After countless revisions, endless opposition, and an extended public hearing, Vancouver City Council finally granted rezoning approval for the three-tower redevelopment of the Safeway adjacent to Commercial-Broadway Station on Tuesday, a project that has been in the works in some form for about a full decade.
Set for 1780 E Broadway on a site currently occupied by a Safeway and its surface parking lot, the project — by Westbank and Nova Scotia-based Crombie REIT (TSX: CRR.UN) — was originally planned as three towers up to 30 storeys and primarily strata. The housing mix was shifted towards rental over the years and the heights were also steadily increased. Approved for the site are now three towers between 36 and 43 storeys that will include 1,044 market rental units, 100 below-market rental units, 32,000 sq. ft of public space, a new expanded Safeway, 24,000 sq. ft of additional retail space, and a 37-space childcare facility that will be gifted to the City.
The final decision came at approximately 9:30 pm, after the public hearing on May 15 ran for four hours and had to be recessed until yesterday. Local residents both in support and in opposition of the project continued to exercise their right to voice their opinions to Council and last night's proceedings ran for just under 6.5 hours.
Although the final tally of people who spoke at the public hearing was lower, a total of 459 people submitted written comments in support of the project, while 619 submitted comments opposing the project and 32 submitted comments classified as "other."
With the Green Party's Pete Fry abstaining and ABC Vancouver's Brian Montague absent, Council ultimately approved the rezoning application with an 8 to 1 vote, with Mayor Ken Sim, all of his ABC Vancouver partymates who were present, independent Councillor Rebecca Bligh, and OneCity Vancouver's Lucy Maloney all voting in support of the project and COPE's Sean Orr being the lone opposing vote.
The rezoning application for 1780 E Broadway was passed with an 8-1 vote.
Research has shown that public hearings are over-representative of those in opposition and that 92% of items that make it to a public hearing ultimately get approved regardless of opposition, meaning that there was little to no suspense ahead of the final vote and that approval for this project was more or less inevitable. However, while individual comments that were made may not have directly impacted the final decision, the collective comments and recurring themes did seem to be absorbed by Council.
"I too wish that there was more affordable housing components in this," said Councillor Rebecca Bligh. "Unfortunately, this is the project we have before us. The site can't sit empty any longer. In the area of Granville and Broadway, there's the high-speed transit line coming in, there's been a high-speed transit line at Commercial and Broadway for almost 35 to 40 years — with no density around it. I think it just has really misled us as a city that that's normal and it's just not. 39 storeys at Granville and Broadway has been built and it's significantly changed the skyline and all the things that people are concerned about, but now there's 39 storeys of rental units that people can live in and they can go to the shops and they can go to the restaurants and they can get to their jobs and get downtown. They can access the high-speed transit line. That is an appropriate use. And again, it's disruptive, it's change, but people drive by it everyday and you don't even notice the height of that building anymore because as human beings we adapt."
"I heard a concern that there are investors and there's a financial play here," added Bligh, who is also the President of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. "There's been 10 years of various applications that have come forward for this site that started out as strata condo units, and I can honestly say I prefer the rental units. I think that's more appropriate for what our city needs. Our city doesn't need strata luxury condos. These are not safety deposit boxes in the sky — that's the rhetoric for condos. These are rental units and rental units mean that people can come in and they can rent them. Is it expensive? Yes, living in the city is expensive, but the more units we have coming online, the further down our rents are going. That's just the reality. I know that's not what people who don't want to see this project get built want to hear, but that's actually the truth and that's what the data shows us."
A rendering of the three towers planned for 1780 E Broadway in Vancouver. / Perkins&Will, Westbank, Crombie REIT
"We heard a lot from a number of speakers around 'we don't need condos,'" said Councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung, when it was her turn to speak. "They're not condos. They're all rental homes. They are market rents and we know that market rents are tough. Affordability is a tough issue across the city as a whole and we're looking to bring them down as a whole. 10% isn't as affordable as people would like to see. Not everything is achieved in every single development and every single proposal. [...] I know they're not going to be affordable for everybody, but they are a lot more affordable than other options. If we built them earlier, they'd be even more affordable."
"We do get the childcare turnkey facility, which I think is an important amenity," added Kirby-Yung, who also introduced a motion asking staff to work with the applicant during the development permit stage to maximize daily public access to the proposed courtyard. "I think the challenge is that it's a really hard trade-off between which amenities do you bring in. If there was more affordability in this project, some folks might like it more, but then we would also hear concerns that we didn't have any other public amenities. So we have public amenities and we have a daycare, but then we hear concerns that we don't have the level of affordability that we would want. These are trade-offs that have to be made and I think it's a juggling act and you don't get everything in one development."
"This is a significant number of rental homes with public benefits," said Councillor Peter Meiszner. "The things that stand out for me are the fact that there is no displacement, this is a grocery store with a large surface parking lot, this is at the busiest transit hub in Vancouver and arguably one of the busiest ones in the region — about to be busier when the Broadway Line opens. We are seeing similar scale developments at transit hubs in Vancouver and also in the region. [...] I really believe that this will be an improvement over what's currently on the site. Would I like to see more affordability? Yes. But right now there is no affordability on the site cause there's no homes on the site."
"This is a bit like Groundhog Day," said Councillor Pete Fry, who ultimately abstained from voting. "This project's been bouncing around for so long, but each iteration that comes back, it comes back bigger and denser than before, so I think there is an imperative to get on with things. The next round might literally bring us Brentwood-scale 60-storey towers at this site. It has been happening for a while. It's time to move on. [...] Where I struggle with this project is that we're doubling the legislated [TOA minimum] heights, but we're halving the below-market. Where our expectation is typically 20% below-market, this project's only doing 10%. And it's not even below-market. It's average market rents."
"We've driven all these projects to deliver on public benefits and affordable housing and this particular project represents a shift away from those expectations that we've imposed on all those other developers," he added. "I very much appreciate that our staff have negotiated the benefits and the land lift on this project, working with the real estate investment trust [Crombie REIT] and reviewing their proformas, but I still don't have the confidence. I recall a developer once telling me actually that there's three types of proformas: there's one for the banks, there's one for the builders, and then there's one for the City, but they're not the same. But I don't know. I haven't seen [it] and I don't know the finances. [...] As it's contemplated, the density bonus here seems to me to be a major benefit to the land owner and, by extension, the real estate investment trust shareholders, but it's not delivering much in return other than new market rental housing — which is and of itself a benefit, of course."
A rendering of the public plaza planned for 1780 E Broadway in Vancouver. / Perkins&Will, Westbank, Crombie REIT
"I think both sides made excellent points, some of which were very entertaining, but some that were kind of heart-breaking as well," said Councillor Sean Orr, the lone opposing vote. "I do think that the number of opposed speakers slightly outweighs those who support, and I think there should be at least one vote that reflects those speakers. I do think this is precedent-setting as Councillor Fry said, in terms of the decrease in below-market rentals."
"I also don't agree with all the opposed," added Orr, who was elected in the April by-election. "The critique of the built form — I'm not overly concerned about the height of the building or that it will destroy Commercial Drive. They aren't condos, but I do agree that using the City-wide average [rent] is flawed and that it's only 100 units. It's not a ton of childcare spaces. I do appreciate that there's no direct displacement on this site, that we need transit-oriented density, that we need rental units, but I do worry that we are giving the developer double the height and we're not seeing the full public benefits that we could be seeing."
"Everyone's views are completely valid, said Mayor Ken Sim, who was the final member of Council to comment before the vote. "There are no wrong views here. That's just the reality. I do think it's important that we're clear as to, as a Council, why we're going to support one or the other. I do support this project and the reason I support this project — first of all: love the neighbourhood. Actually, the first rental I remember as a little kid growing up was on McSpadden [Avenue] right by McSpadden Park. I lived in the 'hood and it's an incredible neighbourhood and every time we go to the 'hood we go by 1772 McSpadden."
"We've been clear that there's a housing crisis in our city and we're gonna create an environment where we can build more housing of all types, be it social, middle-income, market housing," added Sim. "We've created a Vancouver Housing Development Office, as an example, to bring 4,300 more units of housing that's going to help middle-income folks. We're supporting a whole bunch of different types of housing in the city and I think sometimes we have to zoom out to look at what we're actually trying to achieve here."
