Fight on over 28-storey tower for Broadway
City sees proposed apartment project as ‘the test case’ for moderate income rental program
It’s been years since the final Moons Over My Hammy was served at the Denny’s on Broadway at Birch, but Vancouver council will spend several hours this week hearing from citizens with strong feelings about the future of the now-vacant site.
On the question of whether or not a 28-storey apartment tower should be built there, opponents and supporters agree on one thing: This project is a big deal.
Supporters, including neighbours in Fairview and others who would like to one day rent there, say this one is a slam dunk.
It’s a short walk from two planned Broadway subway stations and wouldn’t displace any existing residents.
Opponents have many of the same arguments made by opponents of other big residential developments, complaining about excessive height, long shadows and parking headaches.
But beyond those familiar criticisms, opponents also warn this particular project could set a dangerous precedent. Although there are several office and residential towers nearby, most are half the height, or less. Critics warn this application’s approval would open the door to a wave of 28-storey-and-taller towers along Broadway.
The battle provides a good example of how average citizens, often with no history of civic engagement, sometimes find themselves going to great lengths to fight for what they believe is right for their neighbourhood.
Sean Nardi is a member of the Fairview South Granville Action Committee, which came together in opposition to the Birch tower. The committee scoured hundreds of pages of documents, including internal emails among city staff, and correspondence with the proponent, Jameson Development.
The committee uncovered what Nardi calls “serious process failures.”
Basically, Nardi believes the rezoning should not be considered because the Broadway Interim Rezoning Policy, approved by the previous council in June 2018, essentially froze rezoning along the corridor while the city conducts a planning process for the area in advance of the subway construction.
There are many more details to this dispute. Nardi believes this procedural question is only one of many “glaring errors” in the proposal.
But the city’s planning department has repeatedly stated council can consider the Birch rezoning because it was sufficiently far along when the Broadway interim policy was approved.
Nardi and other opponents say they support Jameson’s earlier plan, approved in 2018, to build a 16-storey rental building on the site, which would provide about 153 homes, all at market rents.
But Jameson’s latest 28-storey proposal is through the new moderate income rental housing pilot program, in which the city allows extra density on projects where 20 per cent of units are at below-market rents. At 28 storeys, the Birch project would provide about 258 rental homes, 55 of which would be affordable for households earning between $30,000 and $80,000 annually.
From the city’s perspective, this approval would move the city significantly closer to its annual goal of approving 2,000 rental homes, after years of missing those targets.
Council has so far approved seven moderate income projects, but the 28-storey Birch project is the biggest, both in terms of height and opposition.
“This is the test case” for the moderate income rental program, said Theresa O’Donnell, deputy director of planning. “This is the big one.”
O’Donnell said that even if every councillor did agree with Nardi’s interpretation of the policy, council is not bound by policy as strictly as they are by bylaws, and could grant this rezoning if councillors decide that’s the right decision.
Nardi lives a few blocks from the Birch site, in a condo he bought 20 years ago, a purchase he described as “a very, very lucky decision with lots of help from the bank, just before everything went crazy.”
“There’s no way in hell I could afford to live here now if I had not done that,” he said.
“It’s not affordable to me on my income.”
Asked what he’d say to someone who wasn’t lucky enough to buy 20 years ago and for whom home ownership is now out of reach, someone who would like to rent in the proposed 28-storey tower, Nardi said: “I can’t speak to them.”
One such person is Jennifer Maiko Bradshaw, who rents in the southeast corner of the city, but would love to live somewhere like the 28-storey Birch proposal.
Bradshaw, a director of housing advocacy group Abundant Housing Vancouver, regularly hears longtime homeowners mount familiar arguments against new rental housing.
To Bradshaw, the neighbours sounding alarms about procedural issues seem to be “grasping at straws.”
“They’re really just trying to find any reason at all to stop it from being built,” she said.
“It’s understandable: they’re looking at it from a very selfish perspective of their own property values, their own shadowing, and what they see as their own parking.”
“But when you buy a place, there’s no guarantee your view will stay the same forever. That’s not part of the social contract,” Bradshaw said. “What is a high priority during a housing crisis? Views are nice-to-haves, compared to an affordable place to live, which is a must-have.”