Chinatown rezoning plan goes before public
Building a new condo project at 105 Keefer St. in Chinatown probably looked simple to the developer when it was proposed in 2014.
It was on an empty lot, so no heritage buildings would have to be demolished to build it. And a pair of similar projects had just gone up at Keefer and Main.
But the glass towers at Keefer and Main kicked up a storm of controversy among Chinatown activists that felt they were more like the modern highrises in Downtown South than the historic buildings in Chinatown. And 105 Keefer became a lightning rod in the battle for Chinatown’s future.
As a result, the Beedie Group’s plans for 105 Keefer have been redesigned four times to try to mollify community concerns.
The height of the building has dropped from 13 to 12 storeys, 25 social housing units have been added, and the number of condos has been reduced from 134 to 110.
After four years of planning, a rezoning proposal for the site is going to a public hearing today at 6 p.m. at Vancouver’s city hall.
The developer has the support of the Vancouver Chinatown Merchants Association, which wants to see something happen on a site under-utilized for years.
“The association feels that Chinatown still needs more residents in the area,” the VCMA’s Henry Tom said.
“Market housing as well as social housing (and) seniors housing. I think we need a whole diversity of housing for residents who would support local businesses. You get busier streets, there’s more activity on the streets.”
But Chinatown activist Shirley Chan feels it’s the wrong proposal for the site.
“It’s an iconic location,” said Chan, whose parents led the fight to save Chinatown from a controversial freeway plan in the 1960s.
“The mass and the bulk of the building will have significant longterm negative impacts on the community, especially the heritage area that it backs onto and the Sun Yat Sen Garden, Chinese Cultural Centre and Memorial Square. Those are all major concerns.”
Chan agreed the site has been under-utilized. But she said with the rapid changes in the city, the site has become very important, a gateway to Chinatown from False Creek.
“I have strong views about wanting to keep Chinatown as a unique and special neighbourhood,” Chan said.
“We made some mistakes in the rezoning in the past, in that we did not notice the lack of a limit to the FSR (floor space ratio). And when we got those huge buildings at the corner of Keefer and Main, it hit home that we had really failed to adequately protect the neighbourhood from the incredible (real estate) pressures we’re seeing today.”
Urban planner Andy Yan said the city needs to consider 105 Keefer in the greater context of the neighbourhood.
“It isn’t an empty plot of land in False Creek,” he said.
“It has all these sensitive fragile populations (nearby), and it’s a (site with a) context towards one of the few historic neighbourhoods of the city.
“People that I’ve talked to feel (the condo proposal) doesn’t give any regard to that social, cultural and historic context.”
The Beedie Group paid $16.2 million for two parcels of land at 105 Keefer and 544 Columbia in 2013. The site is 149 feet wide east to west, and 121 feet deep. Beedie bought the site after the city rezoned parts of Chinatown, hoping to revitalize the neighbourhood.
It could build a nine-storey building on the site without going to a rezoning, but elected to go for a bigger structure, which required rezoning.
The social housing part of the proposal would be paid for by B.C. Housing, a provincial government agency. Beedie would also provide a 10-year lease on a 1,200-squarefoot retail space for Chinatown groups.