Tale of the tower: mountain view versus rentals
Debate over highrise cuts to core of what makes city special
Raymond Louie is defending a controversial move that he and his fellow Vision Vancouver councillors took to support a 40-storey residential tower downtown that would pierce protected views of the North Shore mountains.
Just before Tuesday’s vote on the project, Louie introduced a motion that placed a key condition on a tower proposed for 777 Pacific Blvd. between Rogers Arena and B.C. Place: If it was built to 40 storeys (400 feet), it would have to include only secured market rental units.
The motion passed with unanimous support from Vision councillors, but it raised the ire of opposition parties and sparked impassioned criticism from some residents who decried the loss of views from the south side of False Creek.
“What I was seeking to do was to ensure that if there was to be an incursion into our view corridor that there was at least some additional benefit to the public,” Louie said. “Given our vacancy rates being what they are … it was important to add additional supply into our city.”
The motion left the proponent B.C. Pavilion Corp., a Crown corporation, with the alternative of building a 30-storey (300-foot) tower with no such rental-only requirement. If PavCo decided to build to that height, it could choose to build only strata condominiums, Louie said.
Duncan Blomfield, a PavCo spokesman, said the corporation’s original proposal to the city was only for a 300-foot building. But because residents wanted to retain views of B.C. Place, “the City-led rezoning application included a higher building option at 400 feet,” Blomfield said in an email.
The Crown corporation would need to review the outcome of Tuesday ’s vote before it makes any decisions, Blomfield said.
Before the vote, councillors had faced mounting opposition to the project because it would intrude into so-called “view cones” along Cambie Street.
There are roughly two dozen such council-approved view cones in Vancouver that look north to locations such as Mount Seymour, Grouse Mountain and Mount Fromme.
Some residents took to social media this week to chastise Vision councillors for supporting an incursion into the view cones.
Melody Ma, who had spoken out against the project before, tweeted that Vision “just put a price tag on Vancouver’s priceless views. This isn’t a matter about ‘rental (housing) vs. view cones’, but that Vancouver’s public views are now for sale.”
Kevin Quinlan, Mayor Gregor Robertson’s chief of staff, defended the decision Wednesday and posted to Twitter a list of 10 buildings that have previously gone up into the city’s view cones. Among them are the Wall Centre, Shaw Tower, Shangri-La, Fairmont Pacific Rim and Telus Garden.
Non-Partisan Association Councillor George Affleck said Vancouver is a great-looking city because of the way it sits and is framed by mountains and waterways, but also because of intentional design principles that include the view cones.
“I worry as we start to intrude into these view cones that we are compromising what makes Vancouver so beautiful,” Affleck said.
“If you have these basic principles and you don’t follow them, then why have them at all?”
He criticized Louie’s motion, saying it “came out of nowhere,” and disputed that a 40-storey secure market rental building in that neighbourhood would do much to alleviate the city ’s housing crunch.
“At the end of the day, they can candy-coat it with their bull---market rental program … but at the end of the day, they approved the ability for somebody to build a 400-foot building into a view cone.”
City staff said that while Vancouver’s view protection guidelines preserve views from specific vantage points in the city, a separate “Higher Building ” policy identifies specific locations where buildings can exceed view cone heights.
“The City has worked to balance the protection of views with strategic opportunities for adding higher buildings that help provide new job and housing space,” read a statement from the city.
I worry as we start to intrude into these view cones that we are compromising what makes Vancouver so beautiful.