Embrace, Enhance and Evolve Kitsilano
City Conversation #126: Affordable and compassionate policy proposals wrapped in a fictional account of one project in one neighbourhood under siege
Proposed congregate housing development in Kitsilano
It was a relief, but not a huge surprise when the congregate housing project in the heart of Kitsilano expired. I say expired because the end was not dramatic, nor was it announced or feted.
Although the project was approved by the city and province over massive objections from the neighbourhood, it was doomed by an excess of impossibilities:
129 individuals, most with drug, alcohol and/or mental illnesses to be housed and helped in a single high-rise building with low barrier access to anybody who could ride to the Arbutus SkyTrain station a block away, including those who prey on unfortunates;
100% hardest-to-house occupants when peer-reviewed research advises no more than 5% in any building1;
A novel, untried prefabricated high-rise form requiring excess height to allow small prefab studios, clad in unproven “green” cladding to be slid into a steel frame—two structural systems somehow proposed as cheaper than one;
When the housing supplier went into receivership before delivering even a single home or any structure, it provided an opportunity to all levels of government to reconsider—thankfully, they did.
Those opposing the failed model had done so much research that they were able to influence government to rethink. Added to the pressures of unaffordable housing delivery models and Broadway Plan demovictions threatening to eviscerate the rich mix of tenures in Kitsilano with replacement high-rises largely for investors, the result was an unprecedented level of consultation and cooperation between municipal, provincial and federal governments, all under pressure from their electors:
To better serve the hardest to house, all residential rezonings were required to include a minimum of 5% of homes for them;
To provide services to the 5%, a robust program of mobile mental health workers and police officers to respond to mental health crises and provide regular wellness checks was established;
To address affordability, in addition to the 5%, another 45% of homes in all proposed rezonings were required to be rental, with 20% of that 45% required to be below market. A few projects declined to continue, many others were redesigned—somehow the marketplace made it work.2
To further address affordability for new construction, federal and provincial governments took the lead in making available lands for affordable housing construction. Where appropriate, they partnered with First Nations who agreed to focus on affordable housing with significant family housing components;
City planners paused the Broadway Plan implementation, instead revisited repealed neighbourhood plans in consultation with citizens. Given a one year deadline to accommodate their share of realistic 20-year housing targets, a balance was struck between embracing the existing characters of the community and enhancing the community with more neighbours housed in more neighbourly building forms. This evolution ensured the longer term viability of the community by sharing what makes Kitsilano special with more;
To accelerate construction after rezoning, the tax-saving program of demolishing buildings, including rental buildings, then converting them to so-called community gardens in order to obtain a property tax holiday until new construction started, was unceremoniously ended. The land owners of existing gardens were given a one year window to apply for a development permit and two years to start construction or pay full property taxes;
To support faster creation of housing, city management worked with city staff to halve all approval times3. The province finally addressed multi-year delays for environmental and other permits it controls, reducing them to weeks.
To protect existing renters from excessive rent increases and demoviction, the ability of landlords to raise rents as much as they wished whenever a rental home came to market was curtailed.4
As for the congregate housing project whose failure triggered such monumental changes, it was replaced by a mid-rise housing development for needy families with children, making much better use of the adjacent toddler park than the earlier proposal—what the community had asked for from the beginning. The project worked financially because the city contributed the land and the low-rise wood frame construction was much cheaper than the original high-rise proposal. The 129 hardest to house residents were given homes in some of the many proposals made under the Broadway Plan, now required to have 50% rentals, including 5% for the hardest to house.
Town Hall meeting—what does the Broadway Plan mean for Kitsilano?
Thursday, March 14th at Kits Neighbourhood House, 2305 West 7th Ave, from 6-8pm, we are holding moderated presentations and discussions focused on BP impacts on Kits—we hope to have similar events in Fairview and Mount Pleasant in the near future. More information at CityHallWatch.ca.
Kits Kount numbers
With a lot of background work by colleague Stephen Bohus, I have started tracking BP related development in the three affected neighbourhoods. I will update them as I receive new information, and append any updates to future CCs regardless of their other content. Herewith the latest Kitsilano numbers:
Kits Kount—10 BP projects identified so far
If you appreciated this post, please share to your social media and consider becoming a free subscriber to City Conversations at
.
Brian Palmquist is a Vancouver-based architect, building envelope and building code consultant and LEED Accredited Professional (the first green building system). He is semi-retired, still teaching, writing and consulting a bit, but not beholden to any client or city hall. These conversations mix real discussion with research and observations based on a 45+ year career including the planning, design and construction of almost every type and scale of project. He is the author of the Amazon best seller and AIBC Construction Administration course text, “An Architect’s Guide to Construction.” and hoping to start in 2024 a book about how we can accommodate a growing population in the cities we love.
A recommendation from SFU’s Dr. Julian Somers and team’s 18 years of worldwide research into these issues.
When Burnaby brought in policy changes effectively requiring 50% rentals, the development industry complained bitterly that “it will never work.” Within a year, it was working.
Some years ago, the newly-elected Mayor of Baltimore instructed city management to halve all permit times within six months or lose their jobs. It worked.
Rental vacancy protections have existed in Winnipeg for more than 20 years, and were recently brought in by Hamilton, Ontario, facing rental affordability issues similar to Vancouver’s.