The last of the speakers to the Broadway Plan have had their say, and City Council must decide the fate of the Plan on Thursday, June 9.

The Broadway Plan is a huge document and Councillors have heard from over 180 people over four days. Many have spoken passionately about their fears over what the Plan entails, saying the huge density being prescribed for the area is “gentrification on steroids.” 

The May 31 meeting was as emotionally-charged as the ones it followed. One speaker accused staff of taking  a “big box” approach to planning which ignores low-rise housing for families. “People are desperate to find a connection to the ground,” said the speaker. 

There were many other criticisms, including:

• The City’s disregard for residents in the planning process and lack of transparency;
• Dissatisfaction with Mayor Kennedy Stewart’s Tenant Protection Plan;
• Plan ignores criticisms by the Urban Design Panel, and the Park Board;
• The City has no actual data on which to base future housing growth projections;
• Plan is being driven by developers and is a cash cow for the City and the Province;
• The Broadway Plan should not be decided by an outgoing Council but at the ballot box in the coming fall election;
• The built form (towers) along Broadway were not revealed until the final draft plan;
• Environmental concerns of building with concrete and steel and the removal of large trees;
• The false narrative that the plan delivers affordability.

The meeting closed with  “clarification” of some of the criticisms heard.  Senior staff planner Matt Shillito said that towers cannot be replaced with low to mid-rise buildings as some have suggested. “The testing shows towers are the only answer to affordability,” he noted.

Retired Architect Brian Palmquist, however, disagreed with Shillito’s claim in this story posted in CityHallWatch.

Regarding concerns around the  lack of new parks in the plan, Shillito said that staff is willing to look at including more parks and also additional bike lanes in the area.

Environmental concerns about  towers were softened by Shillito, who said that new regulations on operational and embodied emissions have improved dramatically, and that increasing density close to rapid transit is part of the City’s Big Move 1 on climate action.

He defended public involvement in the planning process, saying the Plan takes a neighbour-based approach and has evolved in response to public feedback.

(Photo looking south at Granville and Broadway, 1951. Vancouver City Archives).