Vancouver City Council voted to receive the Streamlining Rental and the Moderate Income Rental Housing Pilot (MIRHPP) Quick-Start Action plans at its July 21, 2021 meeting. It means that a public hearing on both plans will likely take place this fall, with a decision by Council to follow.

If we want to preserve our neighbourhood by stopping these precedent-setting actions, now is the time to act! The City just announced another extension to the Streamlining Rental Plan survey, which now continues until July 30, 2021. Have your say!

You can also contact City Councillors with your views.

During last Wednesday’s Council meeting, Cllr. Colleen Hardwick attempted to amend the Streamlining Rental plan, which, left as is, would see the beginning of land assemblies with four-to six-storey rental apartments, townhouses, and multiplexes. In Upper Kitsilano, affected areas are:  West 10^th Ave, 12th Ave, Macdonald St, West 16^th Ave,  Alma, Dunbar and Yew St, and one whole block parallel and perpendicular to those arterials. There’s no question that many character houses will be lost if the plan goes ahead.

Cllr.Hardwick’s amendment was quickly voted down by Mayor Kennedy Stewart and other Councillors, who want to increase new rental housing in order, they say, to make the city more inclusive and affordable. These so-called “low density” transition areas that have been targeted are already home to untold character homes with tenants in “single family” houses and older apartments with reasonable rents. Will all the new housing be affordable? Not likely.

Cllr. Hardwick tried to convince Council to not accept the plan before a recalibration of the Housing Vancouver targets has been completed, more neighbourhood-based planning has been performed, and further public consultation (to date, City staff has provided no data on the amount of housing needed in Vancouver, despite repeated requests by Cllr. Hardwick. The City’s Housing strategy calls for 72,000 new homes in the next seven years, which is three times greater than Stats Canada’s most recent forecast as likely to be needed) has been heard.

That perfectly reasonable amendment was voted down by the Mayor and other Councillors.

Cllr. Adriane Carr said she had heard concerns from residents that the Streamlining Rental plan would put several older homes at risk of demolition (West Kitsilano, home to many heritage and character homes, has been removed from the plan). City Social Planner Edna Cho told Carr that areas with such houses had been removed from the plan. However, Upper Kitsilano, which is also home to several heritage and character homes along the blue-zoned streets, is not being shown the same courtesy. As the plans stands, those homes would all be at risk of demolition. UKRA directors are going to be sending a response to Council and City planning staff about this.

The second Quick-Start Action discussed at the meeting was the MIRHPP, which received some modification based on an amendment by Cllr. Carr. Carr had Staff’s suggestion to increase rental rates over time removed from their recommendation.