Much better spot for a hotel on Davie & Cardero next to the mansion. It is a couple of blocks from English Bay, near other hotels and located on a major street that can accommodate traffic such as tour buses. It just makes more sense and your family can still be near you in the West End!
The local tax pressure results from rent increases due to building resales in the area in response to the ease with which the planning department could break up the West End plan. The landlord can pass those on through the Residential Tenancy Act provisions for the ARE. Most of the immediate block is occupied by senior tenants. This part of the West End is heavily populated with long term renters. In fact many opponents of this particular building are neither anti-density not anti-hotel. They have spoken in favour of a boutique hotel, like the one on the site. This is a commercial operation that is being sited through a planning loophole. It will have a detrimental impact on the West End Community plan affordability and the West End. The owner originally applied to develop a ten story apartment building, which had little or no opposition.
Why I oppose the Barclay Hotel Development: I am a West End homeowner and have resided in the neighbourhood for 30 years. I believe this development will have a significant negative impact on the West End due to the following:
Increased traffic on Barclay St. from Thurlow to Guilford, leading to potential safety concerns between pedestrians and hire cars. The City invested millions in traffic calming and alternative transportation infrastructure which will be undermined by this development.
Potential rent increases due to local property tax pressures from the higher value use of the site.
The proposal directly contravenes the West End Community plan and renders the community input void. This leads to a rise in disengagement, frustration and futility as participants feel their valuable time has been discarded.
While the development directly monetizes Vancouver’s well preserved natural amenities which were paid for by municipal taxes, they make no contribution to the enhancement of local community amenities.
Finally, the development vastly exceeds the FSR requirements for the neighbourhood as articulated in the West End plan, which aimed to increase density along the Georgia-Alberni corridor and the Burrard-Thurlow corridor
Thanks, Dermot. Are you planning to speak in person? What's your speaker number? (I'm speaker 59, not sure yet if I'll go in person or call in.)
One point:
"Potential rent increases due to local property tax pressures from the higher value use of the site."
"While the development directly monetizes Vancouver’s well preserved natural amenities which were paid for by municipal taxes, they make no contribution to the enhancement of local community amenities."
When we build more space, the impact on property tax revenue should be a benefit rather than a cost: there's a broader tax base that automatically provides more revenue for amenities and infrastructure. (Assuming we're not lowering the mill rate.)
I'm unable to believe that there's a need for hotel space when they tore down about 40 stories just a few years ago, just a few blocks away up Robson. There is merely a WANT for hotel space with a better view that can be sold for more dollars per night.
The traffic issue is the most serious; the actual density, not so much. But commercial activity, people coming and going at 2AM when their plane came in, as tourists do, would be heard by far more ears in this area, already the densest in the country.
If they want 9 stories, as is already legal, fine. It's the upgrade to a height not allowed here in decades that crosses a line.
It doesn't help that we already have a major construction project going here, for several months now, and FOUR YEARS more of it to go. All to provide water to the rest of Metro, not for us. Exactly how many hits are we supposed to take for the Team?
"I'm unable to believe that there's a need for hotel space when they tore down about 40 stories just a few years ago, just a few blocks away up Robson."
Thanks, Roy. On the Bluesky thread, Joel Wood observes that the Canadian Economics Association is having their annual conference in Vancouver this year. The discounted conference rate for hotel rooms is $450/night. https://bsky.app/profile/joelwwood.bsky.social/post/3mdyvhjscbs2h
"It doesn't help that we already have a major construction project going here, for several months now, and FOUR YEARS more of it to go. All to provide water to the rest of Metro, not for us."
So that 2 X $450 X 365 = $328,500 in rents per year for each condo they tore down on Robson? Head-scratcher, no?
The other head-scratcher is why they would want to place a hotel as far as possible from conference locations and still be in the downtown - unless they were seeking profit from the view. It's not like there are not other locations closer.
The project is going nominally, and I am currently typing this to the tune of a particularly irritating 80db drone from a hydrovac. Day 23. They will build a tower crane this month, right up past our windows, that’ll be a nice ongoing grinding noise.
The Big Mac (Macrea) hydrovac runs 85-90db for hours at a time, it’s right under my window.
And you can literally follow the project in 10-minute webcam upload intervals at brander.ca
My wife and I took a longish evening walk, about 40 minutes, a few years ago - up Alberni, back down Robson and Haro. I think we counted up 2000 units of construction on the walk, looking at those posters they put up about the permit requested. Not all of them built yet, but some. The big one two blocks away on Alberni and Denman is going great guns, of course - we just can’t hear it over the construction next door (and another site down the street, where they are putting in special valves for it).
It would be an interesting GIS application, if I could get a list of construction sites and upcoming planned construction sites, to tell you how many units are going up in a 15-minute walk of your own home or clicked-on location.
See which neighbourhoods are already taking the most for the team. Everybody around Broadway wins the Gold, of course, but there might be heavy competition for the West End winning Silver.
Much better spot for a hotel on Davie & Cardero next to the mansion. It is a couple of blocks from English Bay, near other hotels and located on a major street that can accommodate traffic such as tour buses. It just makes more sense and your family can still be near you in the West End!
The local tax pressure results from rent increases due to building resales in the area in response to the ease with which the planning department could break up the West End plan. The landlord can pass those on through the Residential Tenancy Act provisions for the ARE. Most of the immediate block is occupied by senior tenants. This part of the West End is heavily populated with long term renters. In fact many opponents of this particular building are neither anti-density not anti-hotel. They have spoken in favour of a boutique hotel, like the one on the site. This is a commercial operation that is being sited through a planning loophole. It will have a detrimental impact on the West End Community plan affordability and the West End. The owner originally applied to develop a ten story apartment building, which had little or no opposition.
Why I oppose the Barclay Hotel Development: I am a West End homeowner and have resided in the neighbourhood for 30 years. I believe this development will have a significant negative impact on the West End due to the following:
Increased traffic on Barclay St. from Thurlow to Guilford, leading to potential safety concerns between pedestrians and hire cars. The City invested millions in traffic calming and alternative transportation infrastructure which will be undermined by this development.
Potential rent increases due to local property tax pressures from the higher value use of the site.
The proposal directly contravenes the West End Community plan and renders the community input void. This leads to a rise in disengagement, frustration and futility as participants feel their valuable time has been discarded.
While the development directly monetizes Vancouver’s well preserved natural amenities which were paid for by municipal taxes, they make no contribution to the enhancement of local community amenities.
Finally, the development vastly exceeds the FSR requirements for the neighbourhood as articulated in the West End plan, which aimed to increase density along the Georgia-Alberni corridor and the Burrard-Thurlow corridor
Thanks, Dermot. Are you planning to speak in person? What's your speaker number? (I'm speaker 59, not sure yet if I'll go in person or call in.)
One point:
"Potential rent increases due to local property tax pressures from the higher value use of the site."
"While the development directly monetizes Vancouver’s well preserved natural amenities which were paid for by municipal taxes, they make no contribution to the enhancement of local community amenities."
When we build more space, the impact on property tax revenue should be a benefit rather than a cost: there's a broader tax base that automatically provides more revenue for amenities and infrastructure. (Assuming we're not lowering the mill rate.)
I'm unable to believe that there's a need for hotel space when they tore down about 40 stories just a few years ago, just a few blocks away up Robson. There is merely a WANT for hotel space with a better view that can be sold for more dollars per night.
The traffic issue is the most serious; the actual density, not so much. But commercial activity, people coming and going at 2AM when their plane came in, as tourists do, would be heard by far more ears in this area, already the densest in the country.
If they want 9 stories, as is already legal, fine. It's the upgrade to a height not allowed here in decades that crosses a line.
It doesn't help that we already have a major construction project going here, for several months now, and FOUR YEARS more of it to go. All to provide water to the rest of Metro, not for us. Exactly how many hits are we supposed to take for the Team?
"I'm unable to believe that there's a need for hotel space when they tore down about 40 stories just a few years ago, just a few blocks away up Robson."
Thanks, Roy. On the Bluesky thread, Joel Wood observes that the Canadian Economics Association is having their annual conference in Vancouver this year. The discounted conference rate for hotel rooms is $450/night. https://bsky.app/profile/joelwwood.bsky.social/post/3mdyvhjscbs2h
"It doesn't help that we already have a major construction project going here, for several months now, and FOUR YEARS more of it to go. All to provide water to the rest of Metro, not for us."
Can I ask how the project is going, and how disruptive it's been so far? https://brander.ca/watertunnel/
$450 for a room half the size of a small condo?
So that 2 X $450 X 365 = $328,500 in rents per year for each condo they tore down on Robson? Head-scratcher, no?
The other head-scratcher is why they would want to place a hotel as far as possible from conference locations and still be in the downtown - unless they were seeking profit from the view. It's not like there are not other locations closer.
The project is going nominally, and I am currently typing this to the tune of a particularly irritating 80db drone from a hydrovac. Day 23. They will build a tower crane this month, right up past our windows, that’ll be a nice ongoing grinding noise.
The Big Mac (Macrea) hydrovac runs 85-90db for hours at a time, it’s right under my window.
And you can literally follow the project in 10-minute webcam upload intervals at brander.ca
My wife and I took a longish evening walk, about 40 minutes, a few years ago - up Alberni, back down Robson and Haro. I think we counted up 2000 units of construction on the walk, looking at those posters they put up about the permit requested. Not all of them built yet, but some. The big one two blocks away on Alberni and Denman is going great guns, of course - we just can’t hear it over the construction next door (and another site down the street, where they are putting in special valves for it).
It would be an interesting GIS application, if I could get a list of construction sites and upcoming planned construction sites, to tell you how many units are going up in a 15-minute walk of your own home or clicked-on location.
See which neighbourhoods are already taking the most for the team. Everybody around Broadway wins the Gold, of course, but there might be heavy competition for the West End winning Silver.
It looks like you’ll have to update the chart.