting spot rezoning applications for areas that have no updated OCPs.
“Typically it will take you longer to get to construction if there are no clear bounds or an OCP in place regarding what you can and can’t do.”
But he noted that Amacon follows the same development guidelines that city planners impose in OCPs. And having no OCP can provide developers with opportunities.
“[Developers] can create a lot of value in that rezoning process by going in there with a project that we think makes sense,” said Vrooman.
He added that developers who enter a new neighbourhood first can set the tone for future development and what’s included in an updated OCP.
“You let the developer take the public lashing,” he said. “It’s a safe way for the city to get a feel for what’s appropriate and what the public will support.”
A Vancouver-based architect, who spoke on condition of anonymity, noted that an OCP is only one of a number of documents that influence development in the city.
“Anyone who thinks that there is one document that is a panacea to anything, doesn’t understand zoning,” he said.
The architect added that some residents overstate the significance of having an OCP and some hope to stall development by championing an OCP – which can take the city two years to develop.
He said there’s public backlash to some projects because developers are running out of space in high-density areas.
“[Developers] are pushing into areas that haven’t had any development – and those are the neighbourhoods that are the hardest to develop in, because the less change there is, the harder it is for people to change.”
The architect also noted that Vancouver’s cityscape works because there’s zoning flexibility and municipal policy that allows for the city’s discretion in approving developments.
“Any of the buildings [in the city] that everyone points to as being exceptional, on some level, are rezonings.” •