After numerous marathon meetings over weeks, hundreds of speakers and dozens of amendments, Vancouver City Council approved Broadway’s controversial plan Wednesday night.
The final vote cut seven to four, with Mayor Kennedy Stewart and councilors Adrian Carr, Pete Fry, Christine Boyle, Lisa Dominato, Sarah Kirby-Jung and Rebecca Bly in support.
I promised that #BroadwayPlan would put tenants first. Tonight we did it from:
🤝 Protect tenants today with the strongest protections in Canada.
👨👩👧👦 Help 1000 future tenants live on the steps of a brand new subway.
🎉 Securing 20% of new rents is deeply reduced forever. # Vanpoli pic.twitter.com/1M92G0KypA
– Kennedy Stewart (@kennedystewart) June 23, 2022
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Councilors Melissa De Genova, Gene Swanson, Colleen Hardwick and Michael Weibe were against.
Councilors approved more than two dozen changes to the plan, including Stewart’s ambitious tenant protection plan and a separate bicycle line proposed by Boyle.
The 30-year plan to turn the busy Broadway corridor between Clark Drive and Vine Street into the “second center of Vancouver” will create new housing, jobs and amenities around the $ 2.38 billion Millennium Line expansion, scheduled to be completed in 2025
“Change is always difficult, but change happens,” said Count. Pete Fry said earlier Wednesday.
“We are a small town with a very high density and we are seeing more and more people coming, so there will be an inevitable tower shape in this area.”
Read more: Public hearings begin on Vancouver’s splitting Broadway plan
The approved plan will allow for the redevelopment of nearly 500 city blocks in an area that is already considered the second largest employment corridor in the province and is home to about a quarter of Vancouver’s existing purpose-built rents.
Towers up to 40 floors can be built near transit stations, and towers between 20 to 30 floors can be built in several central or shoulder areas. The city wants 65% of the construction to be rented out, a quarter of which is below market prices.
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Critics of the Broadway Plan, however, said the towers would displace current residents and increase rents throughout the neighborhood.
1:23 A vote on the Vancouver City Broadway Plan has been postponed until June 22. The vote on the Vancouver City Council Plan for Broadway has been postponed to June 22 – June 10, 2022.
Boyle said the plan would lead to more new rental housing where it does not currently exist, easing market pressures.
“This will allow the current rent to stay in place and build more rents in place of low-density housing,” she told Global News.
Prior to the vote, Stewart promised that the plan would be “Canada’s strongest tenant protection” and that anyone displaced would receive help finding another home, with the right to move into a new building when they first rented or better.
Read more: Vancouver Tenants’ Union fears Broadway plan will lead to evictions, massive rent increases
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At Wednesday’s meeting, Carr said she had worked on an amendment with Fry to ensure that the plan pursued “viability” by implementing it in stages, in co-operation with residents.
“My intention is to work with Coun. Fry on this is really to ensure that we do not embark on the path of rapid development, which will escalate the value of land with proposals from developers to buy and develop currently available residential buildings in the plan area, “she explained.
The vote on the entire draft was postponed earlier when councilors failed to pass through dozens of changes to the plan put on the table at a meeting on June 9th.
2:23 Possible relief for companies affected by the construction of the Broadway subway Possible relief for businesses affected by the construction of the Broadway subway
They spent hours discussing these changes on Wednesday, including one by the Coun. Colleen Hardwick recommends that the entire plan be removed from the table by the autumn municipal elections. The proposal also calls on city officials to adopt “forms of human development” that are accessible to local incomes.
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Parts of the proposal were backed by Michael Weibe, who said the first two nations affected by the project were not involved and that Vancouver City Council could do better.
“There is a lot of amazing work here, I think there are a lot of things we have to deal with. I think the size of the repairs … we don’t know what the plan is, and in reality, we didn’t have a local planner, “Weibe said.
“I don’t think if the 30-year plan is postponed for a few months to do the right thing (that’s) something bad.”
© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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