Building on the momentum of a jam-packed town hall meeting that tackled how the Broadway Plan will affect Kitsilano residents, a second meeting has been set for Sunday, April 21 at St. James Community Square from 6 to 8 pm. The event is free, and seating is first come, first served. St. James is located at 3214 West 10^th Ave (at Trutch).

This second event focuses on whether the Broadway Plan will ultimately provide affordable rents in Kitsilano, and if high-rise towers are the best way to add density to the neighbourhood.

Two keynote speakers will address the challenges the Broadway Plan poses to Kitsilano and other Vancouver neighbourhoods. David Ley, former Geography department head at the University of British Columbia and author of a handful of books including Millionaire Migrants: Trans-Pacific Life Lines (2010), and Housing Booms in Gateway Cities (2023), will explain how Vancouver housing became unaffordable.

Bill McCreery, an architect and former member of the Vancouver Park Board , will outline the concept of the seven-minute neighbourhood.

City Hall Watch and KitsPlan will co-host the event, which includes a Q&A period to follow the speakers.

 Vancouver Charter is being amended now!

For many BC MLAs, the end of the spring legislative session couldn’t come fast enough. But for many individuals and neighbourhoods, it could mean the end of a form of free speech critical to citizens’ rights to self-determination.

If you recall, this time last year the BC NDP pushed through a series of controversial Bills — among them 44, 46, and 47 — which forced most BC municipalities to follow new plans for  land use, housing, and transportation (for a critique of the Bills, scroll down to the bottom of the page to read an opinion piece by CityHallWatch). As far as we know, prior public consultation was next to none. But advice was given to NDP planners by a panel of so-called “experts,” from pro-development groups such as Abundant Housing, Generation Squeeze, and other like-minded individuals.

Last spring, Provincial Housing Minister Ravi Kalhon said, “The action we are taking is strong, comprehensive, and designed to meet one of the greatest challenges people face here in B.C., and in jurisdictions across Canada and around the world.” But not everyone was happy with the transformative new plans that were rushed through the Legislature at lightning speed, with little input from MLAs.

Provincial Green Party leader Sonia Furstenau said on X that she was “on the brink of tears” learning she had arrived at the Legislature too late to discuss . “The question,” she asked, “comes down to, do we have a functioning parliamentary democracy in BC?”

On Tuesday, Apr. 23 Vancouver City Council will be discussing Bills 44, 46, and 47 for adoption. Read the City motion here.

On March 31, 2024, a petition on Change.org. called on Premier David Eby to repeal or amend Bill 44. The petition, launched by Victoria resident Sasha Izard, says the Bill is heavy-handed, undemocratic and enables “a vast province-wide land/power grab over local zoning in the interests of profits for the construction and real estate industries.” Izard asked Eby to restore both public hearings and municipal powers over housing rezoning. At last count, the petition had gathered signatures from more than 3,000 people across the province.

Unlike other jurisdictions, Vancouver has its own plan for long-term growth and planning in the Vancouver Plan. Under the new Provincial rules, however, the City will require an amendment to the Vancouver Charter. Last week Kalhon announced that under Bill 18 the Charter is now being re-written to follow the Local Government Act. The proposed legislation will require Vancouver City Council to adopt a new city-wide official development plan (ODP) and make Vancouver’s rules for public hearings fall in line with the Premier’s plan to streamline zoning decisions. If passed, Bill 18 will eliminate one-off public hearings for housing project rezonings provided they are consistent with the City’s ODP.

“Public hearings can slow down approvals for new homes, which delay construction and add costs to housing,” said Kalhon. “These delays often result in fewer units being built or in developers making the units more expensive to offset the added costs.”

ABC Vancouver Coun. Peter Meiszner told the Vancouver Sun the Metro region “needs more housing of every type,” and “a big part of making that happen involves eliminating duplicate or unnecessary parts of the development process.”

“We need to be exploring changes to every step of the process, including public hearings,” Meiszner said. “Our No. 1 priority is to build more housing faster, if exploring changes to public hearings on certain projects helps in that effort, then we should absolutely be looking at that.”

See this criticism of Provincial Bills 44 and 47 by City Hall Watch.

PHOTO: Bill 47: Map of transit-oriented development sites, as set out by the Province. City of Vancouver.