Calls for more affordable and diverse housing choices were among the key messages the city received during public consultation sessions for phase three of the Cambie Corridor plan.
And Susan Haid, the city’s assistant director of planning, said the final draft proposed plan, posted online March 7, responds to that feedback.
It was unveiled for the public to pour over before attending one of eight information sessions scheduled between March 8 and March 14. The plan is expected to go before council for its consideration this spring.
The overall Cambie Corridor planning area covers 16th to the Fraser River between Oak and Ontario streets. It’s about 1,000 hectares — about the size of the City of North Vancouver. The plan is meant to address growth up to 2041.
Phases one and two, which were adopted in 2011, focused on Cambie Street and major connecting arterials. Much of the condo and townhouse development sparked by the adoption of phase two is widely seen as unaffordable for average Vancouverites.
Phase three addresses land use policy for areas off of the arterials, as well as the new municipal town centre around Oakridge mall. There are also nine unique sites within phase three — larger sites that are roughly between two and four acres such as King Edward mall at Oak and King Edward.
“We learned a lot from Cambie Corridor phase two. Certainly, for a plan that was adopted in 2011 as a 30 year plan, the pace of change and development has been more rapid than anticipated and it’s delivered a lot of housing but a lot of that is and market and strata condo,” Haid told the Courier Wednesday. “Really, the big pivot of Cambie phase three is gearing that density to more affordable housing.”
By way of example, she pointed to residential towers in the Oakridge municipal town centre, which will have to have 30 per cent social housing with 70 per cent strata, or can be 100 per cent rental with 20 per cent of those units below market rental geared to annual incomes of between $30,000 and $80,000.
Phase three planning has been underway since April 2015. Over that time, the city recorded about 7,400 “interactions” with the public at open houses that often attracted 600 people, as well as through smaller workshops, coffee talks and walkabouts in the neighbourhood.
“While there’s diverse feedback, I think it’s recognized that the Cambie Corridor is really transforming and change is upon us,” Haid said. “So there seems to be quite a strong receptivity to change. We’ve been hearing really strong messages for more affordable and more diverse housing options, especially for families, young professionals and seniors and a real emphasis on the importance community amenities and ensuring that, with the growth and development of the area, there are sufficient community centres, childcares, parks — all of the amenities that make a neighbourhood work and be really liveable.”
Phase one, two and three of the Cambie Corridor plan, along with major project policy areas such as Pearson Dogwood, the Oakridge Transit Centre and Oakridge Centre, are expected to create between 30,000 and 34,000 new homes through the life of the plan, which would more than double the population. Haid said 25 per cent of that — between 7,300 and 8,500 units — will be more affordable housing types, including social housing, below-market rental and market rental. Phase three accounts for about 14,000 of the housing units.
When asked how the city convinces residents that the word “affordable” actually means just that, Haid stressed the Cambie Corridor plan and the large sites together do include a wide diversity of housing.
“That includes social housing so our large sites include a 20 per cent inclusionary policy on those. We’re also looking at a significant amount of social housing in the Oakridge municipal town centre,” she said.
Social housing is housing that’s owned by the city or government or a non-profit and it has to meet housing income levels. The typical rent for one-bedroom social housing unit is $1,125 a month, Haid said, while a one-bedroom below-market rental unit is about $1,200 a month and geared to households with incomes in the $30,000 to $80,000 range.
“So it’s really trying to effectively create housing options for those who live and work in Vancouver,” she said.
“Then, we’re creating a very significant amount of rental housing stock and that is market rental, which would be anticipated to be at higher rates than I just quoted. However, providing more rental is a really important need in this city. Providing more supply will help moderate prices, provide more choice and also to replenish our old rental stock.”
Haid said any existing rental stock that’s redeveloped has to be replaced — there are tenant relocation strategies and tenant option to return strategies at similar rents within the plan.
Another emphasis of the plan is to enable more opportunities for ground-oriented housing.
“Vancouver has very little town-housing. We’re looking at off of the Cambie Corridor where we transition to single-family neighbourhoods providing town-housing opportunities. And we’re introducing some new tools for town-housing models that we’re proposing that include a percentage of smaller, stacked units and enabling lock-off units,” she said.
“So it’s a way of making those more affordable. Certainly, the social housing and below market rental are the most affordable options in the housing but, collectively, those affordable options add up to about 25 per cent of the housing in the plan.”
Although the Cambie Corridor phase three plan was only posted online Wednesday, one critic — Scott de Lange Boom — who’s seeking an NPA nomination in the upcoming civic election argued, in a social media post, that it doesn’t go far enough, calling it “a decade late and woefully inadequate given the magnitude of the challenges Vancouver face.”
Cambie Corridor final draft is out [WARNING MASSIVE PDF] and what a disappointment. Half of the King Ed Stn walkshed remains reserved for multimillion dollar single familiy homes. There are barely any new homes between 16th & King Ed. #VanPoli#vanre https://t.co/rCLVdhs3oO
— Scott de Lange Boom (@Scott_dLB) March 8, 2018
The plan, which also includes details about increased job space, connections for all modes of travel and improved public amenities and facilities, can be found at vancouver.ca/cambiecorridor.
Information sessions are being held at 5750 Cambie St. on:
- March 8 from 4 to 8 p.m.
- March 9 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- March 10 from 12 to 4 p.m.
- March 12 from 4 to 8 p.m.
- March 13 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- March 14 from 4 to 8 p.m.
