"It takes a village...whatever that is?"

CC # 159—Why do we even need the Vancouver Plan's proposed "Villages"?

Just where did these come from?¹

The 140-page Phase 1 Engagement Summary Report for Vancouver’s Villages Planning Program was released 11 days ago on June 6, 2025. Like many folks who participated in various of the few contributory meetings and surveys, I was interested to review the report. What I really hoped was that it would answer my foundational question: who decided these 25 villages?

Some background—a quote from the Villages report: Approved by Council in July 2022, the Vancouver Plan identified 25 future Villages located throughout the city - each centered around small clusters of shops and services within primarily low-density residential areas. The Villages Planning Program focuses on 17 of the 25 identified Villages, with the remaining eight to be addressed through other ongoing or future planning programs.²

But the public was only invited to look at 17 Villages already designated by city staff. Noticing that neither the Vancouver Plan nor the Villages Planning Program identify how the locations of villages were selected, the proverbial cart before the horse comes to mind.

To be objective, I read through all 30 of the Vancouver Plan’s references to Villages. Nowhere could I find a definition of what a village is in 2025, according to city staff, who did not apparently ask any citizens in advance.

I did find some teasers; firstly: Vancouver’s local shopping areas serve as anchors for the city’s neighbourhoods, offering a variety of shops and services for residents, supporting local serving and small businesses. The unique importance of neighbourhood shopping streets such as Main Street or Commercial Drive for their appealing village-like character and diverse shops and cultural expression cannot be overstated. Challenged by the rise and needs of e-commerce and last mile delivery, these vibrant neighbourhood destinations will be supported by policies that enable new housing close to shopping streets, amenities, and improved business supports.³

Wait! Isn’t this definition not of a village but of a neighbourhood—and we have 22 of those already—isn’t that sufficient? Shouldn’t we be reinforcing what already exists rather than diffusing our already struggling local shopping by creating additional commercial areas? Will this not just confuse businesses and their customers? Did anyone even stop to think about that? Or engage with the affected businesses and those who use them before inventing 25 new commercial areas? Not that I can find.

Teaser #2 from the Villages report: Villages are envisioned as local hubs where people of all ages, incomes, and backgrounds can meet many of their daily needs within a five-minute walk, bike, or roll. The long-term goal is for these areas to include a mix of “missing middle” housing options-such as multiplexes, townhouses, and low-rise apartment buildings up to six storeys-alongside improved access to shops, services, public spaces, and jobs.⁴

Now, last I checked virtually the entire city has already been prezoned for multiplexes, townhouses and low-rise apartments⁵. So again, this is not a pretext for adding 25 villages to the existing 22 neighbourhoods.

Although, on the bright side, if we had 25 new commercial areas, perhaps Translink would restore some of the bus stops they continue to remove. Just sayin’.

I kinda choked on this next one and its nod to neighbourhood planning: Purpose of Phase 1 Villages Engagement : The primary goal of this first phase is to better understand the current conditions in each Village, lived experiences, and aspirations of residents and other community members. Community input during Phase 1 will help shape future planning directions for each Village and will inform the development of a draft land use plan and topic specific policies, as well as identification of opportunities for potential public realm improvements in future phases of work. Importantly, this early engagement ensures that neighbourhood planning is grounded in local perspectives and responsive to the unique context of each Village.⁶

Forgive me if this sounds like we’re revisiting CityPlan. Remember, that’s the planning department initiative that engaged hundreds of Vancouverites for thousands of volunteer hours with the promise that they would have input to planning their neighbourhoods.

CityPlan was shelved around the year 2010—I have to wonder if the authors of the Villages Program even know of its existence. Worse, dozens of community-evolved neighbourhood plans, design guidelines, etc., were trashed when the Broadway Plan and Vancouver Plan were created. Once bitten…

Not meaning to be a cynic, but why would Vancouverites participate in a top down initiative (you know, one that starts where there’s no explanation of where the new Villages came from), when their previous efforts were binned?

Teaser #3 from the Villages report: Villages are opportunities to complete neighbourhoods by adding shopping areas and Missing Middle housing into these lower density residential areas.⁷ …[but Village] population estimates are not available for the 17 Villages, which are defined by specific retail areas rather than standard Census geographies.⁸ See Direction L1.7 for more details.⁹

How lazy is it to not bother with population estimates? How shortsighted and arrogant to decree a village (e.g., MacDonald and 16th) anchored by a gas station, two strip malls and an empty real estate office?

By this point in my review the Villages report is getting somewhat repetitive and I am getting somewhat exasperated: Villages are oriented around a smaller collection of commercial and community uses that provide local jobs, daily needs, and community place-making and social connection. Adjacent residential areas are primarily low-rise and predominately ground oriented housing. New housing choice, in the form of multiplexes, townhouses, and low-rise apartments, will bring more people of different ages, incomes, and backgrounds into the community and will help to support local shops and services. Existing conditions unique to each area, like amenity provision, variety of shops and services, existing built form, and ecological conditions, will help shape the overall character of these neighbourhoods.¹⁰

Am I completely nuts, or is this not the definition of the neighbourhood shopping we have already and need to support? I’m thinking of the vacant storefronts in many of our existing neighbourhood shopping areas. Let’s fix what we’ve got before we invent something new (and unneeded).

Returning to the report’s one encouraging paragraph: Vancouver’s local shopping areas serve as anchors for the city’s neighbourhoods, offering a variety of shops and services for residents, supporting local serving and small businesses. The unique importance of neighbourhood shopping streets such as Main Street or Commercial Drive for their appealing village-like character and diverse shops and cultural expression cannot be overstated. Challenged by the rise and needs of e-commerce and last mile delivery, these vibrant neighbourhood destinations will be supported by policies that enable new housing close to shopping streets, amenities, and improved business supports.¹¹

Let’s do that before we embark on Villages.

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If you have the stomach for it, you can read the Phase 1 Engagement Summary Report for Vancouver’s Villages Planning Program at this link. Look for further community engagement during your dinner hour or when you are on holiday.¹²

The complete Vancouver Plan that underlies the Villages concept is here.

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This post is just over 1000 words, much more than the 3-5 minutes citizens are allowed when they speak to the current City Council, in their efforts to suppress democracy. If you appreciated it, share to your social media and consider becoming a free subscriber to City Conversations at

Brian Palmquist writes on the traditional, ancestral and unceded lands of the Musqueam people. He 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. City Conversations mix real discussion with research and observations based on a 50-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.” A glutton for punishment, he recently started writing a book about how we can Embrace, Enhance and Evolve the places where we love to live. Some of its content may appear above.

1. Villages Planning Program, Phase 1, https://syc.vancouver.ca/projects/villages/villages-planning-program-phase-1-engagement-report.pdf, page 4.

2. Villages Planning Program, Phase 1, https://syc.vancouver.ca/projects/villages/villages-planning-program-phase-1-engagement-report.pdf, page 4.

3. Vancouver Plan, Table 1, Direction 2.4: Local-Serving and Small Businesses, https://vancouver.ca/files/cov/vancouver-plan.pdf page 97.

4. Villages Planning Program, Phase 1, https://syc.vancouver.ca/projects/villages/villages-planning-program-phase-1-engagement-report.pdf, page 4.

5. The only building types not yet nailed down (bad pun) are mid-rise and high-rise buildings, which are being dealt with in the Vancouver Plan and the Social Housing Initiative.

6. Villages Planning Program, Phase 1, https://syc.vancouver.ca/projects/villages/villages-planning-program-phase-1-engagement-report.pdf, page 5.

7. Vancouver Plan, https://vancouver.ca/files/cov/vancouver-plan.pdf , page 50 describes what city staff think a village is.

8. Villages Planning Program, Phase 1, https://syc.vancouver.ca/projects/villages/villages-planning-program-phase-1-engagement-report.pdf, page 8.

9. Vancouver Plan, https://vancouver.ca/files/cov/vancouver-plan.pdf, page 55.

10. Vancouver Plan, Direction L1.7: Villages, https://vancouver.ca/files/cov/vancouver-plan.pdf page 64.

11. Vancouver Plan, Table 1, Direction 2.4: Local-Serving and Small Businesses, https://vancouver.ca/files/cov/vancouver-plan.pdf page 97.

12. Typically, public meetings and presentations are held during dinner hour, during summer holidays or Christmas breaks.