We continue to bring you updates on the development at 1477 Granville. Council has heard from more than 80 speakers and received over 1,000 comments from the public. The fate of the proposed 39-storey tower at the corner of Granville and Broadway is important for every neighbourhood in the city. If approved, it will set a precedent for heights along the whole Broadway Corridor.

Council meeting begins at 9:30 am on Tuesday, April 26. 

Two nights of public hearings on the controversial tower proposed for the corner of Granville and Broadway coming subway station has once again illuminated the great divide in Vancouver housing politics.

Supporters of the 39-storey tower told Council they should not stop at 39 storeys because Vancouver is in dire need of more housing. They applauded the proximity of the development to a rapid transit line and the addition of a grocery store (also planned for the project) to the neighbourhood. The tower will consist of 223 housing units with studios, and one, two and three-bedroom apartments, and there would be no tenant displacement. Forty-nine units would be below market rental rates. (See our previous email for more information on rents, size of apartments).

BC’s Housing minister, David Eby, who has threatened to withold funding from municipalities who do not increase housing, threw his support behind the tower in an email (scroll down to the bottom of public comments) to Council written on his official ministry letterhead.

Those on the opposed side raised many concerns about the tower, beginning with process. As we told you in our last email, PCI developments proposed a five-storey building for the site, and then came back with a plan for 39 storeys. Fairview resident Sean Nardi, who heads the Fairview South Granville Action Committee, told Council that City staff “deliberately misled” the public because they knew about the additional height for the project since 2019 and did not make that information public. The plan for 39 storeys only recently came to public attention in 2019 when blueprints were discovered in a dumpster on the site.

And, according to CityHallWatch, a recent freedom of information request revealed that City staff may have sold the adjacent lane to PCI Developments for less than market value.

Many of the speakers were “appalled” that the developer has applied for a DCL waiver amounting to $3.3 million — money that could be used to fund much-needed community amenities including a new school in Fairview.

Vancouver resident Jane Frost said the City’s push for mass rezoning is creating “a gentrification ripple “as older, more affordable rentals are being torn down to make way for expensive, less livable housing. According to Simon Fraser University researcher Andy Yan, much of the older stock has already been snapped up by real estate investors.

A tearful young resident who lives in an older apartment in the area told Council that she and her sister will become homeless if the tower is approved due to the land lift and pressure on surrounding neighbourhood rents. “It’s displacement through incremental densification. And by adding a luxury highrise it’s only a matter of time,” she said, when Vancouver becomes a city only for the wealthy. “If you approve this, we won’t forget it at election time.”

Vancouver Plan Survey Extended

City staff have confirmed that the Vancouver Plan survey will be extended from April 24 until April 27. This is a city-wide plan with significant changes to land use. Be aware that when you look at the map of Vancouver in the survey, Upper Kitsilano is designated as a “neighbourhood centre.” But on the City’s website it is also designated as a rapid transit site, which allows towers between 12 and 18 storeys, and higher at subway stations. This is already set out before the UBC subway has been approved.