Vancouver Stadium Site Real Estate Proposal for North East False Creek District in addition to an update on the Strathcona Housing Plan for Affordable

Vancouver Stadium Site for Urbanites

Vancouver real estate has never seen a neighbourhood like this. While the city has managed to balance residential and entertainment land uses in areas such as Robson and Davie Streets, Vancouver city planning director Brent T. says that the future Vancouver hosuing development at B.C. Place Stadium will break new ground in redefining livability. Some 1,200 residential units are expected to rise at the stadium’s site at the northeast end of False Creek, a district that Toderian noted will become an entertainment, sports, and cultural centre. At present, this Vancouver downtown real estate housing area houses GM Place, the Edgewater Casino, and the Plaza of Nations, which will soon be the new home of the Vancouver Art Gallery. Noise, traffic and lack of community amenities are some of the challenges future residents will face. Obviously, these housing units aren’t for everyone. “It’s going to be a different kind of buyer here,” Toderian told the Georgia Straight. “It would be seomeon with a very urban perspective, someone with a high tolerance and even interest for that kind of environment, individuals who are choosing to live in what would ultimately be an entertainment and cultural district. If you want peace and quiet, it would probably not be your first choice.” Not too many families with children are likely to settle at the Vancouver Stadium real estate site. “You might end up with more singles, you might end up with units where there’s even a market cachet for being associated with the stadium,” Toderian said. Aside from the 700,000 square feet of housing spaces, the B.C. Pavilion Corporation, which operates BC Place for the provincial government, will also develop another 700,000 square feet of commercial space. On October 30, Vancouver city council approved PavCo’s proposal to upgrade BC Place, including the installation of a retractiable roof, at no cost to the city. However, this would entail an amendment to the False Creek North Official Development Plan to allow the provincial Crown corporation to undertake real estate development.

More about the Downtown Vancouver Stadium Development

According to a city flyer handed out during an open house event regarding changes to the development plan of the Stadium downtown Vancouver site, a three to five storey podium will be put up at the west side of the stadium. Above this base will rise three towers of eight to 10 storeys. A tower of 21 to 27 storeys is also proposed on the east side of the stadium site. A city staff report submitted to council noted that BC Place Stadium sits on 6.78 hectares of property, of which 2.93 hectares is undeveloped land. Udner the deal, approved by council, there will be no provisions in the amendment of the development plan for family suitable housing and affordable housing. The deal likewise doesn’t allow the city to collect a community amenity contribution from PavCo to fund parks, child-care spaces, and other items of public benefit, even though the provincial government has consistently boasted of a budget surplus. “Staff agrees that the Stadium rehabilitation should be considered the only public benefit because the Stadium is a publicly owned and operated facility which is unique and critical to the downtown and city economy,” the city saff report stated. Toderian said that the BC Place model is one that is unlikely to be replicated in other parts of the city. “It’s certainly different than the livability we’ve stressed elsewhere,” Toderian said, explaining that the common notion of livability usually involves family friendly amenities. “We often say that neighbourhoods that work well for kids tend to work well for everyone.” This past May, BC Liberal premier Gordon Campbell announced the renovation of BC Place and the relocation of the Vancouver Art Gallery. Sought for comment by the Georgia Straight at that time, former Vancouver councillor Anne Roberts, who chaired council’s planning and environment committee, predicted that this signalled the start of a real estate development rush in the waterfront area. “So now it seems to be – irrespective of ideas about livability and city planning, the province seems to just say, ‘Well, let’s just open her up for development and let’er rip,’ without really looking at the quality of the kind of housing that would be built around there,” Roberts said. This according to Carlito P.

Vancouver Strathcona Housing Demands a Plan

This according to P. Woolley written for the Georgia Straight newspaper. Barbara Lee and her family live in the gorgeous heritage neighbourhood of STrathcona real estate, but they put up with a lot to do so. The other day, she arrived home with her two kids to find a man defecating in her driveway. Someone smashed the window of a visiting friend’s rental car to steal a GPS unit. Last week, someone stole her shoes from her backyard. Her 80 year old father’s house has been the target of several break-ins, she said. Two years ago, someone shot a bullet through it. Yes, this is downtown Vancouver’s Strathcona real estate district. “They’re creating a ghetto,” she told the Georgia Straight, referring to The City of Vancouver housing planning decisions that have concentrated social services and non market housing in the family Strathcona neighbourhood. “We have been fighting, pleading to get a city housing planner for our neighbourhood – I think they city is just starting to understand that we’re not going away.” Lee’s “we” is the Strathcona Property Owners and Tenants Association, a feisty lobby group that’s been fighting for a political voice for the Strathcona real estate neighbourhood since the 1960s. Her father, Sang Lee, is its chair. SPOTA has joined with four other community groups to make sure their voices are heart when the Vancouver City reviews the Downtown Eastside/Oppenheimer official real estate hosuing development plan in early 2009, potentially allowing for greater housing density in Strathcona as well. Together, they call themselves the Strathcona Revitalization Committee, which wants to stake claim to represent the neighbourhood, which, they assert extends from Terminal Avenue to the central waterfront real estate community.

In “Strathcona 2010: A Clear Vision for Our Community,” an SRC document released on August 15, the Strathcona Revitalization Committtee, offered the City of Vanocuver its plan for a mixed income neighbourhood, inclusive of all people. Low-rise market housing in Strathcona should be built along with non market housing, it argued. Make East Hastings Street a vibrant retail hub, like West 4th Avenue, by offering encentives to businesses. Build recreational facilities. Vancouver city councillor Suzanna Anton plans to meet with the Strathcona Revitalization Committee SRC on Thursday (August 28) and she told the Georgia Straight that she strongly supports Strathcona market housing being built in what’s commonly known as the Downtown Eastside. “It would be unfortunate result should it be a neighbourhood of social hosuing only and nothing else,” Anton said, noting that Concord Pacific’s application to builtd a tower at 58 West Hastings Street across from Woodward’s saw more than 40 community groups show up at the real estate development permit board in June to argue that the real estate Strathcona site should be set aside for social housing. The City of Vancouver, she said, has committed to keep 10,000 low-income units in the East Side of Vancouver as of this point. “Everybody recognizes it is a low income neighbourhood, and it always will be,” Anton said. But just around the corner, near the Main Street SkyTrain Station, the five swish CityGate condo towers once offered the same promise of revitalization for the neighbourhood. However, the building’s eastern border, along Main Street is still a dusty, isolated stretech. As Downtown Eastside Strathcona real estate city planner Jessica Chenpointed out, there’s plenty of real estate developer interest in the neighbourhood now, after about 20 dead years. The V6A and Ginger condo projects, both near CityGate are under construction. The once affordable Strathcona real estate neighbourhood’s heritage homes have been priced at more than $1 million. Plus, Oppenheimer Park is getting “revitalized” as of early 2009. Chen said she’s aware that changes in each part of Vancouver’s heritage districts – Chinatown, Gastown, STrathcona, and the Downtown Eastside, affect the others.

How will real estate Strathcona city housing planners ensure that the streetscape of East Hastings is more virantthan the area around CityGate? “There’s no one approach,” Chen said. “The key important improvement is only going to come when this neighbourhood planning is part of a larger strategy. The drug issue and affordable housing are national issues. We need to make sure our work is connected with other levels of government.” Chen promised that the Strathcona Revitalization Committee, along with other groups, will be included in making arrangements for next year’s review of the Downtown Eastside / Oppenheimer official real estate housing development plan.