City has big plans to develop False Creek Flats
Plan proposes more space for offices and housing, improved amenities
The City of Vancouver intends to boost jobs and build bike lanes, overpasses and new homes in False Creek Flats under the guidance of a draft area plan expected to go public today.
The Flats, which extends east from Main Street to Clark Drive and south from Prior Street to Great Northern Way, is one of the largest industrial areas remaining in the city. It’s jammed with rail lines, populated by hundreds of businesses, and has some of the most expensive industrial land in the region — second only to that in Mount Pleasant.
The city wants to increase employment floor space in the area to 11 million square feet, from 5.4 million, and pave the way for as many as 22,000 more workers (many of them at the new St. Paul’s hospital and new Emily Carr University campus), according to information boards staff will take to residents at an open house today from 5-8 p.m. at 231 Industrial Ave.
That would be done, in part, by introducing “creative products manufacturing” and “digital entertainment and information communication technology” as permitted land uses in the area.
Creative products manufacturing includes things like clothing design and manufacturing or industrial design, while digital entertainment and information communication technology covers things like software, gaming and social media, according to the city.
Introducing those categories would broaden the mix of jobs in the flats, which now includes those in light industry, cultural, clean and green tech, research and de- velopment, and more.
But the city also wants to move residents into the area, including along Main Street and Great Northern Way and just west of Strathcona Park, and turn it into a greener and more social place.
The plan would open the area up for places to eat, drink and gather, both in its western and southern periphery and at its centre. A “heritage rail hub” is proposed in the area of the Rocky Mountaineer train station at Terminal Avenue and Cottrell Street, for public celebrations and festivals and possibly a year-round farmers’ market.
More than half the land in False Creek Flats is owned by the city or rail companies, and under the plan, staff would look for ways to increase rail-oriented business.
Because rail lines now cover 20 per cent of the flats, getting around the area is not easy by car, bike or foot. The city is proposing a new arterial for vehicle traffic, a network of new or improved cycling and walking routes, and — as a longterm plan — as many as five walking and cycling bridges, including one that would originate near a proposed new SkyTrain station at the Emily Carr campus.
Another cycling and walking route would follow a long loop inside the perimeter of the flats area, connecting to the False Creek seawall on either end.
Strathcona, Thorton, China Creek North and Trillium parks would each be renewed or upgraded and connected by green corridors.
Staff are seeking comments from residents at the open house so they can tweak the plan before it goes to council in spring.