Public Hearing (Sept 14) to rezone for multiplexes citywide, impacting most Vancouver neighbourhoods. (Outcome: Adopted)

Above: The City’s logo for “missing middle housing” policy initiatives. Credit: City of Vancouver.

[Updates – Council unanimously approved sweeping rezoning in RS zones in Vancouver. The meeting adjourned at 8:50 pm. Only lip service was made to many concerns raised by the public.

Under Ken Sim and ABC, with Vancouver Greens and OneCity supporting, one of the most sweeping zoning changes in Vancouver in a long time was done, with minimal public input and involvement. We expect that people will be surprised when projects start appearing in their neighbourhoods under new policies they had never even heard about.

With much delay, on September 14, planners posted images and video to the Shape Your City website for the public to envision what was being proposed. Far too late for anyone to consider prior to the Public Hearing. Link – https://www.shapeyourcity.ca/multiplexes

Added link to Coalition of Vancouver Neighbourhoods (CVN) letter to Council. Added link to Vancouver Character House Network petition “Multiplex RS Rezoning Public Hearing Sept.14 Undermines Character House & Heritage Incentives.” Added link to Mike Smyth Show CKNW 980 on 6-Sep-2023 with Bill Tieleman as guest]

As part of the Vancouver Plan, a proposal to “Add Missing Middle Housing and Simplify Regulations in Low Density Neighbourhoods” is scheduled for a Public Hearing on Thursday, Sept 14, 2023, starting 1 p.m. Participation is online, in person or by phone. (https://council.vancouver.ca/20230914/phea20230914ag.htm).

If City Council passes the proposed changes, there are likely to be dramatic changes in neighbourhoods, for better or for worse, on 60,000 lots in Vancouver, most (but not all) south of 16th Avenue (see map). You can bet that the vast majority of owners and renters in these areas have no idea what is about to unfold, and will be surprised when changes and disruptions start to appear.

Council will be making a decision on the proposal to allow multiplexes containing 4-6 strata units, or up to 8 secured market rental units on single lots in areas currently RS zoned (see map). The changes would also reduce the size of new single detached houses, increase the size of new laneway houses, and combine the current 9 RS zones into a single zone with simplified regulations. For detailed information (as presented by the City) please visit the Shape Your City webpage (https://www.shapeyourcity.ca/multiplexes). Spoiler alert: There’s a lot more to all this than what’s been presented by the City and the “Vancouver’s Missing Middle Explained” video on that page. On July 25, Council accepted the staff report and sent it forward to this Public Hearing without a single question or comment, effectively blocking any further public communication with Council members prior to the Public Hearing.

With recent changes under the ABC party’s Mayor Ken Sim, public hearings in Vancouver on Thursdays start at 1 p.m. on weekdays when many people are working or in school. Council also changed the Vancouver Charter just weeks ago to eliminate the long-standing requirement to publish Public Hearing notices in print newspapers.

On top of that, the public is coming out of summer vacations and now preoccupied with getting back to school and work, media coverage prior to the Public Hearing has been zero (except for coverage by Kerry Gold in The Globe and Mail), the City’s public consultation processes have been strongly biased to produce certain outcomes, the City has failed to show visually what is really being proposed (compare images further below), the development industry has been favoured in consultations, and Meta (Facebook) and Google are blocking sharing of Canadian news.

In short, the odds are stacked against the public in one of the most significant rezoning policies in Vancouver in recent times. So we’ll be doing a few posts on the topic and linking them together.

Above: All the coloured areas in the map are targeted by this proposed rezoning. Developers are highly aware of and excited about their business potential. The public has only received limited and filtered information. Some of the grey zones are slated for the same multi-plex zoning (up to eight-plexes) in the future.

Concerned citizens are encouraged to write to Council to express concerns, sign up to speak (in person, online, or by phone), and spread the word via mainstream and social media, e-mail and more. Progress during the public hearing will be posted by @vancityclerk on “X” (formerly known as Twitter).

Below are some key points, reference materials, and information on how to participate in the public hearing (subject to update/revision).

KEY FACTS AND CONCERNS

The proposed RS rezoning will have many impacts on livability, sustainability, and affordability of Vancouver neighbourhoods. Below is a partial list of key facts and concerns.

1. There has been a lack of neighbourhood planning and meaningful stakeholder involvement in policy development. Developers who are interested in building new multiplexes have been most influential in this process.
2. These rezoning changes are just the beginning. City staff are indicating the next steps will be to apply similar changes citywide (including consolidation of all [duplex] RT zones), and much more.
3. Almost all 60,000 lots currently zoned “RS” citywide in Vancouver are proposed for up to 4 units on standard lots, 5 units on mid-sized lots, 6 units on large lots (for strata-owned housing), or up to 8 units on large lots (for rental housing).
4. Many existing and affordable secondary suites (rental units), both official and unofficial, will be lost through demolition and displacement. The numbers are not being adequately quantified and tracked by the City. Plus, there is no requirement to have a suite with a new single family house.
5. Other than a limited number of conceptual sketches, planners have not shown Council or the public what these developments will actually look like within neighbourhood contexts and street views once built.
6. The proposed policy does not require on-site parking. That will put more pressure on street parking. It will also undermine the shift to electric vehicles, with no place to park EVs for charging.
7. There will be significant losses of trees and green space, both onsite (due to smaller yard requirements) and for street/boulevard trees (due to impacts on tree roots).
8. There will be an increasingly severe lack of infrastructure to serve growth, including sewers, water supply, electrical grid, schools, daycare, community centres, recreation facilities, medical services, social services, etc. None of this has been adequately or systematically considered.
9. There will be impacts of new requirements for onsite underground water-holding tanks and pad-mounted electrical transformers (PMTs), requiring a 12×12-foot easement onsite on each lot to mitigate the lack of city infrastructure.
10. The new policies have no design guidelines for development quality and contextual design.
11. There will likely be increased development pressure on land affordability. There will likely be a lack of affordability in new units. New housing produced will not likely be much more affordably, and possibly less affordable, than the original housing being demolished.
12. This proposed plan will undermine character house and heritage building retention incentives. (Policies should be revised to have retention incentives be equal to or greater than new construction. Properties listed on the Vancouver Heritage Register should be exempt from multiplexes, and instead have viable incentives for increasing density and multifamily through retention options. For character house retention, with a renovated addition or suite, density is reduced from the current 0.75 to proposed 0.65. Character houses with infill only are at 0.85 while multiplexes are proposed at 1.0 FSR.)

See our fresh post “The multiplex plan: City report reveals problems with tree loss, utilities, parking and affordability” (by Carol Volkart, 5-Sep-2023) delving into greater detail on a few of these issues based on the staff report.

Some of these impacts and issues are likely to appear as soon as the policies starts being implemented. Others are likely to become more evident and severe in the years after the current mayor, council and senior City staff are gone from City Hall. They will be leaving the problems for future officials and citizens to deal with.

Above: Screen grab from the City website, the landing page announcing “Vancouver seeking public input” in Feb 2023, featuring what looks like a 2.5 storey duplex, expansive skies and ocean views, large front yard and street setback, no neighbourhood context.

Above: Conceptual image of “missing middle housing” featured by planning staff for public consultations in 2023.

Above: Contrast those images with a developer’s July 2023 rendering of a real project (3-storey six-plex by Fastmark on W 26th Ave., expected completion 2024, list prices ranging from $2.48 to $2.54 million plus GST, at $1,471 per square foot). At least there is an attempt to show the street view and context. What might an eight-plex look like on your block?

In public and Council consultations, the City did not provide a single rendering of a street-level view showing realistically, in the neighbourhood context, what a 4-, 6-, or 8-plex might look like. Such images would help Council and the public to better grasp not only what these buildings might look like when rolled out across most of Vancouver’s land area, but also to visualize and extrapolate impacts on infrastructure, parking, neighbours, shadowing, privacy, and greenery, etc.

CityHallWatch raised this point of the City’s failure to provide meaningful images with the senior planner (multiplex policy) Paula Huber. In an e-mailed response 23-Aug-2023, she wrote “More images and renderings of potential multiplex projects are being developed and will be shared at the public hearing.”

What this means is that until the actual Public Hearing day, our elected officials on City Council and the affected neighbourhoods will NOT have seen a realistic visual depiction of what staff are proposing with a street view and neighbourhood context. What would an entire block of multiplexes be like and what would be their impacts (see list above)?

Whatever images the planners are working on, it’s likely that planning staff will only be presenting them live, a bit after 1 p.m., during the daytime Sept 14 Public Hearing, which has had virtually no advance public notifications, with no prior opportunity for Council or the public to see, ponder, discuss, or comment on. By the time the images are presented, the speakers’ list may have already closed, and the deadline for correspondence already ended, meaning council will have received no input from the public based on realistic images.

On issues where neighbourhood groups and citizens have raised concerns, the policy proposals have not adequately addressed them.

By simply accepting the staff referral report on July 25 with no clarifications, no questions, and no discussion, and simply pushing this forward to the Sept 14 Public Hearing, Mayor Sim and Council have set up a situation where the above-listed issues and concerns will be ignored, or they will be forced to raise a difficult and poorly considered hodgepodge of amendments in an attempt to fix things.

Council might try proposing and adopting amendments on the fly to address all the issues, each one requiring detailed consideration.

Or perhaps Council take the bold move of making this a pilot project after all, with proper tracking, evaluation, review, and revisions required before rolling out multiplex policies in stages.

At any rate, it is crucial that concerned citizens write and speak to Council at this Public Hearing, to put concerns on record.

Even if you did participate at previous stages, your input from then is not being brought forward, so it is important to write or say it to Council now!

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Letter from Coalition of Vancouver Neighbourhoods (CVN) to Mayor and Council raises multiple concerns and emphasizes “We therefore cannot support this proposed rezoning without major modifications and meaningful public involvement and urge you to oppose it as presented. At the very least this should be a more limited trial and properties listed on the Vancouver Heritage Register should be exempt.”
https://coalitionvan.org/posts/20230912-rs-rezoning-multiplexes-public-hearing/

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Vancouver Character House Network petition “Multiplex RS Rezoning Public Hearing Sept.14 Undermines Character House & Heritage Incentives”

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6-Sep-2023 Densification, Mike Smyth show on CKNW, guest Bill Tieleman. Podcast link.

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Below – Video showing how a six-plex (under construction) fits into an older neighbourhood.

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OFFICIAL PUBLIC HEARING AGENDA/REPORT/INSTRUCTIONS

Public Hearing Agenda – Thurs. Sept.14 at 1:00 pm (documents, correspondence, how to write/speak to council, video link, etc.): https://council.vancouver.ca/20230914/phea20230914ag.htm

City of Vancouver – staff report report to council for 25-Jul-2023 (referral report, 124 pages) “Adding Missing Middle Housing and Simplifying Regulations – Amendments to the Zoning and Development By-law”: https://council.vancouver.ca/20230725/documents/rr2.pdf

Send letters to be counted in the Public Hearing record. Link – https://vancouver.ca/your-government/contact-council-public-hearing.aspx

Request to speak to Council, by phone or in person at City Hall. Link – https://vancouver.ca/your-government/request-to-speak-at-a-public-hearing-form-2.aspx

Send letters also directly to Council: ken.sim@vancouver.ca, mike.klassen@vancouver.ca, peter.meiszner@vancouver.ca, brian.montague@vancouver.ca, sarah.kirby-yung@vancouver.ca, , rebecca.bligh@vancouver.ca, lisa.dominato@vancouver.ca, lenny.zhou@vancouver.ca, adriane.carr@vancouver.ca, pete.fry@vancouver.ca, christine.boyle@vancouver.ca

Note – A full list of the appendices can be found on page 16 of the staff report, but here are links to a selected list: 

• Draft by-laws of Council Report
• Summary of Multiplex Regulations
• Summary of Changes to Simplify Regulations

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MEDIA COVERAGE AND LETTERS

Surprise! You have six new neighbours — all without a place to park (Opinion: A city staff report spells out the downsides of densifying what once were single-family neighbourhoods. We should be paying attention) (opinion piece by Carol Volkart in Vancouver Sun, 30-Aug-2023): https://vancouversun.com/opinion/op-ed/carol-volkart-surprise-you-have-six-new-neighbours-all-without-a-place-to-park

CVN letter to Council: RS Rezoning and Multiplex Consultation (at end of online survey on ‘missing middle’ housing, 5-Mar-2023) by Coalition of Vancouver Neighbourhoods [See the Appendix with long list of concerns and problems]: https://coalitionvan.org/posts/20230303-rs-rezoning-multiplex-consult/

Vancouver development community sees uncertainty in multiplex zoning plan (Kerry Gold, The Globe and Mail, 1-Sep-2023) [Excerpt – The real estate and development community is divided about the zoning changes… It remains to be seen if investors see opportunities in the multiplex, or if they are close to affordable for first-time buyers. Most of the estimated 60,000 homes affected are south of 16th Avenue.]: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/vancouver/article-vancouver-development-community-sees-uncertainty-in-multiplex-zoning/

Vancouver ponders plans to expand multiplex development (Kerry Gold, The Globe and Mail, 7-Jul-2023) [Excerpt – … a move that could transform the city’s detached house neighbourhoods… The consensus among industry observers is that the proposal will pass… Mayor Ken Sim has made it clear that he and his majority ABC council want more housing supply as soon as possible, and the province is pushing hard for more density…. Everyone agrees more housing is needed. The worry is that livability could be lost in the process, and because the plan is to simplify the zoning in a one-rule-fits-all approach, some in the industry wonder if distinct neighbourhoods will disappear into a sea of homogenized blocky buildings.]: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/vancouver/article-vancouver-ponders-plans-to-expand-multiplex-development/

Vancouver’s new multiplex rules could stunt ‘stealth density’ projects (Kerry Gold, The Globe and Mail, 4-Aug-2023) https://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/vancouver/article-vancouvers-new-multiplex-rules-could-stunt-stealth-density-projects/

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RELATED COVERAGE (CITYHALLWATCH)

The multiplex plan: City report reveals problems with tree loss, utilities, parking and affordability (by Carol Volkart) (5-Sep-2023) [This opinion piece looks into some key issues in more detail]: https://cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/2023/09/05/multiplex-plan-city-report-reveals-problems-volkart/

Citywide RS rezoning for multiplexes: Many unresolved issues as City Council considers (Tues, July 25) sending “Missing Middle” housing policy to a public hearing in September [This post was just prior to Council adopting the staff referral report. CityHallWatch wrote directly to Council for the meeting. Not a single response was returned.]: https://cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/2023/07/24/citywide-rs-rezoning-multiplexes-problems/

Missing Middle Housing—Manufactured Consent Part 1—The Survey (CC#102: The city’s survey can have only one outcome—and it’s not neighbourly) by Brian Palmquist: https://cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/2023/02/11/palmquist102-missing-middle-survey-manufactured-consent/

Missing Middle Housing—Manufactured Consent Part 2—The Open House (CC#103: How does an Open House work when nobody’s taking any notes?) by Brian Palmquist: https://cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/2023/02/22/palmquist103-missing-middle-housing-mfg-consent/

Missing Middle Maze of Meddling Mediocrity (CC#104: Arbitrary options poorly explained mask a bankrupt planning process) by Brian Palmquist: https://cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/2023/02/27/palmquist104-missing-middle-maze/