Displaying posts categorized under

housing

Tearing down a highway to enjoy more urban benefits

The removal of the viaducts in Vancouver is an exciting opportunity that will surpass the significance of not building a highway through the city. While Toronto seems stuck with its elevated “freeway” cutting off the city from the lake, Vancouver has a tremendous opportunity to right a bit of terrible urban planning and highway engineering […]

An open letter to Mayor and Council in support for proposed rezoning of 1754-1772 Pendrell St.

Dear Mayor and Council: With the continued low vacancy rates for rental housing in Vancouver, the addition of 178 purpose-built rental units is a welcome addition to the West End and that is why I support the rezoning of 1754-1772 Pendrell St. Moreover, the proposal to have 26 of the replaced rental units to rent […]

SFU Urban Studies Program presenting David Hulchanski and Dr. Chow Yei Ching,

The SFU Urban Studies Program presents the following talk as part of our Gentrification and the City speaker series: Gentrification and the future of rental housing in Canada David Hulchanski Dr. Chow Yei Ching Chair in Housing, Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto Canada’s increasing income inequality is speeding up the social-spatial “sorting” of […]

My letter of support for the referral of the “Draft West End Plan” to public hearing

Dear Mayor and Council: I fully support the referral of the “Draft West End Plan” to a public hearing based on the fullness of the public engagement process and the information presented at the “Directions Open Houses” this past June. I will reserve my feedback of the Draft Plan for the public hearing process. I […]

The lack of purpose built rental units still an issue for Vancouver

  The spring Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation 2013 Rental Market statistics have been releases. There is not a huge change in the rental market for Vancouver, but vacancy rates are still at a critically low rate and rents are increasing faster than inflation. The report can be view at CMHC report The over all […]

Finally housing designed for families with kids in the West End.

Photo of Block one of the handout material from workshop. yellow-placemaking, red- wayfinding, green-gardens grey-imporved surface treatment, blue-laneway housing opportunity. purple-maintain parking, dark green-rain garden Handout material from the workshop Laneway housing workshop 2.0 Wednesday June 5, 2013 The West End Planning Team wants to encourage and facilitate a new type of housing. The modest […]

Rethinking laneways in the West End

more photos of Molehill laneway One of the most under valued lane use resources of the West End are the laneways. That could  soon change as the West End Planning team is starting a series of workshops entitled “Laneways 2.0” with the view to explore the possibility of developing new types of housing there. West […]

Does the City of Vancouver have a displacement plan for renters evicted for redevelopment?

Public Open House Proposed Development of 1365 Burnaby Street -Pre-Development Permit application Open House -New Construction of a 21 Unit Rental Aartment -6 Storeys within conditional parameters of RM-5A Zoning Bylaw Date: Thursday, March 7, 2013 Time: 4 pm-8pm Place: Sandman Suites Hotel 1160 Davie St reet 2nd Floor Meeting Room For futher information, please […]

Council update: Beach Tower rezoning approved with a stipulated on the starting rents

Vancouver City Council today approved the rezoning of 1600 Beach Avenue with a stipulation that the starting rents be regulated by contract in a “Housing agreement” between the city and the owner of building. Cl. Stevenson moved the motion from the staff report recommending that Council approved the rezoning and seemed to take the point […]

Affordability and Beach Towers rezoning

The rezoning decision of Beach Towers is before Vancouver City Council on Tuesday February 26. Beach Towers are four rental apartment buildings on a whole city block in the West End with 3 towers on Beach Avenue and one on Harwood Street. There are 601 rental units in the complex and that represents about 3% […]