ABC announces housing strategy
Policy ideas seem reasonable, next question is implementation
Yesterday ABC announced its strategy to allow more housing, more quickly.
Summary:
Rezone the Village areas identified in the Vancouver Plan (areas with more shops and services), allowing three to six storeys by right. (City staff to provide initial scope of work by March 2024.)
Align Vancouver’s building code with the province’s building code. (Initial report by March 2024.)
Don’t require city staff to re-review work which has already been done by certified architects and engineers - Surrey has done this for a long time. (March 2024.)
Allow high-rises to have a larger “floor plate” (the area of each floor is restricted). (March 2024.)
Rezone land close to SkyTrain stations: Nanaimo, 29th Avenue, Renfrew, and Rupert. (September 2024.)
Review shadow guidelines. (December 2024.)
These all seem like reasonable ideas to me, moving in the right direction. But it’s also important for mayor and council to be talking to staff regularly as the work progresses: if staff come back and say that something’s not possible, it’ll be important to figure out what options are possible. It’s like an ongoing negotiation to work out a reasonable compromise.
Text of the upcoming motion, posted by Ken Sim on Twitter.
Press coverage:
Vancouver Mayor Sim and ABC majority pledge housing action. Dan Fumano, Vancouver Sun.
'Bold action' coming on housing, Vancouver mayor says. Isabella Zavarise and Lisa Steacy, CTV News.
Mayor Ken Sim outlines seven "bold" strategies to grow Vancouver's housing supply. Kenneth Chan, Daily Hive.
Tweets from Frances Bula at the press conference.
TikTok by Justin McElroy.
Reaction on Reddit is skeptical.
Jens von Bergmann has a post discussing underused land near SkyTrain stations. Previous post on sewer upgrades.
