Broadway Plan rezonings: slides and speaking notes

First four rezonings underway

Last Tuesday, there was a public hearing for council to decide on the first four rezoning applications under the Broadway Plan:

• 523-549 East 10th, a couple blocks west of Fraser. Nearest station: Broadway and Main. 180 apartments replacing 12 secondary suites. 12 comments in opposition so far.

• 701 Kingsway. Nearest station: Broadway and Main. 200 apartments, replacing a strip mall at Fraser and Kingsway.

• 2156-2174 West 14th, just west of Arbutus. Nearest station: Broadway and Arbutus. 170 apartments, replacing three houses.

• 2175 West 7th, also just west of Arbutus. Nearest station: Broadway and Arbutus. 180 apartments, with 35 below-market, replacing a 35-unit low-rise apartment building from 1970.

The hearing was extended to Thursday evening. By the end of the evening, around 11:30 pm:

• The first rezoning, 523-549 East 10th, was approved unanimously.

• For the other three rezonings, council heard all of the public speakers, and postponed debate and decision to November 26. Public comments are now closed, so councillors cannot talk to anyone about their decision.

Video from the November 12 and November 14 sessions:

• November 12

• November 14

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My slides and speaking notes for the four rezonings:

Hi, my name is Russil Wvong. I’m a volunteer with the Vancouver Area Neighbours Association. I live in Vancouver, and I don't work in real estate or development. I’d like to speak in support of this application.

We have lots of jobs, so people want to live and work here. But we don’t have enough housing. Vacancy rates are near zero. So then prices and rents have to rise to unbearable levels to keep people out, and to force people to give up and move away. It's terrible for younger people and renters. But it's a bad situation even for older homeowners, because we can’t find people to fill jobs, like nurses at our hospitals. I was just talking to someone who’s trying to figure out how to staff the new St. Paul’s Hospital.

This project will provide 175 new rental homes, including 35 below-market rentals, in a central neighbourhood close to the SkyTrain at Broadway and Main, with easy access to lots of jobs. Because they’re purpose-built rentals, they’ll provide secure housing without your having to be rich enough to own. There's minimal displacement, because it’s replacing single-family houses instead of an existing apartment building.

I know that opponents are saying that high-rises should go on main streets. Land values are actually highest just off of main streets, indicating that demand is highest there. Renters are people. They aren’t somehow immune to noise and pollution.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Russil Wvong. I’d like to speak in support of this application.

This project will provide 200 new rental homes, including 40 below-market rentals, in a central neighbourhood close to the SkyTrain at Broadway and Main. Because it’s replacing a strip mall, there’s zero displacement.

Thank you.

[I kept this one short, because I figured there wouldn’t be much opposition to a rezoning that doesn’t displace any renters.]

Hi, my name is Russil Wvong. I’d like to speak in support of this application.

This project will provide 170 new rental homes, including 35 below-market rentals, in a central neighbourhood close to the SkyTrain at Broadway and Arbutus. There’s minimal displacement, because it’s replacing single-family houses instead of an existing apartment building.

The housing shortage is terrible for younger people and renters, but it's also bad for older homeowners. When younger people can't afford to live here, the healthcare system will be under increasing strain.

Some people ask why we need high-rises. Location matters a lot. In a central location with easy access to lots of jobs within about a 30-minute commute, more people will want to live there, and land values will be particularly high. So it makes sense to build taller buildings.

It's common for opponents to say that they support more housing in principle, but they want to minimize change to their neighbourhood. This is understandable, but it imposes tremendous costs on everyone else. It's like pushing down on a balloon. If they succeed in blocking this application, the people who would have lived there won’t vanish into thin air. They’ll end up competing with everyone else over the limited supply of existing housing, bidding up prices and asking rents. And it doesn’t just affect renters who are looking for a place right now. Renters are terrified of losing their housing and facing a brutal rental market, and the higher asking rents go, the worse it gets.

Hi, my name is Russil Wvong. I’d like to speak in support of this application.

This project will provide 180 new rental homes, including 35 below-market rentals, in a central neighbourhood, close to the SkyTrain station at Broadway and Arbutus.

Unlike the other three Broadway Plan rezonings, this project is replacing an existing 35-unit apartment building, built in 1970.

I’d like to emphasize the need to protect renters who are living in older buildings that get redeveloped. The Broadway Plan includes protections for renters. A project that replaces a low-rise rental building with a new high-rise has to include 20% below-market apartments, which means 35 below-market apartments in this case. It has to cover any increase in rent while people are living in interim housing, in the same area. When the new building is complete, they have to be able to return at their previous rent. But the real test of this policy is going to be when the first redevelopment of an old low-rise building actually happens. If it goes well, people will be reassured. If it goes badly, there’ll be even more opposition and backlash.

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A Redditor joked a few years ago that decisions should look something like this:

Does it make more homes Y/N?

Y

APPROVED!

I tried to figure out what the most important considerations are in making a rezoning decision. An introductory slide that I skipped:

Do we need more housing?

Vacancy rates are near zero.  Prices and rents have to rise to unbearable levels to force people to give up and leave, or to crowd into existing housing.  We're short about 1/4 of the housing that we need.

Questions about land use. Is the site geographically central?

People want to live where there's easy access to jobs.  So land values are higher in a central location.

What's the size of the site, how much expensive land is consumed per square foot of floor space, and what's the proposed height?

Land in Metro Vancouver is limited by ocean and mountains.  Are we making effective use of our limited land?

Benefits and costs. How many homes are being proposed?

Are they condos or purpose-built rental? (A purpose-built rental provides secure housing without having to be rich enough to own, and without being insecure due to renting from an individual landlord.)

Does the project include below-market rentals, cross-subsidized by market rentals?

Is there displacement of existing renters?

We want to make sure people aren't significantly worse off; as opposed to making people better off on the whole, but some significantly worse off. (As I understand it, this is the distinction between Pareto efficiency, where nobody is worse off, and Kaldor-Hicks, which is more like utilitarianism.)

How long has it taken so far?

Are costs high or low?

Depends on approval time as well as building height (wood-frame up to six storeys, concrete above that).

Does this comply with the area plan?

If so, why go through the labour-intensive and time-consuming rezoning and public hearing process?

How many opponents are there?

It's human nature for people to want to minimize change to their neighbourhood.  The problem is that blocking new housing imposes huge costs on everyone else, because the people who would have lived there don't vanish into thin air.  It's like pushing down on a balloon - they end up competing with everyone else over the limited number of existing vacancies, bidding up rents.