After days of debate, hundreds of speakers, and a total of 27 amendments, Vancouver City Council finally approved the controversial Broadway Plan on Wednesday, June 22. The Plan comes into effect on Sept. 1, 2022.

The final vote was 7-4 in support of the Plan, with Councillors  Colleen Hardwick, Michael Wiebe, Jean Swanson and Melissa De Genova in opposition.

Cllr. Hardwick proposed an amendment that the Plan be sent back to staff to include neighbourhood planning with affected communities, to include human-scale forms of development affordable to local incomes, and that any changes be based on accurate, transparent data.

She said the Broadway Plan promotes the false narrative of lack of supply and that approving it would be “the dream of land speculators and property flippers,” who will continue to put upward pressure on property values. She added that the Plan should not be decided by a council so close to the fall civic election. 

And then Cllr.Hardwick stated her main reason for not voting for the Plan: “When it comes to the Broadway Plan, the amazing author Jane Jacobs actually predicted these problems back in 1961. In her epic book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jacob said, and I quote, ‘Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because and only when they are created by everybody.’ The Broadway Plan was decidedly not created by everybody.”

Her amendment drew the ire of both Cllr. Rebecca Bligh and Mayor Kennedy Stewart, who accused her of having “other reasons” for not supporting the Plan. Cllr. Hardwick leads TEAM for a Livable Vancouver and is running for mayor in October.

Said Bligh: “The reality is the mover of this referral votes against 90 per cent of development.” Mayor Stewart took his criticism a step further: “It’s not actually a referral that’s being debated here, it’s the whole concept of the Plan,” he said. “So, I would just say, don’t refer it, vote against it. I think a referral is not genuinely what’s being debated here; I think if there’s fundamental problems with this Plan, referring it back is not doing public service.” Which prompted Cllr. Hardwick to invoke a code of conduct complaint, saying she was maligned by the Mayor and Councillor Bligh.

Chair Adriane Carr agreed and asked Council members to be respectful and to “refrain from impugning motives,” which prompted Mayor Stewart to say that it’s fine to state a Council member’s voting record during a public meeting and then demanded an apology from Cllr. Hardwick.

Councillors Wiebe and Melissa De Genova supported parts of Cllr. Hardwick’s amendment, but it failed to pass in an 8-3 vote. Cllr. Hardwick said, “The fact that we started this with 42 amendments before we even got started shows that this [plan] is not ready for prime time.” She said it runs contrary to Vancouver’s history of neighbourhood-based planning.

Cllr. Lisa Dominato disagreed, saying it is Council’s duty to follow through with the Plan. “I don’t think it should be put to another Council [to decide]. We have a responsibility to advance this work. Our job is to listen to the public and we’ve done that.”

Cllr. Wiebe put forth an amendment asking staff to investigate how elements of the affected neighbourhoods’ official community plans [now repealed] could be incorporated into the Broadway Plan, and the feasibility of creating “community implementation committees.” He withdrew his amendment but told Council that the Broadway Plan does not reflect what “we [Council] have heard from the community. This is the hardest Plan we’ve done,” he said. “I’m surprised we’re not listening to the voices of the community.”

Cllr. Fry’s amendment that called for phasing in the Broadway Plan, which would have only allowed construction in the centres (such as Oakridge Mall, for example,) and industrial employment areas for the first five years, failed to pass. Some Councillors said it would limit new density in the residential neighbourhoods and not provide housing for young families that is desperately needed.

Cllr. Swanson’s second amendment to the Plan asked staff to look at the pros and cons of lowering property values to make housing more affordable, and of rental-only zoning without additional incentives. She also proposed studying the feasibility of setting aside sites for community housing developers and operators as a way of increasing non-market homes.

Adding to Swanson’s amendment, Cllr. Fry asked that staff look at using new financing tools such as land capture and tax increment financing. That passed with only Cllr. De Genova in opposition.

Mayor Kennedy Stewart added a last-minute amendment that the Broadway Plan come into effect on Sept. 1, 2022, to give City staff time to revise and republish the Plan.

Photo source: (City of Vancouver).