On March 7 UKRA attended the final open house on the Broadway Plan. City staff rolled out the draft plan on its 30-year vision for one of Vancouver’s busiest and most important transportation corridors at Kits Neighbourhood House.

The event was billed as an opportunity for residents and nearby businesses to voice ideas and concerns about the Plan one last time, but most of the decisions had clearly already been made.

Council is expected to vote on the plan in May 2022.

The final draft plan sees residential and business towers of up to 40 storeys built along the Millennium subway line (from Clark Drive to Vine Street and from 1^st to 16^th Avenues), with buildings decreasing in height to 30, 20, and 10 storeys as one moves away from Broadway.

Staff say sweeping changes are needed in order to build denser, transit-oriented neighbourhoods (think Marine Gateway at Cambie and Marine Drive with multiple towers and a mall, but on a much larger scale) in the city. The Broadway Plan, they say, will provide homes for another 50,000 people and 42,000 new jobs.

The draft housing policy for the Broadway Plan Phase 4 prioritizes “new housing types and tenures that are affordable and accessible to low-income and moderate-income households,” without specifying how this will be accomplished or providing a breakdown of residences by price. In other words, no guarantee of affordability. And there are no firm promises on much-needed infrastructure such as schools and other amenities.

The Plan’s 10-year Public Benefits Strategy proposes a total budget of $450 million for affordable housing in affected neighbourhoods, and $750 million on infrastructure and other amenities including childcare, community centres and parks, transportation, and water and sewer upgrades (the benefits strategy relies on funding by City contributions such as Property Tax and Utility Fees, developer contributions such as Development Cost Levies (DCLs) and Community Amenity Contributions (CACs), and from senior levels of government).

The Plan mentions the renewal of older existing rental units in Kitsilano and other low-density neighbourhoods — Mount Pleasant and Fairview — as well as protection for tenants; however, we don’t know if renewal means renovations, additions, or outright demolitions.

In Upper Kitsilano, the area between Vine Street and Yew Street and from 10^th Avenue to 16^th Avenue will be home to different forms of mixed-use rental housing with heights of up to 18 storeys south of 12^th Ave. Densification is also proposed north of West Broadway near the coming Arbutus Station to West 1^st Avenue (see draft plan above) with between 12-25 storey towers replacing older low-rise rental apartments.

If the subway extension to UBC goes ahead, the Broadway Plan will eventually envelop most of Upper Kitsilano. Mayor Kennedy Stewart and his political team have been actively campaigning for the UBC extension, sending emails to supporters and robo calls to residents urging them to tell City Councillors to vote in favour of the extension. The subway motion is expected to go to Council in May 2022.

You can contact City Council with your concerns about the Broadway Plan. This is your last chance to have your say. Questions? Contact Broadway Plan leader on the Shape Your City link provided above.

For a well-argued opinion on why transit-oriented development isn’t in Vancouver’s best interest, read Slow Streets.