City council voted in an 8-2 decision earlier this week to refer the rezoning application for 508 Helmcken St. back to public hearing, with NPA councillors George Affleck and Elizabeth Ball opposed. The decision came after a debate about whether or not more information should be included in the staff report.
The Helmcken rezoning, which council approved two years ago, was among city decisions quashed in a late January B.C. Supreme Court ruling that the city is appealing.
The Helmcken site was part of a complicated land swap between the City of Vancouver and Brenhill Developments Ltd. challenged by a community group.
In July 2013, council voted to rezone 508 Helmcken St. for Brenhill Developments to build a 36-storey tower beside Emery Barnes Park. The rezoning was conditional on Brenhill developing a 162-unit social housing project on 1099 Richards St. to replace the city’s 1985-built Jubilee House at 508 Helmcken.
The court’s decision also quashed the development permit for the project at 1099 Richards St., which was already under construction. A stop work order was subsequently issued.
Head planner Brian Jackson told the Courier Wednesday that staff included information in the rezoning report for 508 Helmcken that’s meant to address questions raised in the court decision.
“We have prepared the report taking into consideration the judge’s decision [by] providing more information for the public and for council with respect to both the CACs [community amenity contributions] and the land exchange issue,” he said. “So the report is an expanded version of both the rationale, as well as the details associated with the land exchange to facilitate the development of social housing on the other property.”
Jackson expects the public hearing for the rezoning application will be scheduled for mid-April.
Meanwhile, the development application for 1099 Richards St. goes back to the Development Permit Board April 7. Neighbours were sent notifications of that meeting earlier this week.
“The judge did not talk about more information to be provided as part of the development permit. He actually did not provide detail as to why he quashed the zoning bylaw for that site,” according to Jackson. “But we are going back and having another development permit board meeting to reconsider that development permit. The new information will be additional comments received from the public as a result of the notification, which has just been sent out.”
Another public hearing to address the court ruling was also underway this week dealing with amendments to the Downtown Official Development Plan [DODP]. It started March 24 and was expected to continue March 26 after the Courier’s print deadline.
“[The judge] quashed the DODP definition of social housing because what he considered to be the inadequate notice to all the people who live in the DODP,” Jackson said. “That was the subject of last night’s public hearing, which continues [Thursday]. That is to put back the definition of social housing that he quashed when he quashed the West End amendment that had been previously approved.”
While these process are underway, the city is also dealing its appeal, which goes to court in April.
Jackson said one of the questions raised at Tuesday’s city council meeting was whether the city should wait for the appeal to be heard before dealing with a public hearing for the Helmcken site.
“No. Because we’re responding in a way that addresses the judges concerns while at the same time, because of the wider implications is has for other social housing projects in Vancouver, as well as broader implications in general for negotiating community benefits, that we decided to appeal the decision,” he said.
— with files from Bob Mackin
Note: This story has been corrected since it was first posted. It initially stated that NPA Coun. George Affleck and Green Party Coun. Adriane Carr voted against the referral. In fact it was NPA councillors George Affleck and Elizabeth Ball who voted against the referral. The Courier regrets the error.
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