Chinatown group wants more input on city’s proposed zoning changes
A group representing Chinatown property and business owners as well as residents wants the city to put the brakes on proposed zoning and design changes.
Vancouver city council plans to vote today on changes that would, the group believes, amount to downzoning the neighbourhood when that’s exactly what they don’t want. Downzoning results in less density.
“We’re happy with the zoning we have right now,” said Steve Lee, spokesman for Chinatown Voices, referring to the Chinatown Neighbourhood Plan of 2012. “The zoning that we have reflects a well thought-out plan.”
He said the current neighbourhood plan keeps buildings low along historic Pender Street, but allows for higher buildings and more density nearby along streets such as Keefer.
Lee said the 2012 neighbourhood plan was approved by 11 different Chinatown groups, including the Chinese Benevolent Association, one of the area’s oldest community organizations, and SUCCESS, the immigrant-services society.
The Sun Wah Centre at 268 Keefer — at 90 feet high — was seen as one model for redevelopment in the area. Lee said members of Chinatown Voices represent more than 50 per cent of the owners of properties in Chinatown, along with area residents and merchants.
He said proposed changes will allow one-storey buildings. Lee said that doesn’t make any sense, especially when compared to the plans for nearby major developments. He used as examples the False Creek Flats project — that would add up to 22,000 jobs in the area, many at the new $1.2-billion St. Paul’s Hospital — and the Northeast False Creek project on the former Expo Lands, which could add as many as 12,000 new residents.
Lee described as “preposterous” one proposal to allow setbacks on the lane for retail.
“We’ve asked planning and they said, ‘Well, we’ve talked to a number of people and this is what they want,’” Lee said.
“They didn’t talk to merchants, they didn’t talk to property owners, they didn’t talk to residents.”
Changing floor space ratios and maximum widths for site frontages and storefronts in Chinatown are also among the changes proposed in the report to council.
Lee said that in a recent meeting, 24 Chinatown merchants were 100 per cent agreed that they want more residents and shoppers in the neighbourhood.
“We want more residents in Chinatown to make our retail viable,” he said. “Downzoning is going in the opposite direction. What we’re asking them to do is slow this down and give us ample time to meet with the planning department rather than rush this through.”
Joey Wong, owner of Dollar Meat Store at 266 East Pender, said that Chinatown wasn’t as vital as it used to be.
He believed one solution was to build housing so that more residents live in the neighbourhood.
He said more seniors housing for Chinese-Canadians would mean more visits to the area by younger generations visiting their relatives.
“Why we support (Chinatown Voices) is because we’re looking to have market housing to bring people here to help support our business,” he said.