The City of Vancouver is holding an online Q&A session (https://www.shapeyourcity.ca/121-129-w-11-ave) that concludes on April 30th, in order to receive feedback on an 18-storey tower proposed at 121-129 West 11th Avenue. This Broadway Plan rezoning proposal would break the view cone protection policy and it would also significantly shade the adjacent Major Matthews Park in the afternoon, all year round.
A building height of 58.7m (193 ft.) is proposed with a FSR of 5.8. The proposed tower would be 18-storeys (the applicants claims it would be limited to around 14-storeys by view cones and consequently are asking to build into the view cone). A total of 165 rental units would be included, with 20% below market, along with 66 parking spaces. The designers are Shape Architecture Inc., while HAVN is the developer. HAVN has a couple of other Broadway Plan rezoning proposals: 2156-2172 West 14th Avenue and 2535 Carolina Street at East 10th Avenue. HAVN Development Ltd. (founders Martin Rahn and Adrian Lai, https://havn-dev.com/), base their strategy on exploiting the Broadway Plan to “unlock the potential value of properties” to “generate attractive returns for our clients and investors.” It’s not about affordability for renters.
The elevations show a floor to floor height of 3.0m; this is maximum under the Broadway Plan. If the limiting factor of a view cone is an issue, why did the applicant not provide a lower and more realistic residential floor to floor height? Rezonings are approved on heights and not storeys. Hence it’s possible to do a “bait & switch” and later in the development permit stage have extra storeys are added by reducing the floor to floor height to a more realistic value and by tweaking the layout (in other words, it’s a way to get 20-storeys instead of 18-storeys).
The applicant includes a section called “Previous Massing” where the applicant writes they originally proposed a 838 m2 Tower Floorplate (5.8 FSR and 14 Storeys). However, the Broadway Plan clearly states that a maximum density is not achievable on all sites, and that the maximum floor pate for this site is 604 m2 (6,500 sq. ft), as this site has a depth of less than 120 feet (Section 11.4.11). The argument using a 838 m2 floor plate is invalid as it’s not permitted under the Broadway Plan for this site. As such, a subsequent request for a relaxation of protected view cone (for 18-storeys) based on this premise is also invalid. The applicant’s submission also make a number of negative comments about view protection and it’s curious that staff post this submission “as is” without attempting to explain to the public the City’s policies on view protection. It’s a completely one-sided presentation from the applicant.
The rezoning application booklet contains out of date information. It claims that “Two 30 Storey towers at 130 W Broadway proposed under a separate Rezoning application are shown on this analysis.” (p. 26 View Cones). However, the rezoning at 130 W Broadway was revised in October 2023, and the tower heights were reduced to 21 and 28 storeys (with the tower on the east side in View Cone 3.2.4a reduced in height from 30-storeys to 21-storeys). The illustration in the rezoning booklet for 121-129 West 11th Avenue show towers on 130 W Broadway to be higher then the current application. The towers in the 130 W Broadway rezoning are also in a different designated area for view protection, so it’s not an “apples to oranges” comparison.
References
CityHallWatch: Tools to engage in Vancouver city decisions 