Tag Archives: city council

#SaveOurParkBoard | The Saga of the Abolition of Vancouver’s Elected Park Board Continues

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Despair reigns across our land, as the inexorable move towards the dissolution of an independent, elected Park Board proceeds relentlessly, calamitously forward.

In today’s VanRamblings post, we’ll attempt to reason why Mayor Ken Sim and his super majority ABC Vancouver team of City Councillors arrived at the decision to eliminate the 133-year-old Vancouver Park Board, the role the administration of the David Eby government will play, why the provincial government supports the seemingly arbitrary initiative of the Mayor, and why we believe that it is inevitable that in months, Vancouver’s beloved, elected Park Board will fade into history.

On an episode of the Air Quotes Media podcast, Hotel Pacifico, that aired just before Christmas, former Vancouver City Councillor / Chief of Staff to Premier John Horgan , Geoff Meggs, posited that the move to abolish the Vancouver Park Board was part of a dastardly plot by B.C. United Party leader Kevin Falcon.

Apparently, Mr. Falcon had convinced the Mayor and his ABC Vancouver Councillors — all of whom are members and supporters of B.C. United — that a move to eliminate the elected Park Board would create discord within David Eby’s New Democratic Party caucus, heading into this year’s October 19th provincial election.



Vancouver’s 9 duly-elected New Democrat Party Members of the Legislature in Victoria

Given the likelihood many in the NDP caucus would be opposed to the Mayor’s initiative to have the provincial government amend the Vancouver Charter to allow the dissolution of an elected Park Board — a move that could jeopardize the re-election chances of many of the New Democratic Party government’s Vancouver-based members of the legislature — working hand in hand, Kevin Falcon and Ken Sim devised a plan to turn the tables on the re-election chances of Vancouver’s NDP MLA’s, which very much includes Premier David Eby himself, who is in his 11th year as the elected representative in the riding of Vancouver Point Grey.


Geoff Meggs, Vancouver City Councillor 2008 – 2017 | Chief of Staff to Premier John Horgan, 2017 – 2022

Alas. As much as VanRamblings enjoys a good conspiracy theory, in point of fact, privately, Mr. Meggs was telling his intimates that he had proposed the Kevin Falcon “theory” arising from his concern that, given the polling that has the NDP riding high in the polls and seemingly undefeatable, he is concerned that NDP supporters very well may not volunteer at their MLA’s campaign offices once the writ is dropped this upcoming September, and further that New Democratic Party voters will stay home, and not vote at the advance polls or cast a ballot on election day.

Every vote counts. New Democratic Party supporters will have to work as hard as ever in the lead up to, and during the course of British Columbia’s 43rd provincial election, if we wish to ensure the re-election of the David Eby NDP government.


Mayor Ken Sim announces Park Board transition working group

The story of the decision of the Ken Sim-led majority ABC Vancouver administration to eliminate Vancouver’s independent, elected Park Board goes back to March of last year, when Premier David Eby made a proposal to Vancouver’s Mayor to move B.C. Place from its current home adjacent to Rogers Arena to Hastings Park.

While it is true that David Eby has stated that it is probable his government will spend between $300 and $400 million dollars on a renovation of B.C. Place to meet the requirements of the bodies bringing the Invictus Games to British Columbia in 2025, and the FIFA World Cup to Vancouver in 2026, in fact reliable sources have told VanRamblings that the long term plans for B.C. Place involves moving the aging stadium to Hastings Park, over which the City of Vancouver has jurisdiction.

As you might well expect, development and growth — and an expansion of our transit system — is at the heart of the decision by the Premier.

In addition, in eliminating the independent, elected Park Board, ABC Vancouver’s financial backers’ fondest wishes will be realized, as whole tracts of previous park / open green space will be available for development, to build, build, build …

And, of course, the mega-developer Aquilini family is very much involved, as well.

Here’s the plan: a David Eby government would work closely with the members of Vancouver City Council, and the Aquilini development corporation, to redevelop the B.C. Place site where, conceivably, the 7 hectare / 17-acre site would become home to three or more 70-to-95 storey towers in a newly designated “downtown village”, providing more than 3,000 residential condominium units in what will soon become, as planned, the heart of the downtown core of Vancouver.

The monies derived from the sale of the 3,000 luxury condominium units — in which the government would co-develop the B.C. Place site with the Aqualini family, where the completed condominium units would sell for up to $125 million on the top floors, many of the condominium units sold offshore, with the provincial government realizing billions of dollars in profit — would not only pay for the construction of a new stadium on the race track grounds at Hastings Park — a covenant prevents the construction of housing at Hastings Park, but not a sports facility — but for a new light rail system, as well, from Vancouver’s city core, along Hastings, down Renfrew to McGill / Hastings Park,  and over to the North Shore.

ABC Vancouver Mayoral candidate Ken Sim pledged support for a North Shore rapid transit line less than two weeks before the 2022 Vancouver civic election.

Late last year, on October 4, 2023, Vancouver City Council endorsed making a formal request to TransLink’s Mayors’ Council to perform a rapid transit study of Hastings Street between downtown Vancouver and Hastings Park /PNE. Following up on his pre-election pledge to support rapid transit to the North Shore, newly-elected Mayor Ken Sim met with North Shore Mayors last February to re-state and reinforce the pledge he had made during his 2022 campaign to support a long-sought-after rapid transit line to the North Shore.


Park Board transition working group: Catherine Evans, Gregor Young, Jordan Nijjar, Shauna Wilton, Jennifer Wood

The person on the left in the photo above is Catherine Evans, former Library Board Chair, Vision Vancouver Park Board Commissioner, most recently the senior constituency assistant in federal MP Joyce Murray’s Vancouver Quadra office, and although Ms. Evans is a card carrying member of the federal Liberal Party,  provincially she is a staunch supporter of David Eby, and his NDP administration in Victoria.

In the past, Catherine Evans has worked on David’s Eby’s campaigns for office and, in fact, on E-Day, while working in Mr. Eby’s campaign office, has been VanRamblings’ no nonsense Get Out The Vote “boss”.

A story — a digression and and an aside — to help explain why Catherine Evans has joined Mayor Ken Sim’s Park Board Transition Working Group.


George Puil, 14 years as a Park Board Commissioner, then for 26 years, a Vancouver City Councillor

In 2001, B.C. Liberal leader Gordon Campbell won an overwhelming victory at the polls, securing 77 of 79 seats in the Legislature, leaving the NDP with two seats: Joy McPhail in Vancouver Hastings, and Jenny Kwan in Vancouver Mount Pleasant.

As is always the case with a change of government, there are 5,000 or more positions to be filled by the winning party’s supporters, with positions on college and university boards, regulatory authorities, as well as Crown agencies and commissions, and much more. Having retired from his job as an educator at Kitsilano Secondary School, and after 40 years in elected office, Mr. Puil — a man of experience, and a mentor to Gordon Campbell — following his ignominious defeat at the polls in the 2002 Vancouver municipal election, found himself at loose ends.

Within six months of taking office, Premier Gordon Campbell appointed his good friend George Puil to three regulatory bodies in his government, not requiring too much from Mr. Puil in respect of time, certainly much less time than had long been the case when Mr. Puil  sat as a Vancouver City Councillor. Annual compensation for these “out of the public eye” regulatory bodies came in at $250,000, a pretty penny that came in addition to Mr. Puil’s healthy teachers’ pension.

Catherine Evans, one of the loveliest persons of VanRamblings’ acquaintance

As Ms. Evans lives in VanRamblings neighbourhood, we run across one another frequently, and chat volubly and at length about the state of the world, and more often than not federal politics (as it happens, VanRamblings is a Justin Trudeau fan).

If you know David Eby, you know that he likes to have “his people” in place — thus, Ms. Evans’ placement on Mayor Sim’s Park Board transition working group. David Eby wants a close eye kept on the machinations of that contentious Park Board working group.

In our various conversations, Ms. Evans has made it clear — arising from a tragic personal circumstance — that she wants out of politics, has no interest in seeking political office, and would find solace and peace travelling with her husband to various locales across the globe, far away from the political maelstrom.

Why has Catherine Evans joined Mayor Ken Sim’s Park Board transition working group? Quite simply, because her good friend David Eby asked her to.

To know Catherine Evans — who is exceptionally bright, one of the strongest, most principled and hardest working women we know — is to know that her role as a low key change maker for the better is how she brings herself to the world.

Enter David Eby, who should he be re-elected to government in October, will set as a priority the appointment of his confidante Catherine Evans to the provincial bodies of her choice, where she can make a difference, out of the public eye, compensated fairly for her contribution, and for her many many gifts.

The word VanRamblings is hearing out of Victoria is that David Eby will not move forward this spring on the request of ABC Vancouver to amend the Vancouver Charter, to eliminate an independent, elected Vancouver Park Board.

Which means that those of us who love the Vancouver Park Board, live Park Board deep in our soul, and cherish Park Board, although we have our work cut out for us this next year, we may have an outside chance of moving the David Eby government away from making the fatal decision to dissolve the Vancouver Park Board.

#SaveOurParkBoard | The Genesis of the ‘Movement’ to Abolish Park Board

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Vision Vancouver celebrates their overwhelming victory at the polls on November 19, 2011

Developers have long run the City of Vancouver, with various of the elected City Councils over the years acting as their all-too-willing handmaidens.


Joel Solomon, Vision Vancouver founder, standing outside, near his home in Railtown

The godfather and founder of the Vision Vancouver municipal party in 2004 was financier / philanthropist / real estate developer, and heir to a capitalist fortune, Tennessee émigré Joel Solomon, a political organizer who cut his teeth working on Jimmy Carter’s successful U.S. presidential campaign in the mid-1970s.

In the early 1990s, Solomon found his way to British Columbia, as he sought refuge on Cortes Island, while recovering from a serious health issue. In 1993, Solomon  met a young organic farmer named Gregor Robertson. Their views aligned, especially on the urgent need to address climate change. The two became fast friends.

In 2002 Solomon made a decision to form a Vancouver civic party, which in time came to be called Vision Vancouver.

Recruiting Mike Magee from Stratcom —  a strategic communications company dedicated to progressive causes — working with Magee, Solomon promised the then Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) Councillors Raymond Louie, Tim Stevenson and Jim Green their political futures lay with his newly-formed Vision Vancouver civic party, committing to them that he would dedicate substantial financial resources to their re-election in 2005’s Vancouver municipal election.

Long story short — following the untimely death of Jim Green, who was Vision Vancouver’s Mayoral candidate in the 2005 civic election — in 2006, Joel Solomon recruited his friend Gregor Robertson to seek the nomination to become the Mayoral candidate for Vision Vancouver in our city’s 2008 municipal election.

The rest is history: Vision Vancouver became government, from 2008 through 2018.


Gregor Robertson, Mayor in the City of Vancouver, from November 15, 2008 through October 20, 2018

Upon assuming government at Vancouver City Hall in 2008, Joel Solomon was quick to establish a secretive, behind-the-scenes “Mayoral advisory Board” — most members of which were not only longtime friends of Solomon’s dating back to his days in Tennessee, but were, as well, extremely successful real estate developers.


During their time in government, 12 development-related lawsuits were filed against Vision Vancouver

Over the course of their years in power, there were a number of development-related lawsuits that were filed against Vision Vancouver.

Perhaps the most egregious — and many thought, corrupt — development-related failing by Vision Vancouver involved a legal petition filed with the BC Supreme Court on May 6, 2014, by the Community Association of New Yaletown, to prevent a mega-tower development on the city block containing Emery Barnes Park.

The legal petition alleged the City, in approving development of the 36-storey tower at 508 Helmcken St. and a related building across the street at 1099 Richards Street violated the Downtown Official Development Plan (DODP) bylaws in in numerous and significant ways, while thwarting the long-planned expansion of Emery Barnes Park “to help reduce the City’s significant shortfall in meeting its own green space targets in the area.”


Emery Barnes Park, in the heart of New Yaletown, adjacent to Davie and Seymour streets

That Vision Vancouver had not consulted with the community, nor even made any mention of their plans to build yet another mega-tower in the New Yaletown neighbourhood — a “favour” to the Tennessee-based developer, Brenhill Development, who just happened to be friends with Joel Solomon, and members of the Mayoral Advisory Board — exacerbated not only the ire of residents of New Yaletown, but esteemed British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Mark McEwan, who ruled in favour of the New Yaletown residents, “killing the New Yaletown development”, even though it was already under construction.

Read the Vancouver Sun article on Brenhill Development’s “sweet deal” here.

Some months later, the City of Vancouver prevailed at the B.C. Court of Appeals.


Peter Armstrong, owner of the Rocky Mountaineer, and founder / financier of ABC Vancouver

Now Peter Armstrong — who we know and very much like, who has pulled our behind out of the fire on more than one occasion, and who refers to us as his “favourite socialist” — will not be happy that we’re writing about him (reasonably, we can expect an irate call from Peter at some point today, as in “Why didn’t you call me to confirm with me what you’re writing about today?”).

But a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do (also, we hate to risk being lied to).


Founder Peter Armstrong’s Rocky Mountaineer offers unsurpassed luxury travel to discerning travelers

Now, Peter Armstrong — a pulled himself up by his bootstraps east end kid made good (we share a history as ‘east end kids’) — for many years was president of Vancouver’s oldest and most successful civic party, the Non-Partisan Association.

That is, until some dastardly folks staged a coup, taking over Peter’s beloved Non-Partisan Association in his absence, as he sailed his yacht to visit his good friend, Lululemon founder Chip Wilson, at his luxurious, well-appointed villa in Italy.

The consequence of the coup? Four of five NPA electeds resigned from the party.

And what became of the now former Non-Partisan Association Board members, who succeeded in killing the NPA, which party secured only, a paltry, unimaginably small 2.3% of the vote, when voters went to the polls in October 2022?


“Raymond, do you really think I’ll win re-election in Point Grey when we go to the polls in October?”

Premier David Eby will be heartened to know that these same far-right-of-centre nimrods are currently running the show with the nascent B.C. Conservative Party.

VanRamblings readers won’t be surprised to learn that ABC Vancouver founder, financier and Ken Sim backer, Peter Armstrong — as was the case with Joel Solomon, Vision Vancouver, and Mayor Gregor Robertson — has also created a secretive, behind-the-scenes Mayoral Advisory Committee, said committee comprised of developers, but mostly Peter and his very good friend, Chip Wilson.

A narrative, related to us recently by a very reliable VanRamblings source …

“Ken Sim ‘disappeared’ for a week this past autumn.

No one, save his family, knew where he was. In fact, Ken Sim was on board Peter Armstrong’s yacht, sailing up the west coast of British Columbia.

When Sim arrived back in town, returning to the Mayor’s office, he consulted with his Chief of Staff, Trevor Ford, after which the Mayor called in the ABC Park Board electeds to inform them of his decision to abolish the independent, elected Vancouver Park Board, leaving his now former ABC Park Board Commissioners in the room with Mr. Ford and David Grewal to explain details, and what would happen going forward.

Soon after, now former ABC Vancouver Park Board Commissioners Scott Jensen, Brennan Bastyovanszky and Laura Christensen made the decision to sit on Park Board as independents.

Subsequently, Sim called a press conference to announce his intention to eliminate the 133-year-old elected body, the much cherished, independent, and beloved Vancouver Park Board.”

The more things change, the more things stay the same.

Whether it’s developer Mayor Tom Campbell in the late 60s, or Joel Solomon and Gregor Robertson for a 10-year period when Vision Vancouver was at the seat of power at Vancouver City Hall, or in these latter days, with an avuncular — but dare we say, avaricious — Peter Armstrong and Chip Wilson, we who call Vancouver home are reminded yet again, and much to our consternation, this is not our city, for Vancouver is owned lock, stock and barrel by the developer class.

#SaveOurParkBoard | 80s Redux | Greed is Good

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Tom Campbell, Mayor of Vancouver, 1966 - 1972
Tom ‘Not So Terrific’ Campbell, controversial Vancouver mayor, in office from 1966 to 1972

In 1966, running as an independent, a brash Tom Campbell defeated sitting Non-Partisan Association Mayor Bill Rathie to become Vancouver’s 31st mayor.

From the outset, Campbell’s ascension to the Mayor’s office heralded a pro-development ethos that would make even our current ABC Vancouver-dominated City Council blush, with Campbell — and his now ‘on board’  NPA colleagues — advocating for a freeway that would cut through a swath of the Downtown Eastside, require the demolition of the historic Carnegie Centre at Main and Hastings, and bring about the construction of a luxury hotel at the entrance to Stanley Park.

Vancouver's West End, 1960s, pre high-rise development
Vancouver’s West End neighbourhood, 1960, pre-high-rise construction. Photo, Fred Herzog.

In the West End, where Campbell owned substantial property — a wealthy, successful developer, Campbell was reputed to own one-third of the land located between (south to north) Davie and Georgia streets, and east to west, Denman Street and Stanley Park — the newly-elected Mayor all but ordered the demolition of almost the entirety of the well-populated West End residential neighbourhood — housing mostly senior citizens in their single detached homes — as he set about to make way for the rapid construction of more than 200 concrete high-rise towers.

In six short years, Mayor Tom Campbell and the Non-Partisan Association transformed a single family dwelling West End neighbourhood, irrevocably and forever.

That all of these “changes” augered controversy among large portions of the populace was a given, leading to regular, vocal and sometimes even violent protests throughout Campbell’s treacherous tenure as Mayor, finally lead to his overwhelming defeat at the polls in the November 1972 Vancouver “change” civic election.


Oct. 22, 2022 | Newly-formed civic party, ABC Vancouver, wins an overwhelming victory at the polls

Why raise ancient history now?

Not since the late 1960s / early 70s have Vancouver voters — seemingly, unknowingly — elected a more greed-inspired (this, on behalf of their financial backers), and wildly pro-development slate of lock step Vancouver City Councillors to office, at the heart of our city’s seat of municipal government at 12th and Cambie.

In early 2024, Vancouver sits on the wary edge of massive tower development, as promulgated by the “super majority” ABC Vancouver civic administration installed by Vancouverites at City Hall only 15 short months ago today. If Tom Campbell’s greed was able to destroy a single family-oriented West End neighbourhood 50+ years ago over six short years in power, imagine what the current ABC Vancouver-led municipal government can achieve over the course of the next 32 months?


Vancouver Park Board Commissioner at Vancouver City Hall, holding her new, month old baby

Click on this link to hear (former, and now independent) ABC Vancouver Park Board Commissioner Laura Christensen address the whole of Vancouver City Council on December 13, 2023 —  including her ABC Council running mates —  on the initiative of the political party she ran with to eliminate the elected Vancouver Park Board.

In her address to Council, Ms. Christensen pointed out to her now former ABC Vancouver City Council colleagues that there are 242 parks in the City of Vancouver, only 142 of which are designated as parks — leaving these latter non-designated “parks” open for development, including such beloved parks as Burrard Inlet’s Sunset Beach, Locarno Park, and Spanish Banks East and West.


Fans enjoy the Vancouver Canadians at Nat Bailey Stadium. Could the city-owned stadium be put up for sale? A report suggests sport & cultural venues should be shed by the city. Photo: Jason Payne /PNG

In an article published in the Vancouver Sun on Saturday, the Sun’s civic affairs reporter Dan Fumano writes that a …

“… budget task force assembled last year by ABC Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim delivered its report with 17 recommendations on how the city could improve its financial health while reducing pressure to increase on property taxes.

One recommendation suggests the city look at divesting some of its “non-core assets.”

When Fumano asked ABC Vancouver Councillor Brian Montague, one of two ABC Councillors who served on the task force’s advisory panel, if the “non-core assets” in the report would include include community centres, libraries, civic theatres, and sports facilities, Montague replied …

“I think it’s something we need to talk about, because there might be assets where divestment is the best approach.”

Former Vancouver Park Board Chairperson John Coupar clarified the matter on X:

Former Vancouver City Councillor Colleen Hardwick, and 2022 TEAM Mayoral candidate writes …

So, that’s it.

The reason for dismantling an elected Park Board?

A cynical and egregious land grab, a decision demanded by ABC Vancouver’s avaricious financial backers, who fancy adding billions of dollars more to their already ungainly wealth, all at the cost of: environmental devastation and climate change unchecked, a degraded quality of life in Vancouver for decades to come, reduced access to our public beaches — or, in some cases, no access at all to what were once but would no longer be “public beaches”— and long dark corridors of black towers lining the arterials and Vancouver’s beach fronts, all across the city.

Click / tap on the graphic above to sign  the Save Our Park Board Petition started by Sarah Blyth

#VanPoli | Housing & Development | Making The Vancouver Plan Irrelevant, Pt. 2

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On Monday, VanRamblings wrote about The Vancouver Plan, a visionary document destined to inform growth in our city over the next 30 years.

A core issue of concern VanRamblings explored was how, months in advance of the publication of The Vancouver Plan, Vancouver City Hall’s Planning Department has set about to place before the members of Vancouver City Council several massive redevelopment projects — including, two weeks ago, a revisioning of False Creek South — the 32 hectares (80 acres) of city-owned land situated between the Granville and Cambie street bridges, on the south shore of False Creek, that proposed to triple the number of homes on the site.

And, last week, The Broadway Plan, a massive development plan for the Broadway corridor, extending from Vine Street to the west, 1st Avenue to the north, Clark Drive to the east, and 16th Avenue to the south, came before Council, a proposal to build dozens of 30 to 40 storey towers surrounding the areas adjacent to future Broadway Millennium Skytrain stations — at Main, Cambie, Oak, Granville and Arbutus streets, and when the Skytrain extension to UBC is approved, at Macdonald, Alma and Blanca streets, with the shoulder areas adjacent to the areas surrounding the stations, extending from 1st Avenue to the north and 13th Avenue to the south, set for a mass construction of 20, 25 and 30 storey towers.

Given all of the above, as founding chair of UBC’s urban design programme, Patrick Condon, wrote in response to yesterday’s VanRamblings column …

“What’s left to plan?

Who voted for more unaffordable condo towers?”

Before her election to Vancouver City Council in 2018, and throughout her campaign for office, and every day since her election as a City Councillor,  Colleen Hardwick has hammered home two informed, salient points …

1. The population growth figures employed by the City’s Planning Department that are a determinative factor in development planning in the City of Vancouver are based on flawed data, arising from one immodest year of population growth in our city, the fiscal 2016 – 2017 year. Before that fiscal year, and each year since, population growth figures in Vancouver, as determined by both the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and the Pacific Regional office of Statistics Canada, have dwarfed that one unique year in the current millennium;

Reliance’s Burrard Place project, a three-tower development at Burrard and Drake

2. The City of Vancouver, the office of the City Manager, and the Director of Planning have become far too reliant on the Community Amenity Contributions developers must pay in order that their projects will receive approval from the City’s Planning Department. As an example of monies paid in CAC’s by a developer, when Reliance Properties made application for a three tower mixed use development at Drake and Howe / Burrard — now known as Burrard Place — Reliance Properties paid the City of Vancouver $46 million in Community Amenity Contributions.

Given the affordable housing shortage in our city, you’d think that the civic government of the day — Gregor Robertson’s Vision Vancouver — would allot a portion of that $46 million towards the construction of affordable housing. Instead, the then Mayor declared that there was NO affordable housing shortage in the West End (CAC monies must be dedicated to serve the interests of the neighbourhood where the large scale development project is to be built).

Another salient point informing decision-making by senior members of Vancouver’s Planning Department: in point of fact, the very employment of the excluded / non-union white collar staff at City Hall — to whose numbers, 1100 new staff have been added over the past decade — is almost entirely dependent on extracting from developers as much money in CAC’s as possible.

As VanRamblings promised yesterday, today we’ll present more massive developments slated to be built, or currently under construction, in our city.

Artistic rendering of the Sen̓áḵw redevelopment at the south end of the Burrard Bridge in Vancouver

The Squamish Nation’s Sen̓áḵw Indigenous redevelopment of their 11.7-acre reserve at the south end of the Burrard Street Bridge promises 6,000 homes will be built within 11 towers housing 15,000 residents, consisting mostly of rental housing — a 50-50 partnership between the First Nations and local developer Westbank — forming a new skyline in the Kitsilano neighbourhood, the tallest buildings, two 56 storey condo towers. As the project is being built on Indigenous lands, the sole involvement by the City of Vancouver respects a negotiation with the Squamish Nation on hooking up to the city amenities, and addressing issues such as the provision of schools, and transportation.

A rendering of the proposed buildings to be constructed on Point Grey’s Jericho Lands

Another  Indigenous land development within the City of Vancouver will occur on the 90-acre Jericho Lands — a largely undeveloped site bordered by West 4th Avenue to the north, Highbury Street to the east, West 8th Avenue to the south, and Trimble Park to the west.

The sprawling, hillside site, a former military base and home to the West Point Grey Academy, is owned by a partnership of three local First Nations — Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh, collectively known as the MST Development Corporation — and the federal Crown Corporation, Canada Lands Company. As the First Nations purchased the Jericho Lands, development of the site falls under the jurisdiction of the City of Vancouver’s Planning Department, who will be intimately involved in the project’s development.

Construction on the Jericho Lands site will begin in 2024, with a completion date of 2050. Although the Jericho Lands site is five times the size of the Sen̓áḵw development, the Jericho Lands project envisions 10,000 new homes and 25,000 residents. West Point Grey is currently home to 13,000 residents — the Jericho Lands development will triple the number of residents who will call Point Grey home.

November 2021 artistic rendering of the Broadway Commercial Safeway redevelopment, Vancouver

Over on the east side of town, in the Grandview Woodland neighbourhood, there’s the redevelopment of the Safeway site, next to the Broadway Skytrain station, just east of Commercial Drive. Heights ranging between 24 and 29 storeys above the podium’s retail plinth are, as can be seen in the graphic representation above, planned for the site. The project is a partnership between Crombie REIT and … wait for it, wait for it … leading luxury developer, Ian Gillespie’s Westbank Corporation, which has engaged its usual architectural design firm, Perkins & Will.

A massive redevelopment of the Norquay ‘Village’ Neighbourhood — which community activist Joseph Roberts writes about frequently on his Eye on Norquay website — has been underway for more than a decade. Roberts writes, the redevelopment plan for Norquay went “against what renters and homeowners want to see happen in their neighborhood.” The Norquay neighbourhood densification redevelopment will more than triple residential population of Norquay by 2030.

An autumn day at Trout Lake Park, in the heart of the Kensington-Cedar Cottage neighbourhood

And, the area bounded by Victoria Drive on the west, Nanaimo Street on the east, 12th Avenue on the north, and Kingsway on the south, in the Kensington-Cedar Cottage neighbourhood, the very heart of east Vancouver,  where the urban park and Trout Lake is located, is set for massive densification that will more than triple the number of residents in the neighbourhood over the course of the next 20 years.

Ian Gillespie is also the developer behind the redevelopment of the Oakridge site.

  • 2,600 homes in 19 towers will house nearly 6,000 residents;
  • A workspace for 3,000 creative professionals will be created;
  • More than 300 stores will feature the world’s most distinguished brands;
  • Oakridge will be home to one of Vancouver’s largest community centres;
  • Oakridge will be home to Vancouver’s second-largest library;
  • A nearly 10-acre rooftop park made up of six integrated smaller parks will be built.

   The Heather Lands 8.5-hectare (21-acre) development, situated between West 37th and 33rd  avenues, and bounded by the lanes behind Willow and Ash streets.

Nearby is the Indigenous-owned Heather Lands development, the 21-acre site the subject of a rezoning application to the city, is a comprehensive planning site overseen by the City of Vancouver’s Planning Department. 2,600 rental homes will be constructed on the site, ranging from three to 28 storeys.

And let us not forget, either, the first of many development applications to be made by Concord Pacific on the currently undeveloped northeast portion of offshore billionaire Li Ka-shing’s Expo lands, where a permit has been applied for to build a mixed-use commercial and residential community.

The current application proposes a maximum floor area of 181,625 sq. m (1,955,000 sq. ft.) and building heights of 89.9 m (295 ft.). on the 10.28-acre site, once known as the Plaza of Nations, where construction of a variety of terracing buildings of up to 30 storeys is planned, and set for approval by the Planning Department at Vancouver City Hall, and our current City Council. The Plaza of Nations redevelopment is expected to house 20,000 residents.

Artist’s conception of the new Northeast False Creek neighbourhood Vancouver is planning for

The new northeast waterfront False Creek neighbourhood will be housed in a forest of highrise condos that stretches from the Plaza of Nations on the west, to Carrall Street on the east. The plan includes taking down the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts, which will be replaced by an expanded street network. Three acres of waterfront park will be added to the neighbourhood. By the time the plan is completed in 2038, Creekside Park will be expanded by another eight acres.

The tallest site will be at Georgia and Pacific, where the city envisions a 425-foot tall building, which probably means 46 or 47 storeys.

In an article published in The Vancouver Sun on October 30th, Elizabeth Murphy, formerly a property development officer in the City of Vancouver’s Housing and Properties Department, as well as for B.C. Housing, wrote  …

“Vancouver continues arbitrary citywide re-zonings without neighbourhood context. The Vancouver Plan just implements the previous Council’s initiatives, without any meaningful planning process. To achieve positive outcomes for the citizens of Vancouver that avoid negative impacts on the climate, affordability and livability, growth needs to be managed very carefully.

The city must first consider the broader consequences of growth. Council asked for transparent data to recalibrate the housing targets that are currently almost three times what can be justified by census population growth of about one per cent per year.

After a decade of record amounts of rezoning and development, Vancouver is one of the most unaffordable cities in the world. Spot rezonings, land assemblies, displacement, speculation and land inflation are significant contributors to our current malaise.

Going forward, in order to be a livable, affordable and sustainable city, Vancouver must build for actual needs, in a scale and location that suits each neighbourhood, with meaningful community input, supported by affordable transit, and community amenities.

The indefatigable Patrick Condon, one of — if not the — most important voices on urban development and the livability of Vancouver, as a city for everyone, here and across the Metro Vancouver region

We’ll leave the final word to UBC professor of all things good, Vancouver’s beloved commentator on development across our city, Patrick Condon …

“Providing affordable housing is the existential need in our city. Our service workers, many of who are our sons and daughters, are being forced out of this city in droves. This Trojan Horse of the proposed rental bylaw changes at City Hall will mainly benefit the land speculator, whose pockets are already stuffed to overflowing. We need to put the interests of citizens first, over the interests of speculators and developers, and those who mean ill for our city.”