Public Hearing — February 10, 2026 — Transcript
← Public Hearing February 10, 2026
Hey, thanks. Talk again. All right.
Counselor Montecute, Councillor Joe, can you hear me in the chamber?
No, they're still not connected. Yeah, I can hear you, Sonia. Can you hear me? Are you guys able to hear us on teams? I'm connected somehow. Terry or Cheryl, can you hear us on teams? No. We can hear you on teams? Can you hear me on teams? There's nothing on teams.
Councillor Montecue, counselor show. Can you hear us? No.
They're not even looking up. Should I leave and re-law for you? We're having. I've sent it. Sto on my table. Had to go find him. Sonia, I'm on teams. Now can you hear me? Oh, okay. Thank you.
Counselor Montague. Councillor Joe. Can you hear me?
No. Councillor Montague? Councillor Show? No. Yes, there is in the case.
So it's the overall teams.
Councillor Montague? No. If you just end the other, can we do? Yeah. And then we got Montague and Joe on video. Um, that sounded successful.
Cancelor Montecue?
Nope.
Counselor Jo?
No.
Counselor Montecue?
Ah, there we go. Can you hear me?
I can hear you just fine, Tina. Thanks. And I can see you now, too. Okay, perfect. You can see the screen now as well.
Counselor Joe. Can we do a sound test? Yes, Tina. I can hear you. Thank you. Okay. We'll get going in a few minutes. We've just had a few technical issues. And the chair will remind you, but at the moment, we're a bear quorum with the both of you. So I need you to remain on video to keep quorum.
Thank you.
Did you get it? Is it something simple? Oh, there you go. There you go. You just don't go anywhere.
That's awesome. Good evening, counsel. I'll now call the public hearing of Tuesday, February 10th, 2020. to order. This meeting is being held in person and by electronic means. Council members and the public may participate by either method. Any members joining electronically are reminded to enable video to confirm quorum as well as for voting and just noting to those of you online that we are at bear quorum with four members and in chambers here this evening. The meeting is being live streamed on the city's website and YouTube and meeting progress will be updated regularly on X at Van City Clerk. In case of an emergency, requiring a vaccine. There are two exits located beyond the glass doors and to the left. If the glass doors are blocked, please use one of the four additional exits within the chamber. Do not use the elevator, use the stairs instead. If you need mobility assistance, please remain where you are and security staff will guide you to a safe location. A defibrillator is available at the end of the hallway outside of council chambers. I would like to acknowledge that we are gathered this evening on the homelands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Slaiwitou people. We thank them for having cared for this land and look forward to working with them in partnership as we continue to build this great city together. I'd also like to recognize the immense contributions of the city of Vancouver staff and team members who work hard every day to help make our city an incredible place to live, work, and play. And while we gather here this evening for the public hearing, I also just want to acknowledge, we have a community here in British Columbia, a Tumblr Ridge, which is going through a very difficult time at this very moment with reports of an active shooter in their secondary school and reports of victims. And so I just wanted to acknowledge that and that our hearts go out to community members and families in that community. Clerks, may we have a roll call.
Yes, Mayor Sim has a leave of absence for civic business today. Councillor Kirby Young. Councillor Dominado is chair as acting mayor this evening. Councillor Bly. Not here. Councillor Frye has a leave of absence civic business this evening. Councillor Montecue.
Present.
Councillor Classen has a leave of absence for personal reasons all day. Councillor Meisner.
Present.
Councillor Jo?
Present.
And Councillor Orr has a leave of absence civic business this evening. Councillor Maloney. The meeting has quorum, Chair Don Monado.
Thank you. Clerk's before you begin, a few announcements. The public may speak in person or by phone or may submit written comments to the mayor and council. Speakers may only speak once and will have five minutes to comment on the merits of the application. Please state whether you are in support or opposition to the application and if you are a Vancouver resident. Those representing four or more individuals or groups, including themselves, may speak for up to eight minutes. Each person being represented must confirm their name and presence in person or by phone and may not speak separately. Please follow the live stream or the at Advanced City Clerk on X to track meeting progress and know when your turn to speak is approaching. Please note the live stream has a slight delay. Written comments can be submitted through the mayor and council public hearing feedback form linked on X. If you pre-registered with the presentations say next to have the clerk's advance your slides. As a reminder at public hearings, council acts as a quasi-judicial body and must focus solely on the merits of the rezoning or heritage application. Members may ask clarifying questions of staff or speakers, including the applicant, but should reserve debate until after the speaker's list is closed. After hearing from speakers, counsel may approve the application and principle, approve the application and principle with amendments, refuse the application or refer the application to staff for further consideration. Please note that a new public speaker podium has been installed on the left-hand side of the public gallery, so that's to my right. At the moment, podium heights cannot be adjusted by the clerk. staff and public speakers, please adjust the podiums as needed, using the controls on your right-hand side. Finally, if not all speakers are heard this evening, the public hearing will recess and reconvene on Wednesday, February 11th, 2026 at 3 p.m. This brings us to our first item on this evening's agenda, enabling greater flexibility for child care in residential zones, amendments to the zoning and development bylaw. Do any members have a conflict of interest to declare? Hearing none? now read the application and summary of correspondence received.
This is an application by the general manager of arts, culture, and community services in consultation with general manager of planning urban design and sustainability to amend the zoning and development bylaw to permit a child daycare facility, CDCF, and one dwelling unit to coexist on the premises. Under current regulations, in most residential zones, if a house is converted to a CDFC, more than eight children, there cannot be a residential use on the premises. Under the amendment, staff are proposing that a house can be converted to a CDFC while also retaining one dwelling unit on the premises. The proposed zoning and development bylaw amendments would apply to R1-1, R3, R4, R5, RT, RM, and First Shaughnessy District. The following correspondence has been received since referral to public hearing. Eight pieces of correspondence and support. zero pieces of correspondence in opposition and zero pieces of correspondence regarding other aspects related to the application. This represents all correspondence received up to 5 p.m. today.
Thank you, clerks. And this is our first call for speakers. Any speakers for this item who wish to speak to council? Please call toll-free 1-3833-353-8610, followed by participant code 106-1445-pound before the close of the speakers' list. The phone number is posted on X and displayed during the recess. There will be an opportunity for new speakers and miss speakers to be heard at the end of the registered speakers list. We have staff from planning, urban development, and sustainability here to present the application. Oh, just sorry, a note here that we actually have our general manager of arts and culture and community services presenting. So my apologies for that.
Thank you so much, counsel. Good evening. My name is Margaret Whitkins, general manager of arts, culture and community services. City Council's strategic priorities identified child care delivery as a priority, which includes streamlining regulation and implementing making strides, which is Vancouver's 10-year child care strategy. With an estimated shortfall of 6,700 child care spaces, there continues to be a significant demand and need for new child care. Even relatively small, regulatory changes can have an impact by opening up more opportunities to expand child care options. The proposed amendments are in response to a council resolution from November 20203, which directed staff to enable greater flexibility for child care in residential areas and consider the need to balance both housing opportunities and the desire to expand child care options. Senior social planner Mark Pickersgill will provide a short presentation summarizing the proposed amendments. Staff representatives from ACCCS, PDS, PDS, and DBL are also present to help respond to any questions.
Thank you. Thank you. Those of you online, we're just waiting for the slides to come up. I think we're ready to go. Great. Go ahead. Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Mark Pickersgill, senior social planner in Arts, Culture, and Community Services. Here today, happy today. Apologies. I'll just be one more minute, some technical difficulties. Councillors online, we'll just be a moment as we adjust the slides. Are we seeing that? Okay. Okay, we'll just start. Again, Mark Pickersgill, and I'm. Here tonight, happy to present. After a fair amount of really deep interdepartmental work, and I would say almost getting close to two years of really looking into this, we're here to present some potential options for increasing child care options in residential areas in Vancouver, something that we've heard quite a bit about over the last, I would say, about two years. It's an overview of what we'll be presenting on, some background into the analysis. Sorry, background into the issue, where it came from, some analysis, including a review of development permit applications in residential zones to date. Then talking about existing options before this proposed new set of options that we want to bring forward. We'll ultimately talk about implementation and monitoring and then conclude with some overall thoughts. So as was previously mentioned, this was in response to a council direction and resolution that was looking into exploring options for greater flexibility in the delivery of child care. And specifically what we're focused on here tonight is looking at some of the zoning allowances where a main residence is used for child care and an associated laneway home serves as the occupied residence. Additionally, there are a number of other things that were part of this resolution that staff have worked on
and continue to work on in various respects. Looking at the parking, reducing parking requirements, we have done some work on revising our child care design guidelines to support more development and a number of other different things that, as I said, are currently ongoing. So to give you an overall picture of development permit applications for child care in houses and development permit applications for child care in general, what you have here is a graph. The blue lines represent all of the child care applications, development permit applications in Vancouver for the last 10 years. As you can see, there's a good number of them. In fact it's about 360 over the course of that time. And of all those 360, we've only had seven that have not been approved as a result of our processes. But then we drill down a little bit further into the development permit applications for child care in houses. And this is the green lines. And we've had 20 of those in the past 10 years with five refusals. So you can see that there's a bit of a mismatch in terms of what number have been refused in terms of houses. Now, that being said, it's not an overall large number in Vancouver, but the idea that allowing for more opportunities in houses is a really important segment of the child care landscape that we also want to be able to address because there are families that do want and need child care in their neighbourhoods and do seek smaller scale, generally, options to be able to access. And so that is kind of an overall picture of our development permit applications. And I will also just say one thing in kind of a bit of a side note here as well. This is development permit applications. Development permit applications for the City of Vancouver apply to all child care facilities with nine children or more. Everything that is eight children or less technically is an outright use in Vancouver, the City of Vancouver. And they are allowed without development permit applications in homes. So looking at the analysis, particularly the five development permits that were refused in the past 10 years. What we have here is a list of the reasons for the refusal, as well as some of the actions that have been taken to reduce those barriers where possible. We're focusing tonight specifically on this bottom one in the yellow box. But as I want to make really clear as well, these reasons for refusal, including inadequate site parking, non-compliance with the City of Vancouver child care design guidelines of the past, incompatibility with neighbourhood context and lack of neighbourhood support. And now getting into non-compliance with the Zoning and Development Bylaw, none of those by themselves have ever been a reason for a project to be refused. Usually it's some confluence of all of those things and a combination.
Now getting into the specifics of the Zoning and Development Bylaw, really what we're trying to tackle here is that under current bylaw, the current bylaws, you cannot mix child care use of more than eight children with a residential use in a house or on a property. Nor can you have a laneway house with a child care on site. And so really, what the action that we're focused on today is to permit residential use with child care use on a site, which could include a laneway house. And again, this is focused on more than eight children, so nine children or more. The existing options, and when I say existing options, these are things that are already available to people that may wish to create child care, expand child care, etc. Option A, this is the in-home child care that does not require a development permit. These are illustrative examples. We hope if this does pass through council, that we will be adding these types of diagrams onto our website to help people understand exactly what we're talking about. So if the numbers seem a little bit wonky and it may be a bit confusing, we're hoping to make some clarity for the point tonight. We are focusing on the fact that Option A is the in-home. That's up to eight children. Eight children or less in a home in various different configurations and permutations can already exist in a home. Option B is another one that is currently available to folks that wish to create or expand child care, to basically convert an existing home into a child care facility. That would be with more than eight children. So that option is currently as I said, available and it is part of those 20 applications that I was talking about in the last 10 years. Moving into our new and proposed options, what we're looking at here is bringing forward two distinct new options that could possibly be in play. Option C is looking at having a residential use on a property in the same house as a child daycare facility, more than eight children in the home. So the child daycare facility, the people that are working there, they don't necessarily need to be the resident of the home and vice versa. You can think if you want a very cogent example, think of a Vancouver Special, the upper level being a child care, lower level being a home. That's the conceit, at least. Things don't always work out that simply, but that's just as a really clear example. And then Option D would be very similar except converting the entire main house into a child care facility and then allowing that laneway house to continue to exist as a residential dwelling. Under previous — or sorry, under existing bylaw, that is not permitted, but we hope to change that
with these proposals. In summary, there are a lot of very technical details about the bylaw amendments that we're looking to make. A child daycare facility conversion dwelling is a new use that we're looking to add to the Zoning and Development Bylaw. We would add the use to definition, sorry, we would add the new use definition to section two and add the new use to 27 districts in the Zoning and Development Bylaw. We would also be updating the laneway house regulations to capture additional requirements for child daycare facility within the laneway house option. Excuse me. Now looking at the parameters of these new options. There may be some questions about this and completely understandable. We are looking at daycare in combination with one dwelling unit only, not more. The rationale is that most sites that we are looking at in terms of these proposed changes can only support one dwelling if there is a child care. There's just simply not enough space. Two or more dwellings — it can add more people that are accessing the site, potentially creating operational challenges and safety issues for the child care. Secondly, child care and dwelling units must have separate external access and no shared internal access. I would say that can be extended to the outdoor area — potentially for the child care, which would need to be distinct and separate from anything that can be accessed by the residential unit. Conversion of existing buildings is another parameter. At this point in time, we are only looking at renovating existing buildings and no new builds. Part of the rationale is that existing homes already suit the residential context. We have also addressed the demands to date. We have not really seen any applications or inquiries about coming to the city to have a new build with this type of option as part of their new build. However, I should say that that kind of option would demand some additional regulatory work, and we are open to keeping an eye to see if there is that kind of demand generated to bring forward something in the future. And fourth, we are enabling these changes as a conditional use for child care in all low-density residential zones. I don't need to list off all of the different ones, again, quite technical, but you see them there. When it comes to implementation and monitoring, first I wanted to talk about how applicants may apply. One of the key components of all of this work is that through this, our development permit applications and our processes have not changed.
It is simply following the standard that we have currently in place. And so an applicant, if they wish to do this, would apply for a development permit, a change of use development permit. Second, to support and offer advice for prospective applicants. As I mentioned a little bit earlier, we will be adding some information and some hopefully illustrative examples and pieces that can help provide helpful information for people that wish to apply and to move things forward. Staff will also be open to speak to any applicant or anybody looking to do something, and so we will make sure that we connect with those applicants. How staff will monitor — I think monitoring is a really key piece to this. We will continue to track applications as they come in. and particularly flag those that are in residential areas. We will be also monitoring community feedback, which would include 3-1-1 complaints, feedback from applicants. And as I said earlier, if we see that there is a demand change for something different and more, we will be likely and open to taking the steps to make those things happen. So to conclude really briefly, again, this is a very cursory overview of something that was surprisingly complex to deal with. These amendments ultimately do address an identified barrier for enabling more child care in neighbourhoods by allowing more flexibility and options for child care in residential areas and zones of the city. We also feel that this new option helps to balance a need for both child care and housing. And another thing that I would add to this is that it also continues to respect the idea of looking at neighbourhood impacts. Because child care is a potentially significant use that we just don't want to deploy without too much thought across the city. And then ultimately, staff will continue to identify opportunities to reduce barriers and to support an affordable and accessible senior government-led child care system. Things that we will continue to do is to look for site opportunities for the city to continue to partner with other organizations and levels of government to make things happen and continue to support the creation of new child care spaces through development wherever possible. That's the end of the presentation. Thank you. We have a number of folks here available for questions.
Great. Thank you for the presentation. Council, questions. Councillor Meiszner, go ahead.
Yeah, thanks, Mark. Thanks for the presentation. A few questions. First one was, what about provisions for outdoor space? Are there any parameters around what's required for outdoor space?
So the parameters for outdoor space are not changing. Those would still be within the provincial jurisdiction of how much required outdoor space is allowed, and it would be a licensing decision from the province.
Okay, okay. So the city doesn't have any control over that?
We don't, no. But I will say one thing that we did here. I'll let you hear one of the questions, is that generally we feel that what we're doing here will allow for these opportunities to actually exist. And some of the larger sites, for sure, they should have enough outdoor space to make it work.
Okay. Thank you. I saw in the presentation a mention about no shared internal access between the child care and the dwelling. What does that mean exactly? If there is, say, like a stairwell with a door, but the door is locked, is that sufficient to meet that requirement? Or does it need to be more? I guess reinforced than that.
Yeah, I'm not going to be able to get into the fine details of that, but effectively, as long as you don't have, you're going to have locked doors, essentially. You're not going to be able to, the public coming to the daycare is not going to be able to get in the house, and vice versa. That's simply what it means.
So a locked door would be sufficient?
Yes, and I think it's just, it's also about making sure there's limited interaction.
Yeah.
There's different ways you can do that. Okay. You don't have to put up a wall or something. I mean, that might be a relatively minor thing to do, but it's hard to say because we don't know what we're looking at when it's theoretical, but yeah, it shouldn't be too much of a barrier. Okay. What about pickup and drop
off? I know that's something that, you know, neighbors get concerned about. Any regulation or thoughts around that? So we're, again, continuing to make some tweaks wherever possible with
the Vancouver parking bylaw, which the child care was moved into that as of last year. And pick up and drop off in these areas is an absolute concern that we need to look at. We need to see what is happening on a site. It's something that through the development permit process that the city does take very seriously and is always willing to be amenable and bend as we need to make it happen, again, without posing too much disruption. So it's, we're doing what we can.
Okay. So those, like, that would be evaluated through the DP process.
That's correct.
Okay. Okay, thanks. And then my last question was around, there was a model that showed people living in the laneway house and then the child care in the main house. Could that also be flipped where the child care was in the laneway house and people still remained in the main house?
That's a good question. And unfortunately, no. And that has to do with the laneway house. the intent of a laneway house is to be a secondary living space attached to the main dwelling. And if you make that a commercial use, then it is no longer a dwelling. So it's not complicated, but it's not simple either.
Even though the people in the main house would be moving into the laneway house if they were to run a daycare in the main house.
Yeah. that, again, it becomes a challenge. And that comes down to a question with our licensing colleagues. But we were told that that is a challenging situation to do that specifically.
Okay. Even if there was enough space, for example. Like even if it was a large laneway house, it would still not be permitted.
It could be. But I think what we're trying to do is to say that, again, we want it to be first and foremost, a dwelling unit. And you can, yeah, there's, again, so many permutations with child care that can play out.
Okay. Okay. Okay. Thanks very much.
Thanks, Councillor Meiszner. I'm just going to advance myself. I actually have just a clarifying question that maybe the clerks or staff can help with. We had noted that it was actually planning urban design and sustainability that was presenting, making a presentation of 12 slides, and then that Margaret, your department was actually the applicant. And so I just want to make sure that Mark's presentation was actually the... the applicant presentation for the purpose of this public hearing. I just have to make sure I'm covering all bases because I don't see any staff from planning. That's right. So there is no
presentation from planning. No. To be clear. Okay. So just to be clear, and I don't think there's planning staff
here, but council, technically you're entitled to ask staff questions of planning as well as arts, culture, community services as part of the public hearing. So I'm told. And so I'm just identifying that. I do have a quick question. With this, with the regulatory changes coming forward, presumably with the ability to convert an entire home to child care to have more than eight children, if it has a laneway, laneway could potentially be used for caregivers, so employees of the child care. Would that be a possibility?
Absolutely.
Okay. And then secondly, given that with the regulatory changes, there will be a requirement to go through the DP process. Could you give us a sense of what the timelines would be for that? So if I have an existing child care and a home and I make the application, how long would it take, you know, roughly from beginning to end to be able to move into that new use? Yeah. So, again, I don't think we're making any drastic changes to any of our processes.
The typical DP process, as we are told through this would be eight to 12 weeks. And hopefully no longer than that. Okay. Okay. But perhaps in the future,
maybe opportunities to streamline that, even more? Yes, I think there's always
opportunity for that. Okay. And then last question is just given, I think there's some work
underway with the planning department and actually might also be permitting around stratification of lots. And we also have coach houses as well in the city. With if there's changes in future, would we have to have new regulations or amended regulations to recognize that distinction? I don't know if I can answer that directly. I think we have. She — do we have some planning
folks possibly on the line. Lisa or Stephen, are you on the line? Hi there. Lisa King, a senior planner
with citywide and regional planning. And yes, at that time when those regulations would be reviewed, we would consider if there needed to be any according adjustments to this set of regulations. But at this time, there's no, none of those provisions that are needed with this set of amendments brought forward.
Okay. Okay. And one more question, just in our new world of multiplexes, in the current regime, with a multiplex, individuals in a household could have, do the eight children or less, within a multiplex setting dynamic? Yeah, so multiplex is something that we really have struggled with to this
point. It's not within the scope of this at the moment. Again, it's through the monitoring, we want to keep an eye on that to see, again, if there is demand or questions about that. Multiplex in this scenario is going to open up a whole potential can of worms. So again, at this point, we're focused on what we have seen questions for, demand for, and and to be able to address identified barriers. We are open to it if it comes forward.
Okay. Sounds like we're starting to turn our mind to that.
It's complicated.
Okay, thank you. I don't see anyone else in the question queue. So I'm going to do our second call for speakers. If there are any speakers for this item who wish to speak to council, please call 1-833-353-8610, followed by the participant code. 106145 pound. Before the close of the speakers list, phone number will be posted on X and displayed during the recess. We'll now hear from the public. Any registered speakers in council chamber please come forward to the left podium when your name is called. Phone-in speakers will be unmuted when your name is called. Speakers will have up to five minutes to make their comments and should limit their comments to the merits of the application being considered. Our first speaker today is speaker number one, a member of the public body representatives with Vancouver
Coastal Health. Welcome, Mark. Turned over to you. You have five minutes.
All right. Thank you. So, yes, I'm Dr. Mark Lysyshyn, and I work for Vancouver Coastal Health as a medical health officer for the city of Vancouver. I'm here in two capacities. The first is under the Public Health Act, it requires medical health officers to advise local governments about public health issues, so I'm here to do that. Under the Community Care and Assisted Living Act, medical health officers also regulate and license child care facilities. Child care is very important for children, for their health, well-being, and development. Helps them learn to socialize with children, interact with other adults, and helps them succeed in school, which helps them across their life course. So it's a very important intervention. It helps families because it helps parents earn income to support the family. And then, of course, supports the whole community by getting more people into the workforce and generating you know, economy. As you heard from the presentation, we have a large gap in the amount of child care that's needed in Vancouver and, you know, what is currently available. And so we support a motion like this that seeks to make it easier for people to offer child care. In addition to having child care available, it has to be convenient for families. And so we do support having child care in residential neighborhoods. And so, basically, removing the barriers to doing that we think is helpful for families. If the childcare facility is so far away that you have to go there and then you have to go to work and then you have to, you know, it makes it very difficult. So we think a motion like this helps support families and having child care nearby. It helps reduce transportation time and costs and, you know, that has positive environmental benefits as well. From the licensing point of view, we don't have concerns about having child care in residential neighborhoods. Of course, every application has to be evaluated on its merits and has to meet all the provincial regulations, but we believe that that, you know, will generally be possible in the kind of circumstances that we heard about today. So, yeah, so thank you for considering this, this, I guess, motion. And, you know, we hope you vote in favour. Thank you.
Thanks very much for your comments this evening. Our next speaker on the list is Adila Batty, who will be on the phone, I understand. Do we have Adela?
Hi. Yes.
Hi, Adela. Go ahead. You're addressing council. You have five minutes.
Sure. Good evening, council. My name is Adela Bachee, and I've been a child care provider in Hastings-Sunrise for 17 years. I'm here to support this amendment for a number of reasons. First, the goal for anyone who intends to live in one of our communities is to be able to access resources that will support the family. One basic need is that of child care that is licensed, safe, and of course, accessible. We, along with many other communities locally and nationally have struggled with this. We know that right now, we are short over 6,700 spaces. My own wait list has 40 families on it who are in need of child care for their infants and early preschool age children. They need to work because of the cost of housing and general living and having child care close by is essential. I have chatted with countless parents, most of whom are terrified, that they'll be forced out of the city because they can't find care. We know that there have been strides made in group child care, but we still do not see that being reflected in Vancouver where there is an urgent need. Outlying areas have the space to open and build and expand. In Vancouver, we are densifying and it is expensive to expand with very little geographic space to build. The city is quite frankly going the opposite direction. We are densifying which is needed, but the city plans for housing and child care are currently moving in two different directions. More densification will bring higher demand, but we can't think about densification without talking about the infrastructure that supports it. The current rules are outdated. They force providers to choose between staying in their own home or expanding their capacity. It's a bottleneck that we can't support anymore. By letting us stay in our homes, while we grow, you're allowing child care to scale up right alongside the housing density you're already building. I've lived and worked on my block for nearly two decades. I'm a neighbor first and I care about the character of my street. But a neighborhood with housing and no child care isn't a community. It's just a commuter lot. If we want density to work for young families, we need to make room for the spaces that support them. Please vote yes and help us bridge this gap. Thank you.
Thanks, Adela, for calling in this evening. Speaker number two, Roshayan — Shoyen, on the phone?
No.
Okay, thank you. And then our third speaker this evening, Jinder Burak?
No.
Thank you, clerks. Is there any additional speakers in chamber? If so, please come forward. Oh, sorry. My apologies. I need to turn the page. So my apologies. Just, yeah, one moment. Jinda Burak, also supposed to be on the phone. Camille Blair, Larinda Burak.
No. Nope.
Okay. That is the end of our list. Are there any other speakers in chambers to this item? I see one. Welcome. If you could just state your name and if you're a resident of Vancouver.
Sean Cassidy, and I am a resident of Vancouver.
Welcome, Sean. You have five minutes.
My attention. was not to speak on this at all. I'm just overhearing this. And frankly, it's half-baked. What you're presenting is a business model. And you're presenting a business model on cash flow around housing. What you're going to do is in creating incremental value on a house, okay, against affordability supply issue. So if I'm a business person, this is fantastic. I'll just go out and create daycares like what they did in Minneapolis. You've followed what's going on there. this shouldn't go forward. I mean, it's a great notion. Ideologically, it's like, okay, it's idealistic, but I don't think it's really thought out very well. And just my analysis and hearing it, I think you can do a lot better. And there's no economic analysis that has been presented whatsoever on this case study, effectively, what this is, against the use of housing. So the owners move out and move into the backyard into a laneway house. housing. Well, I'm just going to gun the freaking house with kids, right? $1,000 a month. I don't know what child care costs, but it doesn't seem very intuitive without the economic analysis against the back end of what's going to happen to this. So I think you've got to give some serious consideration moving forward on this because it's not really thought out very well. Thanks.
Thank you for your comments this evening. Clerk, says there anyone else? Any other speakers on the line? No. In that case, this is the third and final call for speakers. If there are any speakers for this item who wish to speak to counsel, please call 1833353-86-86-8-6-4-5 pound before the close of the list. Phone number is posted on X and will be displayed during the recess. We will now take a two-minute recess for any additional speakers to call in or come forward to the podium. Okay, welcome back, counsel. Clerks, do we have any speakers online? Thank you, clerks. We have no one in chambers. Okay, seeing no further speakers. The speaker's list is now closed. Clerk has been a large volume of public comments received on this item since 5 p.m. There were four pieces of correspondence in support. They were posted and provided to counsel. Do council members need a short recess to review those comments? Hearing none, I'm going to close receipt of public comments. And seeing there are a few or no public comments received after 5 p.m. I'm now closing receipt of public comments for all. Does the applicant have any closing comments? Do staff from planning have any closing comments? Just to be clear in that point. Okay. Any further public comments clerks that we've received? No. Okay. Counsel will now make our decision. Can I get someone to move the application? Moved? Seconded. Any discussion? If so, please put yourself on the queue. Thank you. And go ahead, Councillor Maloney.
When I was the chair of the Lord Roberts Elementary School Pack, the absolute number one thing that I heard about from parents was inquiries about childcare availability. It just has a huge impact on parents being able to get to work. And particularly women. And I like this, I appreciated staff's very thoughtful explanation of these options and the limitations and why it wasn't wider than this particular proposal. I think that this gives us additional childcare options where we have a shortage in this city. It also creates employment opportunities and creates the ability of people. to get to their jobs, parents to get to their jobs. And we know that given the cost of housing in the city, that there are a lot of at least two job families and a lot of financial issues if you can't find childcare. And we know that more availability of childcare in every neighbourhood means less traffic driving kids around to different childcare. facilities. So I also like that this facilitates smaller scale childcare. And there are a lot of kids, especially neuro-a-typical kids, that respond much better to smaller scale childcare facilities. And I also appreciated that the representative from Vancouver Coastal Health really set out the advantages of having more childcare available. So I'll certainly be writing in favour. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Maloney. Go ahead. Councillor Kirby Young.
Yeah, thanks. I know there was a couple of well-publicised incidences in the news that sort of suggested that there was a lot of applications that were not allowed to proceed and the city was not modernized or flexible in its childcare regulations. And so it was good to have some stats and some level setting in terms of the number of applications and how few have been declined. Having said that, I think as a council, we've been prioritizing trying to create better conditions to enable child care to get delivered in the city. It's not always easy to do it based on the economics of doing that and to modernize our regulations. I did have natural questions in my mind when I first heard sort of the idea about, you know, housing is for homes relative to what we see sort of a number of houses suddenly being converted to daycare. as staff have done the analysis and sort of working through it, I don't think we're going to see a plethora of them, but I do think that it does open up some opportunities. Our neighborhoods are no longer just single-family neighborhoods. We have updated the zoning now to allow multiplexes. And, you know, we've progressed gradually towards basement suites. We had triplexes. We have townhouses and we have townhouses and row homes. We have multiplexes. And so I do think that there's a benefit. as has been stated clearly to having for people having child care that's near their homes, but also recognizing that some single family homes that people may not necessarily want to update and renovate as they would a home, but they could serve a very useful extended life in terms of child care makes some sense. So I think it was a good expiration. I want to acknowledge my colleagues, I believe it was Councillor Domina and Councillor Classen, who have been brought this motion in November, 23, two years ago, two years of a bit and have been sort of championing some of this work. But I think on balance, it does provide some additional opportunities in a way that helps. It's quite difficult to cite child care in a lot of the newer commercial areas in development because of some of the provincial guidelines that require the outdoor space, for example. So there is a practicality with having it on neighborhoods that complement those uses, and people don't have to drive as far. That adds to quality of life. I'll also note to that we did streamline a number of our child care regulations because Vancouver's standards were more onerous than the province. So we did some alignment there with respects to things like requiring a similar amount of access to outdoor space, et cetera. So I think this is part of a suite of different measures that have been taken. And on balance, I think it's a good move forward. I think staff will monitor it. if there's any sort of tweaks that might need to be made. Typically we'd see those come back, but I am happy to support it based on what I've heard. Thanks. Thank you, Council Kirby Young. And I've just advanced myself just really briefly.
Thank you staff for bringing forward the regulatory changes. As was noted by my colleagues here is there's a huge demand for child care continues. We know there's areas of the city that have greater need than others. I did also, like Councillor Kirby Young, I found it helpful to see the breakdown of the applications over time. And as was noted, it's actually quite few. The number of applications for conversions in single detached homes are similar. But that being said, what drove this with some of the incidents that were highlighted is the need for more flexibility because child care operators, were running against some barriers, which some were already addressed through other changes. But I think having more flexibility is important as the city grows, it changes. And particularly, families do ideally want to have child care close to home. I've had kids in child care, and it was the hardest thing to do was to find child care when I moved back to the city. And it was quite a trying process as a new mom. trying to figure out where I was going to place my kids. And yeah, in an ideal circumstance, something that's walkable. You don't have to get in your vehicle that's in your neighborhood. And so I actually do think what's been achieved through this is a good balance. And I was asking about the potential is if the, you know, homes converted for full use of child care, the laneway is a really great fit for for caregivers because it's another gap we have in the city is housing for caregivers, like our child care workers' ECEs. So I'm happy to see this come forward, happy to support it, and I'll wrap it there just in the interest of time, because we have a number of big applications this evening. In that, we'll just go to the vote. And if you could vote on screen, and to those of you online, please ensure your camera's all on. Thank you. And I'll take a vote of assistance in favor. Thank you, counsel, and that passes unanimously. Thanks very much.
Thank you. Staff.
That completes our first item of this evening. We are now moving on to item two, CD-1-776 text amendment. for 118 to Robson Street, now 828 Canby Street. Before we begin, any conflicts of interest to declare. Hearing none, the clerk will now read the application and summary of correspondence received to date.
This is an application by AMACON development to amend the CD-1 Comprehensive Development District 776 bylaw number 12996 to increase the permitted war space ratio FSR from 10. to 11.05 by adding 1,620 square feet meters, 17,431 square feet of hotel floor area to the podium of the building and to increase the maximum building height of the residential tower from 87.2 meters, that is 286 feet to 89.7 meters, that is 29.7 meters, that is 295 feet, to permit increased floor to floor height. The general manager of planning, planning, urban design, and recommends approval subject to conditions set out in the summary and recommendation. The following correspondence has been received since referral to public hearing. Two pieces of correspondence in support and zero pieces of correspondence in opposition and regarding other aspects related to the application. This represents all correspondence
received up to 5 p.m. today. Thank you, clerks. And this is our first call for speakers. Any speakers for this item who wish to speak to council? Please call 1833353-860. followed by the participant code 106-1445 pound before the close of the list. The number will be posted on X and also displayed during the recess. There will be an opportunity for new speakers and miss speakers to be heard at the end of the registered list. We have staff from planning, urban design, and sustainability here to present the application with roughly eight slides. Go ahead. I think we're going to check your mic. Is the mic on? There we go. That's better. Good evening, counsel. Can you hear me? Excellent. Can. My name is Leifke Vissers, and I'm the rezoning planner for this application. Staff would like to note there's a yellow memo attached to this report, which amends the floor area designated for residential use to accommodate an added circulation space. The site, shown in red, is located at 118 to 150 Robson Street, which has been readdressed 828 Campi Street. This is within the Central Business District. The site is currently zoned CD1-776, having previously been rezoned under the rezoning policy, for the CBD for a 30-story mixed-use building that includes strata, residential, rental residential, and hotel uses. The site is currently vacant, excavated, and has no existing tenants. The enabling policy is the rezoning policy for the Central Business District, or CBD, and CBD shoulder. The rezoning policy seeks to increase the potential for commercial capacity of buildings to heights and densities up to the council-approved view cones in this area. This rezoning proposal, or the original Resolning Proposal is for a mixed-use 30-story building. This amendment would increase the height to 89.7 meters and the density to 11.05 FSR. The proposal includes 138 hotel units, 187 stratatiled units, six rental residential units, and the proposed text amendment increases the allowable density by 0.72.72. This slide illustrates proposed changes to the exterior of the building. During public consultation, a total of 23 comments were received. Comments for support were with respect to the location of the tower, the proposed rental housing, and the flexibility of the FSR, as well as the hotel units. Comments of concern were generally related to the height, density, and impacts of sunlight access. In terms of staff response, the proposed height and density is consistent with policy direction for this area.
staff completed a thorough review and analysis of the view and shadow studies to ensure proposed amendment did not conflict with city policy and to protect both public views and to reduce shadowing on protected public spaces. In terms of public benefits, do you remember it's a small FSR increase. The expected development cost levies for this additional floor area are approximately a half million dollars. And the proposed additional CAC is approximately $300,000. In conclusion, Staff support the proposed amendment to CD1-776 for a 30-story mixed-use building, subject conditions, and appendix B of the report. Thank you. Staff and the applicant team are available to answer questions. Thank you for the presentation. Does the applicant wish to make a presentation?
Good evening, counsel, and thank you for your time tonight. My name is Miles Wilby, and I'm on the development team of the Amicon. On behalf of the team, we really thank you for your time for taking the time to view this application and the proposal. This tax amendment application consists of an increased density, as staff said, as well as a minor amendment to the condo density. We're working very close to this staff this past year to ensure that all the comments were addressed. I'm joined by our architectural team from GBL to answer any further questions you may have.
Yeah. Great. Thank you. Council, do you have any questions to either staff or the applicant? Okay. I'm seeing nuns. We'll move our second call for speakers. If there's any speakers for this item, please call 1833-353-86-186-10, followed by the participant code 106-14-5 pound before the close of the list. Phone number will be displayed on X and this will also be displayed during the recess. We'll now hear from the public. Any registered speakers in the council chamber, please come forward to the left podium when your name is called. Phone and speakers will be unmuted when your name is called. Speakers are reminded. They have up to five minutes to make their comments and should limit their comments to the merits of this application being considered. Our first registered speaker is speaker number one, Owen Coulter. I understand Owen will be on the phone. Do we have them on the line? Yeah. Good evening, Owen. You have up to five minutes to address counsel.
Thank you for taking my call. I'm an name's Owen. I'm a Vancouver resident who opposes the amendment. I understand the need to add more hotel spaces, you know, because of the upcoming FIFA World Cup. That's maxed out hotel capacity. But I just feel like this is not the place for it. You know, in Vancouver, we already have a slow housing market, especially in my district of Vancouver. And if you do this, you're impeding people selling features of having a view and impeding them on selling in general because they will be, you know, subject to, construction for, you know, up to the next three years, not to mention will also be subjected to more construction. Whenever the Vancouver Art Gallery breaks ground on Georgia and Canby, with the extra construction that would happen with this project and the already ongoing construction on BD streets and the current residential project in question, our street is already very congested and would not be able to handle more traffic coming in from a future hotel project. You know, adding in a protest. that has been happening every single Sunday lately. And my district, it's virtually impossible to leave your apartment on a Sunday afternoon if you need to get anywhere with a car. And frankly, as a homeowner, you know, we shouldn't have to deal with this issue. There are parts of West Georgia Street that are, you know, three lanes wide with hotels and they can handle the hotel traffic. On Robson, it's a single lane traffic as well as Beattie Street. The current amount of lanes can't. support the current traffic at peak times. And it certainly wouldn't be able to support another commercial hotel. Like we already have the hotel blue on Camby Street. I moved here five years ago and there has been constant construction in this area. And for one, this is a homeowner. I feel like we deserve less noise and less congestion in a desirable spot in the city. Yeah. And it's not the right move and not the right priority for the. area that I live in Vancouver. Thank you so much for taking my call, and I appreciate it.
Thank you for your comments this evening. That takes us to the end of our speaker list. Are there any additional speakers in chamber? If so, please come forward to the podium. Please note your full name and whether you live in Vancouver and whether you oppose or support the application.
Actually, I was on the list, but I guess I got, I came late and signed up. First off, my name is Sean Cassidy. I am a resident of the city. And in context to this project, I worked for a developer. We had two buildings right beside it. Okay. And we actually own the Georgian court. I was working for an investment bank, and back in the day, we financed the Georgian court. So I know this project very well. It creates enormous amount of density to the neighborhood. I think you have to look in the context of what it is beside BC Place Stadium, and it's going to basically dwarf BC Play Stadium. The hotels across the street, the Hampton, you've got the Georgian court. They're all in context of the stadium. When I was studied planning at UBC back in the day, we worked on the BC Place Stadium, doing some work in terms of the density flow around the stadium as a school project that was inputted with the city of Vancouver Planning Department. So the amount of density that's coming in this area, I know that there's another project coming up on Camby Street, a hotel. My understanding is that this is the second or third. density increase since the initial development permit that was given by the city of Vancouver. So what is the use for? And further, the Catholic Church sold this property to ony development, which is Amicon, back in, I guess, about seven or eight years ago, maybe 10 years ago. So the amount of money the Catholic Church has lost on the up-zoning by the city of Vancouver has been enormous. So one has to question the whole economic around this, plus the amount of the country. mass and density. I don't think any of the counselors here have really looked at this project. Further, how many counselors are absent here? Four counselors missing. One counselor who never comes to chamber. Okay, he lives in Kelowna, apparently. So this has become comical.
Sean, please note. We actually have counselors online this evening. You have one counselor. Three counselors online. And so, and so just to watch your comments.
Well, I don't see them, so I didn't know they're online.
No, and I appreciate that you can't. But, and we're not in the business of commenting on people's personal certitude, the job of a counselor is to come and do the job here, okay? And we have three counselors online. You have four members, four in councilors here in chambers. So I just wanted to note that because I know it's not visible to you that we have them here.
Okay, you ask me if I'm from the city of Vancouver. Is Councillor Monague from the city of Vancouver?
Does he live in the city of Vancouver? We're not, we're not getting into this. This is not the purpose of the public hearing. The purpose of the public hearing is to focus.
I know the purpose of the public hearing. I've spoken to this.
This is a public hearing. We are focused on the application and not getting into other comments
on other issues. Sure. The application is a done deal. Okay. I already know it. Right. So I just look around. I see one, two,
three, chair. I have a point of order. I think I think the speaker should focus their comments on the merits or non-merits as they see of the application, not on adjudicating counselors or suggesting that it's a done deal because we have an obligation to hear
speakers. Yes. Agreed. Correct. Okay. But it's back to focusing on... Word is word and it's already known. Okay.
There's one counselor sitting in this room right now that's been pushing the deal. Chair, if this speaker can't focus on the
application, then I would like you to please terminate their speaking on the... That's what you like to do all the time, Councillor Meisner, right? So, Mr. Pasoenekin can we? We're not here to
debate with counselors. I've made my point. No, listen. I've made my point about the density of the mass. None of you looked at the project. watched Councillor Meisner looking at it five minutes before this vote.
Cassidy. Sean, that's not the project. That's a different project. This is, so Mr. Cassidy, we're here to debate the merits of the, you had time to present your debate, your perspective on this item. We're now done.
Ben, fantastic. I already know the outcome.
Thank you. Are there any of their speakers? Clerks. None online. And I don't see any in the chamber. Thank you. this is our final call for speakers. Call 1833353-8610, followed by participant code 106-1445 pound. And we'll take a two-minute recess for additional callers. Thank you.
Okay, clerks, do we have any further callers or speakers? No. Okay, thank you. In that case, we're closing the speakers list. Has there been a large volume of public comments received since five o'clock? None. Okay. In that case, does the applicant have any Any closing comments? Nope. Staff, any closing comments? The yellow memo? Okay, got that. Any final questions from council? Councilor Kerbion. Yeah, I was just looking for one clarification if I could. I know this increases the floor and the podium for the hotel space and then the floor to floor height. So, but it doesn't change the number of hotel rooms. Is that correct? Or does it? Thank you. Thank you for the.
question. The number of hotel rooms isn't managed through the bylaw. It's managed at the development permit stage. So while the floor the floor area allocated for hotel rooms is increasing, the applicant may achieve additional hotel rooms, but that's determined at the development permit stage. At this stage, we have an estimate of hotel rooms. We do expect a number to increase, but we don't know the exact number.
Okay, so we don't have an approximation at this point? That's a 138 that were previously approved?
That's right.
I should have asked that question earlier of the applicant. Sorry. I see they're smiling.
They might want to share the information with you and staff can share it back to me.
Okay. Thank you. Yeah, it's approximately 25 units, but it can change at DP, depending on how the application comes in. So it sounds like about a 20% increase. Okay. That's what I wanted to know.
Thank you. Thank you for the question. Clerks, do we have any additional public comments received?
None. Thank you.
Moved by Councilor Byung. Seconded by Councilor Meisner. Any comments debate on this item?
Councillor Meisner, go ahead. Yeah, just I'll be quick. This is a great place for hotel rooms, so I'm happy to see the additional rooms in this project. It's adjacent to BC Place, and I think that the overall project is going to be a really positive contribution to the neighborhood. They're also restoring the former Northern Electric building. which is a beautiful heritage building, so, and building this project around it. So I'm personally looking forward to this being completed, and I think it's really going to help complete this end of Robson Street. So I'm in full support of this amendment.
Thank you, Councillor Meisner. Seeing no one else on the queue, we're going to call the vote. Just a reminder of those of you online, please enable your videos if you would like to vote. If not, we'll mark you absent. Please vote online. And clerks, I will take a vote assistant favor, please.
Thank you, counsel. That passes with Mayor Sim, Councillor Fry, Councillor Classen, and Councillor Orr absent.
And that concludes this item. Thank you. Moving on to item three on our agenda, CD1 rezoning, 800,876 Granville Street. Any conflicts of interest to declare? So declare them now. Hearing none, the clerk will now read the application and summary of correspondence received.
This is an application by a person. Perkins plus Will Canada Architects Company to rezone 800-876 Granville Street from DD Downtown District to CD-1 Comprehensive Development District to permit a mixed-use development with a 42-story north tower and 38-story south tower buildings connected with a five-story podium containing 523 rental units, of which 73 studio units will be secured at below-market rents. Commercial uses on the ground floor, hotel use in the podium, retention, preservation and designation of the Commodore ballroom, and retention and designation of four heritage building facades. A maximum building height of 134 meters, 440 feet, and a total floor area of 64,700 square meters, 696, 425 square feet, are proposed. The general manager of planning, urban design, and sustainability, recommends approval, subject to conditions set out in the summary and recommendation. The following correspondence has been received since referral to public hearing. 20 pieces of correspondence in support, 12 pieces of correspondence in opposition, and three pieces of correspondence regarding other aspects related to the application. This represents all correspondence received up to 5 p.m. today.
Thank you, clerks. Just seeing Councillor Kerbion, I see you on the queue. Is that from before? Or is that, do you have a... Okay, we'll clear it. Thank you. Appreciate that. So this is our first call for speakers. Any speakers for this item who wish to speak to council? Please call 1833353-8610, followed by the participant code 106-1445 pound before the close of the list. The numbers posted on X and also displayed during the recess. There will be an opportunity for new speakers and miss speakers to be heard at the end of the registered speakers list. We have staff from planning, urban design, and sustainability here to present the application. Go ahead.
Thanks. Good evening, Council. My name is Nick Danford. I'm the rezoning planner for the file. So the site outlined in red on the screen is located in the city center on the southeast corner at the intersection of Granville and Robson Streets. The site extends south for the majority of the east side of the 800 block of Granville. Comprised of 13 parcels, the site is currently developed with two to five-story, mainly commercial buildings. The site includes five historic buildings, two of which are listed on the Vancouver Heritage Register. The first is the Commodore Ballroom, an entertainment venue. The second is the State Hotel, which is also known as the Norfolk Roefolk Rooms. This is a building that has been vacant since the 1970s and is subject to the city's single room accommodation or SRA bylaw. Surrounding sites contain residential, commercial, arts and culture, and entertainment uses. Nearby developments range in height from a single story to buildings in excess of 30 stories. The Granville Street plan and the downtown rezoning policy are applicable to the proposal. The Granville Street plan adopted in 2025 provides a 20-year framework for change, development, and public benefits along Granville Street in the downtown. The site is located within the city center sub-area of the plan. Here, the policy contemplates rezoning sites for residential and non-residential developments up to the underside of the most restrictive view corridor and the maximum density is subject to urban design performance. The application was submitted in March 2025. The proposal is for a 42 and 38-story mixed-use development. The total floor area proposed is 64,700 square meters or approximately 14.4 FSR. The proposal contains 523 rental units, including a minimum of 73 studio units, secured at 25% less than the citywide average market rents. The SRA bylaw applies to this site. whereby 73 SRO units contained in the state hotel are to be replaced one for one with dedicated social housing units. As the SRO has been vacant for nearly 50 years, the 73 below-market rental units proposed form part of the overall public benefit for the project, which on balance meets the SRO replacement requirements, while also satisfying other Granville Street plan objectives. Hotel and other commercial uses are proposed within the podium of the building. Retention, preservation, and designation is proposed for the Commodore Ballroom, along with the retention and designation of four other heritage facades within the site. Public feedback was received through the application review process. Comments received in support of the proposal expressed the redevelopment will bring revitalization
and safety to the area of the city. Respondents also appreciated the heritage retention approach and expressed support for the increased economic activity, mix of uses, and the amenities provided. Comments of concerns were raised regarding the proposed massing and height, loss of the heritage character of Granville Street, and land use compatibility between the residential and entertainment uses. In response to the concerns regarding the proposed form of development, the proposal adheres to the plan's policy and urban design guidelines such as tower separation. Conditions for the form of development are included in a pan's development. B. Regarding the heritage character of Granville Street, staff note that the Commodore Ballroom is being retained, preserved, and designated, while four heritage facades are also being retained along the frontage. Finally, regarding the land use compatibility, staff note that this area of the Granville Street plan does contemplate both entertainment and residential uses, while the entertainment court is identified between Smythe and Davy Streets just south of the site. The expected DCL contribution, is approximately $20.5 million. So that, along with the public art contribution, the total public benefit package of $21.8 million is proposed. Other benefits include the delivery of 523 rental units, including the 73 units secured at below market rates. Additionally, the built heritage preservation and retention approach for the project has been valued by the applicant at approximately $25.4 million. In conclusion, Staff support the application subject to conditions and are available for questions. Thank you.
Thank you for the presentation. Does the applicant wish to make a presentation? I'll get you to approach the new podium over here on my, your, my right. Oh, over that side. A few changes.
Good evening.
I'm okay to go.
Just what, Tina, do you want, do you want to do, you wanting to do? Hang on, one sec. They're just wanting to adjust the podium. Can someone help?
Sorry, I'm not that.
No.
Okay.
Okay, go ahead. Good evening, esteemed and honorable counsel. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Carrie Bonas, and along with my brother, Dino, we're principles of Bonas properties. This is a pivotal moment. not only for 800, Grandville, but for a place that means so much to Vancouver. The Commodore Ballroom has been at the heart of this city for generations, and we feel a deep responsibility to honor its history and protect its spirit. Our vision does just that. It preserves and strengthens the legacy of the Commodore while bringing new life to an entertainment district that deserves to thrive again. Tonight is an opportunity to uphold what Vancouver cherishes, and to help shape a vibrant, resilient future for the downtown core. I'd like to thank you for your leadership and all your work to bring action and, in fact, the Granville Street new policy and your continued commitment to the street and our city. I'd like to commend especially the new leadership of the city staff and the team. The work in the last 18 months working collaboratively as being exceptional, and it except for the eight or nine years of the obstacles we faced, and we hope with their support and the public support, that you'll pass this this evening, and I'll pass it on to our esteemed and brilliant architects, which we'll give more details. Thank you.
Thanks, Carrie. We're going to give you a minute to get set up. It sounds like you do have a presentation.
Yes, we do.
Clerks, do we have that to show on? Maybe IT can give us a hand and just let us know when you're ready to go. To those of you online, we're just taking a minute to get the slide presentation up. I need some jeopardy music or something.
If the clerk might be able to allow us to share.
I got them. Okay. I think we're just waiting.
Apologies for the delay. We are ready to go. That'll be the hardest part of the evening.
My name's Ryan Bragg. Principal with Perkins and Will. Thank you very much. I thank you for the opportunity to speak, but also thank you very much for your support of the original planning process for the Cambie Quarter, sorry, the Cambie Corridor, for the Granville Street. And the, also, the concurrent support of this project being allowed to move forward, work with the city and city staff in order to get to you today. We're very much appreciative. Granville is more than just a street. To the city of Vancouver, it is a cultural destination, and it is also a place of collective memory. And it is through the policy that you've approved that allows projects like this one to make a significant difference and allow Granville Street to return to the glory that it once had. Our project is really about energizing Granville Street and a renaissance of Granville Street. It is about people and places. And so what it does is it provides porosity and activity at the street, which keeps Granville active in the day and in the evening. It's about safety, and it's about engagement with the public. And it's also about heritage. It's about replacement of homes. And it's really about taking all of these uses, this mix of uses and bringing them together in one cultural institution. It's not about a project. It's about the city. And it's about what this project can do for Granville Street. We see this as a step forward. This is future looking. We are very proud to be mixing all of these uses together and bringing you something that will invigorate the city. It will start with one block. It will add to Granville Street and be a model for what we can do in the downtown. We truly, our clients as well as ourselves, truly believe in Vancouver as a city. And we believe, believe that Granville Street can be as good as it once was and much better. And this project is about doing that. The heritage, the culture, and the engagement of the populace is really what we want. And so thank you. I'm not going to go on any longer than this, so I really do feel bad that we had to wait longer than my presentation. But I want to thank you again for your support as we've gone through this. This has been a wonderful challenge to get to where we are, but we're extremely proud and we truly believe in what this project will provide to the city moving forward. So thank you.
Thank you for the presentation. Thank you for the model, too. We haven't had one in a long time. I am going to move to questions from councillors, either to staff or to the applicant. And I'm going to advance Councillor Kirby-Yung. Go ahead, Councillor Kirby-Yung.
Yeah, thanks, Chair. I have a few questions directed to the applicant first and probably for you while you're there. Can you tell us a bit more about the hotel component, what's envisioned in terms of number of rooms, you anticipate this being run by, branded, flagged by a brand. Can you give us a bit more perspective on that?
Yes. And Kerry may join me if I don't have all of the answers. But the hotel is placed above essentially the concentration of food and beverage and retail is at the lower portion of the development. Above that, which would be just above what maybe we would call the podium, but also the heritage buildings is where the hotel is located. There are 100 rooms, just over 100 rooms within the hotel. And currently, with regards to a flag and the management of the hotel. So we've had a few preliminary discussions with several multinational hotel groups. All of them expressed a lot of interest and would love to be present here. Relative to the entire, it's, you know, it's one of seven uses. So we'd like to basically, once we move forward, incorporate it with the entire mix, with the retail mix, and find something that will be complementary to the entire project and vision. But the intention is that it'll be a major flag.
Okay. Great. I'm going to keep going just because we're limited for time. And my other one is in previous sort of visions of the project, and I know it's gone through a number of different iterations, uses, designs. there were enhancements contemplated for the Commodore. I know this retains and sort of designates the corridor, the Commodore, and it's, I know it's approaching its centenary in four years, I think, in 2030. Will there still be any improvements in terms of improving the load-in, load-out capacity and modernizing that facility? I know that was one of the pieces that was contemplated previously that would actually, despite it being an existing venue, would increase the capacity of the number of events and music events that could be held?
Yes, thank you very much, Councillor. The loading facilities, which were previously proposed, are being retained in this proposal, as are all the new exiting requirements. And so we have the ability to essentially take the loading and the exiting out of the Commodore complex. And that's both, it's for the ballroom. It's also for the retail and for the bowling lanes below. So it's actually a very interesting mixed-use project, which you're right, is very close to reaching its centenary. But all of those sort of back-of-house components are being retained. We're proposing them within the new development. And what they do is they allow...
Are they being, just because I'm tight for time, are they being modernized so that the load-in, load-out will be faster, and then therefore more events can be held in an existing venue?
Yeah. In a new loading dock that is associated with it. So it's covered, it's protected, safe as well.
Okay, great. And maybe this is a question for Mr. Bonnis, specifically. and that is you've gone through a number of iterations. I, you know, to your comment around, Granville Street deserves revitalization. If this project's approved, are you ready to go and to build this now? Do you feel that the economic conditions will allow you to do it now that you've landed on a project that you think is workable?
Well, that's our intention, is, if approved, to get moving forward as fast as possible. As you know, we've had a lot of the properties vacant intentionally. to commence and we haven't entered into any new leases. And so it's our intentions to get this off the ground as quickly as possible.
Okay. And can you speak to the vision for the retail?
Well, the retail, we ideally, we believe, you know, we've owned and operated for decades. Retail is really important to have a diverse eclectic mix and keep some of the historic tenants and have diversity of uses. And that would be our intention here. We wouldn't want to see just one tenant, for example, take the entire ground floor. Ideally, as we have a myriad of heritage and new frontages, we want to have an exciting mix, not only in terms of the architectural vernacular of the streetscape, but also with the retail mix, and that's our intention.
Okay, great. Thanks, I'll leave it there. Thank you. Appreciate the answers.
Yeah, thanks. Councillor Kirby-Yung asked a few of my questions. But I'm curious from the architect as to how you are going to mitigate noise sound from Granville Street. I know in terms of having hotel rooms and rentals there, be curious for more information on what, you know, glazing you're planning and any measures to mitigate any noise. So there are a number of different things we're doing. The first is the
envelope of the building is very high performance. So it seals very well, which means you don't have a lot of noise coming in. The other thing that we're doing is on the studio and the one-bedroom units, we're providing Juliette balconies. And at the same time, as you can see on both buildings, there are sections in the middle of the north building and on the edge of the south building. Those are three-story spaces that are common that everybody can go and use within the residential building. And the intention there is that when people are gathering, they can go into those spaces. They are operable, so that the glazing opens there, but it means that this is wrapped with a very tight skin that will keep noise away.
Okay. And that's the same with the hotel. Okay. So by not having each unit having its own outdoor space and having those common spaces that allows for the individual units to be more soundproof, I guess? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Interesting. Okay, thanks for that. Other question, I don't know if it's for the architect or Kerry, but it was around, I saw in the model, I think the renderings, it looks like a video screen at Robson and Granville. I wonder if you could speak to that.
Yes, as you know, we worked with the city for several years to put the current video screens. And with the same rationale for the one that's up at Robson and Granville now, we sort of look at, you know, Granville Street had the historic city bylaws that allowed for oversized and kinetic neon and so forth. And fast forward to the next century, here we are with modern technology. So just as kinetic signage was a big thing half a century ago, our intention here is to incorporate exciting video into the project itself and create more excitement, especially as this will be truly the civic centre, a meeting place to complement the public space in front of the old courthouse and public square at Robson. So we think it'll work hand in hand together with that and in tandem.
Kind of like a Times Square experience.
Yeah.
Okay.
Thank you.
Well, a Vancouver one.
That's right.
That's right. Thank you. The other question was, I know Councillor Kirby-Yung asked about, like, how ready to go you are on this and understand the, you know, market and everything. But I'm curious, I mean, this looks complicated in terms of the heritage retention of the facades and obviously lots of moving parts and a tight site, how long would something like this take to construct once you start digging? You don't have to tell me when you're going to start digging. I'm just wondering what that construction timeline looks like.
I mean, plus or minus six months. It would probably be around three years.
Okay. Yeah. Okay. And another question.
There's one thing we can do as well is, you know, we can commence on the South Tower first. And then, you know, so it could be staged as well. Like, but continue, continuous nonstop construction because obviously we want to finish as quickly as possible and cause the least amount of disturbance.
Yeah. Okay. To the life that's down there.
Yeah.
Yeah. Okay. Thanks for that. And then my last question was, and I know it's probably in the report, but it's just easier to ask. What about the parking situation? How much parking?
On the north 200, we have several levels of underground parking. It's important to note that in this modern era, you know, where this is a transit-oriented area with, you know, the Canada Line, bus hubs, and everything here. So we think we have more than sufficient parking.
Yeah, yeah, very transit friendly. Okay. Thanks. That's it for me.
Thank you. I'm interested in asking a few questions about the 73 below market studio units. How does that work in the, Where are they sited in the project? Where's the door? And is their common space available to the occupants of those units? I hope you could talk about that.
Yeah, they're actually in the south tower, and there won't be a separate entrance. They'll be for all occupants of the property.
So they'll have access to all the common space of the other residents?
Yes.
Great. And, and, and, um, and, and, um, and, So they'll have the same noise attenuation and, uh.
Absolutely.
Right. Um, is there any neon included as a nod to the past?
We, well, there, there, actually, the one piece of neon may, may be neon. It may be LED. We'll have to see what happens, but the original Commodore sign, which was hanging, much like the Orpheum sign, will be returned and that will have either neon or affectionately there are outside of that. There are lots of ideas we've got, but just, you know, whenever we get tenants, we really persuade them as much as possible within our will to incorporate
neon. And when we built up what's known as the Best Buy building now, we sort of pushed in twisted arms as much as we could to all the tenants to voluntarily include neon because it's a big opportunity for them and also to contribute to the community and the history of the street. So we'll, I mean, we will push as hard as we can. Thanks very much.
Thank you, Councillor Maloney. We'll do our, I think our next call for speakers. If there's any speakers who wish to speak to council, please call toll-free 1-833-353-8610, followed by the participant code 106-1445 pound before the close of the list. This number will be posted on X and displayed during the recess. We will now hear from members of the public. Any registered speakers in council chamber, please come forward to the left podium when your name is called. Phone-in speakers will be unmuted when your name is called. Speakers have up to five minutes to make their comments and should limit their comments to the merits of the application being considered. Noting here that speaker number one has withdrawn and so we will move to speaker number two, Jane Talbot, who I believe is on the phone. Jane, are you there? Posted on X and displayed during the recess. We will now hear from members of the public. Any registered speakers in council chamber, please come forward to the left podium when your name is called. Phone-in speakers will be unmuted when your name is called. I just cut out. Jane?
Yes. Yes.
Oh, okay. Hi. Good evening. My name is Jane Colbitz. I'm the president and CEO of the Downtown Vancouver BIA. Our organization represents 8,000 businesses over 90 blocks of the Central Business District, including Granville Street and the Granville Entertainment District. I'm calling in this evening to express our full support for the proposed redevelopment of 800 Granville. Granville Street is one of Vancouver's most significant entertainment and cultural corridors, but it continues to face challenges related to public safety, storefront vacancy, under-investment, and declining confidence. This corridor is under significant strain and projects like 800 Granville are essential catalysts to drive momentum forward. This project achieves a careful balance between heritage conservation, entertainment, hospitality, and active street use, including preservation and long-term viability of the Commodore Ballroom and the Commodore building. This is a critical cultural asset in our district, and it's critical that it's saved. Downtown Vancouver BIA believes projects of this scale and quality are essential to restoring confidence in Granville Street, attracting investment, and supporting the street's long-term success. We thank Bonnis Properties for their ongoing investment in Granville Street and to council for your careful consideration this evening. Thank you.
Thanks, Jane, for calling in this evening. Our next speaker is Royce Schwann. Is Royce here? On the line. Royce, go ahead.
Good evening, council. Thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening. Royce Schwann, CEO Destination Vancouver, resident of Vancouver. And I'm speaking in support of agenda item number three, the rezoning of 800–876 Granville Street. Destination Vancouver welcomes the opportunity to be part of the consultation process that helped shape the outcome of the Granville Street Plan, which council approved last June, as you know. And the result of that plan reflected real listening and a shared ambition to see Granville thrive again. As I said at the time, in its heyday, Granville Street just wasn't a place to go, it was where Vancouver went to feel alive. It was glamorous. It was a little spicy and unmistakably vital to the city's identity. It's a street that holds the city's energy, its memory, and now its potential. But that appeal long ago began to fade and it continues to slide into some decay. And it took another heartbreaking hit, perhaps just a few weeks ago when we watched the Hudson's Bay sign come off the Granville and Georgia location, a site that that company started business in 1914. So council's adoption of the Granville Street Plan set a clear direction to restore Granville as a safe, welcoming, and economically vibrant arts and entertainment district. The focus now is on implementation. So the rezoning of 800 Granville Street would be a long overdue example of that implementation in action. The proposal before you today supports the plan's objectives by encouraging uses that increase activity on the street throughout the day and into the evening. That consistent presence is essential to revitalization of this once iconic corridor. It really was reinforced during COVID that public safety and street animation go hand in hand. Streets that are active, well used, and economically viable feel safer for everyone, residents and visitors alike. Ellis's work with the province to support the relocation of SROs away from the Granville strip to a more appropriate location is an important and welcome step in laying the foundation for the revitalization of the street alongside investments in housing, services, and public realm improvements. The inclusion of hotel use is particularly important. Council has been consistently engaged in support of Destination Vancouver's work on hotel capacity. Thank you for that. And recognizing the role that well-located new supply plays in supporting the visitor economy and the city's broader socioeconomic goals, this proposal aligns with council's hotel development policy and would introduce a steady mix of people beyond typical retail hours. That regular foot traffic supports nearby businesses, helps animate the public realm and contributes to a safer, more welcoming environment. Hotels, of course, also deliver tangible benefits: local jobs, increased spending at nearby restaurants and venues, and stronger support for the arts, culture, and entertainment uses that define Granville's identity and take advantage of Vancouver jewels like the Orpheum Theatre and, of course, the beloved Commodore Ballroom. Revitalization will not happen through a single project, but will not happen without projects like this. Incremental, policy-aligned investment is how momentum is built and confidence is restored. Approving the rezoning of 800 Granville sends a clear signal that council is committed to moving from planning to action and to supporting a Granville Street that is active, safe, and alive again. Bonnis Properties, thank you for your resilience through the process. Destination Vancouver supports this application and encourages council to approve the rezoning. It's a long time coming. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Good evening. Thank you. Good evening, my name is Aaron Chapman. I'm an author and Vancouver historian. I have a number of books about the history of Vancouver, including Live at the Commodore, the story of Vancouver's historic Commodore Ballroom. While the Commodore was built and opened in 1930 and has provided a great night out for the last 96 years to generations of Vancouverites, as well as hundreds of thousands, if not millions of visitors to the city over the years, it's not without its challenges in keeping up with the times. And the current state of the live music industry, or how it fits within the Granville Entertainment District, which is why I'm pleased to be here to speak in favour of the Granville Street development. But I'm also somebody who for the last 20 years worked in the local concert industry, my night job, I guess, or maybe my day job, as a production manager, putting on concerts at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, the Roxy, the Vogue, and indeed the Commodore Ballroom, Live Nation concerts, which is the position I actually just left in December. So as somebody who wrote the book, but also worked at the venue itself in the past, I like to think I know the needs of the venue and the potential of what this project does to benefit the Commodore itself, and really the whole city as a whole. And that should really not be underestimated. Let me even cite one example. When any concert tour comes to Vancouver, whether they arrive in a GMC and a trailer in the back like my old bands used to do, or if they were lucky enough to be in a tour bus or perhaps in a couple of tour buses and a semi-truck, all that gear has to go into the alley, Ackery's Alley, between the Orpheum and the Commodore, and has to go up a very, very small lift that's about as big as your bathroom at home. And up to the second floor of the Commodore, and whether that's not just the amps and drum kit, maybe it's a backdrop, maybe it's stage props, any kind of set pieces. That all takes a considerable time going up that narrow little gear elevator. Now, the Commodore sees some of the biggest acts in the world on the way up and sometimes even on the way down. And one example that I can remember offhand when I was there was in 2009 when the Lady Gaga show was at the Commodore. And yes, that same Lady Gaga that was just at the Super Bowl last weekend. Now, her tour carried a number of props, including a very heavy plexiglass piano shell, as big as a piano, excuse me, in itself. And that didn't fit in the gear elevator. There was no way getting it in. That part of the show couldn't happen. So, excuse me, there were about eight very brawny stagehands that managed to carry that up the front steps of the Commodore. I remember staying clear away from it, because I thought, geez, if those guys lose a grip, I'm going to be done for. And it did make it up there, and it was a great visual element of the show that perhaps had it not to happen, it would have been a completely different show than she was doing. So the new development of the Commodore adds that larger gear elevator, loading dock potential, even giving the ability for a tour bus to come closer to park, to unload, is really arguably a game changer in terms of what happens at that venue. Not only allowing it easier to produce many shows at the venue, many more of them, but be able to answer the logistical needs better of concert tours which are changing and getting bigger and bigger and more complex as the years go by. Well, the development also offers with the more back-of-house space, which will no doubt help as well. For the last 20 years, my colleagues and I worked in a production office the size of a broom closet. In fact, it was a broom closet. Because in 1930, when the Commodore was built, they never had any idea or any need to make any modern production office facilities. So the fact that it adds that, I know my colleagues who are working down there will be enthused about that. Some of the initiatives that create a safer pedestrian-friendly environment, day and night, in the proposal, I think, are important too. Now, the history of Granville Street has long been hotly debated and written about by people like myself. And beyond the value of the nighttime, what's often left out of that discussion is the raison d'être about what happens there during the daytime. And I think the hotel and commercial space do much to help bring visitors in business to the area. There's no question this is a big proposal. I don't know how often the city gets something like this in front of its desk, a project this size. But I believe this is the right kind of development that adds a great deal, not only to Granville Street itself, but much for the entertainment district and really secures the future and long-term viability of the Commodore. Myself and many other people think Granville Street is worth fighting for. So let's get to work and see a better Granville Street for everyone. Thank you very much for your time.
Yeah, thank you very much. And perfect pronunciation. and that's like the first time I've heard somebody say that. Yeah, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to speak here tonight. And prior to starting, I'd just like to tell you a bit about myself. I'm a wildland firefighter and a student at the University of British Columbia. I come from a small town in the southeast Kootenays. And when moving to Vancouver, I feared homelessness. My job as a wildland firefighter pays lower base wages than most retail jobs. And being faced with up to $2,000 a month in rent for a one-bedroom apartment was overwhelming and forced me to consider if I could even live in the city at all. Like many other essential workers, I contribute to climate resilience and public safety, but face significant blocks in accessing equitably priced housing. Thus, I would like to voice my support for the 800–876 Granville Street proposal. The development offers people like me the opportunity to live, work, and study without the fear of an increasingly volatile housing market. Furthermore, this proposal offers the city of Vancouver the opportunity to accelerate growth in the Granville Entertainment District while simultaneously allowing for below-market housing initiatives to have a stake on the street. Currently, housing insecurity is one of the most substantial issues facing the city of Vancouver. Below-market housing has long been shown to be one of the best ways to combat housing insecurity and the issues surrounding public safety, particularly when integrated in the heart of Vancouver's entertainment district. Locating below-market housing on Granville Street ensures that residents have access to transit, work opportunities, and services, rather than being pushed to the outskirts of the city. This proposal also brings one of the most substantial approaches to Granville Street revitalization in recent years. The addition of 100 hotel rooms ensures that direct tourist expenditure is reaching one of the areas that it is needed most. The increased foot traffic on Granville Street ensures that local businesses are receiving increased revenue, while residents of the tower in turn benefit from the amenities provided by the neighbourhood. Beyond housing and economic benefits, this proposal aligns with the city's agenda to make a more safe and inclusive city. The mixed-use development adds the capacity to bring in thousands to Granville Street, bringing 24-hour activity to the area. That natural surveillance has been shown in several studies to reduce overall crime, contributing to what can be a revitalized strip of Vancouver. This project is pivotal in Vancouver's growth. As it reflects how both tourists and residents can benefit from one single project, I strongly urge the acting mayor and council to support this project, as it ensures that Vancouver can be a place to live and play at the same time. Thank you, acting Mayor and Council, for your deep consideration, and please vote to approve the development at 800–876 Granville Street.
Thank you, Summit, for calling in this evening. Our next speaker is Brianne LaPierre. Brianne, on the line.
Hello, and thank you so much for the opportunity to speak tonight. I am speaking in support of the 800–876 Granville Street project. I think this is a wonderful project that will help support a safer and more vibrant Granville Street. I also am really interested in the heritage aspect of the Commodore Ballroom, and I think that it protects it and revitalizes it in a very positive way. And I'm also really interested in the fact that it adds more hotel space to downtown. I think that with FIFA coming to Vancouver, we're really recognizing that we have a deep hotel shortage in the city,
and we want to invite more visitors and more people and more events to Vancouver. and I think this brings a much needed support for the hotel space, not to mention, of course, the purpose-built rental housing being incredibly valuable as well. So I really encourage all council members to approve this application. Thank you very much. Thanks for calling in this evening.
Our next speaker is David Gulliver. Yeah, hi there. Thank you so much. Go ahead. Can you guys hear me? Yes, go ahead.
Perfect. Thank you so much. Awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you for the opportunity to speaking from the council. I'm just speaking in support of the project of 800 8776 Gramble Street. I'm particularly interested in a couple factors. One being the protection of the future of Commodore Ballroom as a historic venue in Grambl Street and the revitalization of the street, but also have noted from the previous caller the hotel space as the city prepares to host for FIFA. I think one of the things that the city is lacking is lacking is. hotel space and I'm very welcome all these visitors from around the world. We need to be prepared for that. So I just wanted to make this support of the project. Thank you so much and thank you for the time.
Thanks very much for your comments. That brings us to the end of our speaker list. Speaker number eight has withdrawn. Are there any additional speakers in chambers? See any right now? So I'll do a final call for speakers. If you wish to speak to this item, please call 1833353-860. followed by the participant code 1061445 pound. The phone number will be posted on X and also displayed during the recess. We will now take a two-minute recess for any additional speakers to call in or come forward to the podium. Clerks, do we have any other speakers online or in chambers?
Thank you, Chair. Yes, there is an unidentified speaker on the phone.
We can have join us. Yes. Speaker, could you identify yourselves and you identify yourselves in a if you live in Vancouver.
My name is Daniel. I'm not a Vancouver resident. I live on the University Endowment Lance and I'm very grateful for the opportunity to speak here this evening. And I want to speak in support of the proposed redevelopment at 800, 876 Granville. Just from my perspective, as a student and a renter who lives in very, very close proximity to the city, I really think downtown would benefit more from rental housing that's close to jobs, transit, and amenities. And I think this proposal directly responds to that need. I think the proposal is a response to that need. I think the project also really contributes to the overall health and safety of the downtown core. I think a big part of keeping Vancouver, a vibrant city that we all love is making sure that all of our streets are active, safe and welcoming at all hours, and that includes especially Granville Street. I also think that from a planning perspective, the site is really well suited for this level of density, being just a few minutes walk from the Sky Train Station. It's exactly where housing and the 100 hotel units and commercial activity really should be concentrated, and I think it makes a great use of the city's development plans. And overall, I think, the proposal is really balanced. It's forward-looking. It's something that will allow students and a renters like me, the chance to live in this city, to live in a vibrant and a very safe community. And for all those reasons, I'd really urge counsel to support this application. Thank you. Thanks very much for calling in this evening.
Do we have any other speakers on the line? No. Okay. I'm not seeing anyone at the podium. In that case, I'm going to close the speakers list. Has there been a large volume of public comments received on this item since 5 p.m. No. Okay, in that case, I'm going to close receipt of public comments. Does the applicant have any closing comments? Okay. Staff, do you have any closing comments? Council, any final questions to staff? Seeing no one on the queue, it's time for our decision. Can I get someone to move it? Moved by Councillor Kirby Young, seconded by Councillor Meisner. We're now into debate. And I see Council, Miser, were you on there before? Where's that old? Does anyone have your, we're good with that cue? Okay. Go ahead, Councilor Meiser.
Clerk's, there. There we go. There we go. Okay. Okay. Thanks to the applicant and the city staff this evening, as well as all the speakers you spoke about the project. This is, you know, obviously really pivotal. And I heard that word many times this evening. around this project, and I would wholeheartedly agree. This has been very, very long in the making and has been through several iterations. And I really believe that this is going to be transformational for Gravel Street. And it's going to really catalyze a lot of the revitalization that we want to see on the street. There's a lot of benefits to this project. It's going to bring new rental homes to a block that doesn't have any. It will have revitalization of several historical. historic facades. It's going to bring new retail space to the block, hotel rooms, restaurants, and more. And I actually, although this has taken a long time to get to this point, I think we've ended up with a better result. So I'm really, really excited to see this move forward. And I think that this is going to be very important for downtown Vancouver. There's lots of things, lots of good things happening downtown. But as mentioned, you know, with Hudson's Bay closing nearby, and obviously the Nordstrom space a few years ago, you know, this part of downtown needs new energy. And the good news is, is we're starting to see retailers be announced for that old Nordstrom space. That's Kitty Corner to this. And by time this probably gets under construction, those spaces will have been fully announced. But this is just going to really bring that energy back to Gravel Street that we all want to see. Every time my parents come to Vancouver to visit, always ask about Grambles Street. And they say, hey, can we go down Gramble Street? And, you know, sometimes I tell them, you know, Mom and Dad, like, Gramble Street is not really maybe what it was like when you guys were younger and used to come to Vancouver. But there's still lots, Gravel Street has so much going for it. And I know this project is going to, is going to take it to the next level and really help revitalize it. So I'm very, very much in support of this. Thanks.
Yeah, thanks, Chair. I do have a number of things to say on this one. It's been in the Hopper for a while. I'll start by saying it is a major moment, not just for our city, but, you know, particularly for Gramble Street. This is a proponent that has been long committed to the street and the assets that they are fortunate to own, I would say they may be the owner, but I think they are collectively owned in the hearts and the collective memory of the residents of Vancouver. and that was referenced. The Commodore is storied. I think everybody remembers the dance for. I didn't get to see Lady Gaga. Would have loved to. I looked, you know, hindsight 2020. But you look at the history dating back to the 1930s, which is coming up in 100 years. And, you know, I looked up some of the history, and it was a legendary owner. I think it was originally the swing orchestras in the 70s. It said it became under legendary owner, Drew Burns, became a full-on music club. Breakout bands performed there across all genres, punk, new wave, blues, metal and heavy rock. So whether you are a kiss fan, the police, David Bowie, or any of the others, they all played there. And so I am grateful that I think retaining that important history and experience in the sort of the genesis and the DNA of what was Gramble Street, I think has been a driving factor in this project while looking to modernize. So there's a sort of the genesis and the DNA of what was Grambles Street, I think, has been a driving factor in this project while looking to modernize. So there's a lot to love about the project, delivering new rental homes, a new hotel, which we have had a longstanding shortage of rooms. And so it's great to see this joining Council's recent approval of the new hotel at Gramble and Davy. I think that those are really positive things in terms of bringing back. Granville Street was, is and can be, I think, a very vibrant destination again for the city of Vancouver. This will provide a lot of uses, daytime and nighttime. the preservation of the heritage facades, I think, is really important. And I actually personally like the juxtaposition that you see in many cities where you're able to preserve that sort of sense of where your city came from at sort of the human scale at street level. And then you have a juxtaposition of the modern uses above. So it's, I know it's been a long time coming. I think over, I've been on council as my second term now. We've had a lot of policy amendments to enable this to come forward. everything from trying to this project has you know gone through survive through economic conditions COVID we tried to do the policy inquiry process which ironically acronym is pep it has not been very peppy it has taken a bit of time to get here we had we had to sort of really prioritize cultural and entertainment uses and council sort of really had to put at stake in the ground that that that's what Granville Street could and should be and then then we finally had the approval of the Granville Street plan so it is very very exciting to see something come forward that really I think delivers on that vision. And I'm grateful and I don't know a lot of folks that would have kept some of their spaces vacant for a long time while hanging on there. So kudos for that. I'm very grateful to sort of see the thought that has gone into it. And I think even the fact that what people won't see at first, but they'll start to see when they see more events happening at the Commodore is those back-of-house improvements. And I think Aaron Chapman spoke to that. Glad that you steered clear of the piano. But just the ability to load in and out, you sort of think of how Herculean is to deliver that. And we are very short of arts and culture and live music space in our city. So to keep one of our story venues and have it be able to work harder is also, I think, a great benefit. So I'm very enthusiastic about approving the project. And it also has below market rental. So not much to take issue with here an awful lot to love. And I'm looking forward to seeing it anchor this very important part of our city. Thank you.
Thank you, Councillor Kirby Young, for those comments. I added myself to the list as well. Just offer a few comments like Councillor Kerby Young. In my second term on council, it's very exciting to see this come to fruition. Certainly a labor of love, I think, because as I think was noted by the applicant, nine or ten years in the making. And as Councilor Kerby Young was saying, lots to love in this proposal and application. And just from a... personal perspective, I really appreciate that when sometimes we get these applications, we get to go down memory lane. And certainly Aaron Chapman took us there. Counsel Kerb Young just took us there. And I think it speaks volumes to the iconic nature of Granville Street. And I remember my dad showing me a picture of him and his peasant, a picture they picked up through Foncy's photos down on Granville Street. And my great aunt, who worked at the Peter Pan Cafe, which was closed before I had an opportunity to go there. And so I knew from talking to my family members how important Granville Street had been in their early days in the city. And when I arrived in Vancouver, certainly I think had changed, not for the necessarily the better, from some of those, the height of its days of being that center of arts and culture and entertainment. But I think really, and I think, you know, I think recognize where that merits deserved is to, you know, Councilor Kirby Young, was really a big driver in terms of pushing for renewal of Granville Street and the renewal plan, which I think is playing a key role in where it's going. So it's not just about this application, although I know I need to focus my comments on the application. But I think this application will contribute positively to the fabric of this neighborhood, to the city. My colleagues have already highlighted all the positive aspects of it. But I did want to share that I'm incredibly proud to see this come forward. and also happy to support it. Because I think it is part of the change that people want to see a long, Gramble in in this neighborhood. And so I'll be casting my vote in support and thank everyone for their contributions this evening. And with that, I will call the vote. And for those of you online, please enable your video if you wish to vote on this application. And I will take a vote in favor, clerks.
I'll take a vote, assist in favor. clerks in favor. Thanks. Thank you, counsel. And that passes with Mayor Sim, Councillor Fry, Councillor Fry, Councillor Classen, and Councillor Ore absent. Thank you, staff. Thank you
applicants. Thank you, counsel. Take a very brief two-minute recess to transition to our next project. Thank you. Okay, counsel, I'm going to call counsel back, just because we have another big item this evening. Do we have, counsel, we're just, please don't leave your seats. We're just going to take a couple of minutes to return to quorum. Thanks for everybody who's joined us. We'll just be a minute before beginning. Okay, welcome back, counsel. Just before we begin, item four, just flagging for all of us that we are bare quorum, and we have two members online, so please keep your videos enabled. Thank you for being so flexible this evening. I'm looking at both of our counselors online. And if we do need to take a recess for a bio break, just let me know. But we are about to begin I believe this is our last item. Item four, CD1 rezoning for 1527, 15-27 West Hastings Street and 8-36 West Cordova Street. Before I begin, are there any conflicts of interest to declare? Okay. Hearing none, the clerk will now read the application and summary of correspondence received.
This is an application by Michael Green, Architecture, Inc. to rezone two non-contiguous sites at 15-27 West Hastings Street, referred to as the Hastings Street site from DD Downtown District to CD-1 Comprehensive Development District and at 8-36 West Cordova Street referred to as the Cordova Street site from HA-A-2 Heritage Area District to CD-1 Comprehensive Development District. The Hastings Street site proposes the development of a 39-story mixed-use building containing 519 rental units, but 20% of the residential floor area for below-market rental units and commercial uses on the ground floor. A floor area of 30,847 square meters, 332,031 square feet and a height of 114.5 meters, 376 feet, with additional height for a rooftop amenity space are proposed. The Cordova Street site proposes the development of a 20-story mixed-use building containing 219 rental units, with 20% of the residential floor area for a below-market rental units, 179-room hotel and commercial uses on the ground floor. A floor area of 21,043 square meters, 226,508 square feet, and a height of 66.3 meters, 218 feet are proposed. The general manager of planning, urban design, and sustainability recommends approval, subject to conditions set out in the summary and recommendation. The following correspondence has been received since referral to public hearing. Forty-one pieces of correspondence in support, eight pieces of correspondence in opposition, and two pieces of correspondence regarding other aspects related to the application. This represents all correspondence received up to 5 p.m. today.
Thank you, clerks. This will be our first call for speakers. Any speakers for this item who wish to speak to council, please call 1833353-86-1810, followed by the participant code 106-14455. pound before the close of the speakers list. Phone numbers posted on X and will also be displayed during the recess. There will be an opportunity for new speakers and miss speakers to be heard at the end of the registered speakers list. We have staff from planning, urban design, and sustainability here to present the application. Welcome and good evening.
And I am the rezoning planner for the two rezoning applications being considered under one presentation this evening. The rezoning applications for 1527 West Hastings Street and 836 West Cordova Street are being presented together this evening because the two sites are proposed to be connected by a pedestrian overpass and an underground parking lane across the city lane. The applicant has expressed that the proposed development on the Hastings site would be more viable under this arrangement, so it's being considered together with the rezoning on the Cordova site. The two applications are located in two different sub areas of the downtown Eastside plan. The first rezoning site is within the Victory Square sub-area. Hereafter, I will referred to as the Hastings site. It is shown as the smaller red rectangle with a 120 foot frontage faces south, its midblock along West Hastings Street. The second rezoning site is located within the Gastown Historic District, hereafter as, hereafter referred to as the Cordova site. It is shown here as the larger red rectangle with a 240 foot frontage facing north, midblock along Cordova Street. The two sites were referred to as the larger red rectangle. The two sites were. were occupied by the Army and Navy department store since 1948. A major rehabilitation of the sites was completed in 1972 that saw the expansion of the store as one big complex over the two sites. The Army and Navy store continued to operate until it was closed in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Just say during the COVID-19 pandemic. The surrounding historic area is characterized by four to 10-story office buildings and residential buildings with ground floor commercial uses and typically built out to the front and side property lines. This defines the characteristic sawtooth profile appearance of the heritage buildings in these historic areas. Across Abbott Street to the west is the Woodward's complex, which includes a 43 and 31-story residential towers, a restored six-story Woodward's heritage building, child care, and community serving spaces. This slide shows the downtown east side plan map and the policies is applicable to the two rezoning sites. Under the downtown east side plans,
Victory Square sub area, the Hasting site can be considered for rezoning up to five FSR, with a relaxation for 100% market or social housing and building heights of up to 105 feet. For the Gastown sub area, there is no rezoning policy in Gastown beyond what the current heritage zoning zoning permits. There is no set density in Gastown. Instead, the density is determined by evaluating a proposals context and design. There is a maximum building height in Gastown, which is supposed to be the building's existing height. A conditional increase up to 75 feet may be considered when there is a commensurate heritage conservation strategy. Council recently approved zoning changes to the downtown Eastside Oppenheimer District in December of 2025, aimed at facilitating SRO replacement and new social housing delivery. This uplifting work on the DEOD does not have applied to the current rezoning. So on the top half, the Hastings site proposes a 39-story building with a rooftop amenity floor and over 30,000 square feet of floor space. This mixed-use proposal includes 519 rental units, of which 20%, or approximately 108 units, will be offered at below market rates and operated by a non-profit operator. The proposed non-profit operator at this time is BC Indigenous Housing Society. The ground floor of this. building will also contain 2,500 square feet of commercial space that will be rented at below market rates to a non-profit social enterprise for a minimum of 10 years. The nonprofit tenant would use the space to support community economic development in the downtown east side, and this arrangement is one of the public benefits of this project. On the lower half of the slide, the Cordova site proposes a 20-story tower over a five-story podium, which it itself is made up of a three-story building behind a restored heritage facade and a two-story addition over top. Approximately 26,000 square feet of floor space is proposed. This mixed-use proposal includes 219 rental units of which 20% of the residential floor area will be for below market rental units, a 179 room hotel, and commercial spaces at grade. Unlike the Hastings site, the below-market rental units in the Cordova building are proposed to be operated by the developer. All the below-market rental units across both sites will be rented at 20 and 50% discounts to the CMHC average. This represents a deeper level of affordability than typically seen in BMR projects across the city. A pedestrian sky bridge at level 7 connects the two sites. You can see this here in this image between the two towers. The skybridge will allow the market rental tenants on the Hastings side to access the amenity spaces on the
the Cordova side and vice versa. The Cordova site includes three historic buildings built between 1888 and 1891, all of which are designated protected heritage properties. From left to right, the Dunmiller block, the Callister block, and the Hayes-McCentosh block. This application is proposing substantial demolition of the exterior and structures of the three protected heritage properties in order to accommodate underground parking and a new 20-story building with a five-story podium. The proposed conservation plan for these heritage properties is limited to the retention of the three historic facades, or historic street facades along West Cordova Street. This proposal does not, the proposal for Cordova Street does not comply with the applicable community planning objectives, land use policies, and heritage policies for the Gastown Historic Area. Through public consultations on these proposals, support was expressed for the new rental housing, that new residents will support businesses in the area, and the revitalization of the previously shuttered buildings. Concerns were expressed regarding the proposal's significant heightened scale, exceeding policy and community expectations, the tower's impact on the neighboring neighborhood contacts and heritage character, and the potential for gentrification and displacement of area residents. The applicant requires this significant heightened density to deliver over 700 units of rental, of which 20% of the residential floor area will be rented at below market rents, as well as a 179 unit hotel. The proposed density is also necessary to support the rehabilitation of the three Cordova buildings' heritage facades. The building's proposed height will not intrude into any protected view cones and does not cast shadows onto public parks, schools, or open spaces during the critical sunlight hours. The public benefits from these proposals include $8.3 million of DCLs, 1. 1 million in public art contributions, as well as over 580 units of market rental housing. housing, 155 units of below market rental housing, the below market rental commercial space on the Hastings site, and the restoration of the three heritage facades. The following two slides compare these proposals against the key policy and regulatory criteria. On this slide for the Hastings site, while rezoning's can be considered, staff have identified a number of impacts to several key urban design and performance criteria, including height, density, and tower floor plate sizes, which contributes to the overall massing bulk. The tower on the Hastings site also limits the redevelopment potential of its neighbors. This slide summarizes the same information for the Cordova site.
First, there is no rezoning enabling policy for Gastown, and the Cordova site rezoning may create expectations for further rezoning in Gastown. The proposed tower is higher than the existing heritage context and affects the redevelopment potential of its west neighbor. Finally, the new building on the Cordova site, as well as the overall heritage conservation strategy of facade-only retention, do not comply with the land use policies intended to preserve the form and character of the Gastown Historic Area. In summary, the left-hand bullets lists the trade-offs and risks of these two rezoning applications, which I just went over. However, the closing of the Army and Navy Department Store in 2020 has left vacant storefronts or belong both street frontages, and the buildings are slowly deteriorating. The proposals, new rental units, commercial ground floors, hotel rooms, and public benefits will provide an opportunity to reactivate the public realm and generate new activity in the area. The design impacts of the two towers are limited to these blocks at the edge of Gastown. Therefore, staff have determined that the impacts of the two rezoning applications are balanced by the redevelopment opportunity and public benefits, and the general manager of planning urban design and sustainability recommends approval in principle. of the proposals subject to the conditions contained in their respective appendices. Thank you very much. Staff and the applicant team are here to answer any questions.
Good evening. Thank you. We don't have a presentation, but we would like to share a few words.
My name is Nathaniel Funk with both the properties. I'm here on behalf of the applicant team with the Cohen Block. First, thank you, counselors, for your time and consideration this evening. and you respectfully look for your support this evening for our proposal. We'd like to say thank you to staff for all their time, their detailed presentation this evening, as well as their diligence and leadership over the past several years. This has been a rigorous process, and the proposal in front of you this evening is really a stronger as a result of that work. With us tonight, our members are our design team, which are here to support any questions that you may have. We're also joined by BC Indigenous Housing under an MOU as the intended operator for the the below market units on the Hastings block. Lastly, I'd like to invite Ms. Jackie Cohen to say a few words. Ms. Cohen is the owner and CEO of Army Navy's properties. For over 100 years, the Cohen family operated the Army Navy store on the subject site as a place of access, affordability, and inclusion. From the onset, the Cohen family was clear that the future of this site must continue to put the community at its core and it's that commitment that has guided this proposal.
Thank you, Nathaniel. evening everyone. Hi. Hi. Sorry. This is a big day for the Cohen family. Twenty years ago, a big day meant it was the Army Navy shoe sale. And now it's Army Navy properties, hopefully developing the Cohen bought. Sorry.
Take your time. The dirt and buildings that my grandfather bought over a century ago
that included the first synagogue in the city of Vancouver. operated as Canada's original discount department store chain. And these buildings potentially will become the heart and soul of our community once again. I am honored and humbled tonight to stand before you seek approval for the Cohen Black. Sorry. That's emotional. Thank you, everyone. Thank you for your consideration.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comments. At this time, I'll ask if council has any questions, either to staff or to the applicant. And I see Councilor, you've put yourself in a queue. Go ahead, Councilor Meisner. Yeah, thanks. Thanks for the presentation and the words
about the project. My first question was around the affordability. There was a mention about 50% or a portion of the below market units being 50% below market. And I'm just wondering how you were able to achieve. that. I think it's probably more for the applicant. If I heard that correctly.
You did. Thank you, Counselor. Certainly the density and height are needed to enable all the public benefits to be delivered, including all the below market, the 20% floor area at the different tranches of the 20% discount and 50% discount. Okay. And what does that breakdown look like
in the below market in terms of the ones that are 20% below market and the ones that are 50% below
market. 70% of that 20% of those units are at the 20% discount. Yeah. And 30% of those units are at the 50% discount. Okay. Great. And is that the BC Indigenous
Housing Society units? 20%? I see nodding.
The 20% there's 20% on the Hastings block. Yeah. All 20% would be the, is designed to be operated by a nonprofit BC Indigenous housing. Yeah. There's also 20% on the on the Cordova block, which is at the moment intended to be operated by developer. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Thanks for that. How about the nonprofit retail space?
What are you envisioning there in terms of what kind of, I guess, retail or store or cafe? What do you have in mind? Yeah, well, there's 2,500 square feet of social purpose retail that we've committed to. That would be available at below market rates for a period of 10 years. As you can see from the Cohen family and the commitment to the community, our kind of pillars of the project was to deliver community benefit, protect heritage, and make it economically viable.
And so we haven't made any firm decisions on who that would be. Certainly, this project will take some time to deliver. But we would canvas the community, canvas the neighborhood in terms of wanting to deliver, certainly a retail space that would benefit the community. Okay, great. And then my other question was around the laneway, because I remember when the store was open. you could cross the laneway, and that was pretty cool experience. So I'm just wondering what you're planning there in terms of like a treatment of that. Yeah, part of the application, if you scrolled through all the pages, was an enhanced laneway revitalization on the frontages that this proposal includes.
There is today a connection underground and above ground where the former Armonyby store would connect. And so we kind of were inspired by that connection.
And so why you're seeing it come alive in the new proposal. So the concept right now is that there would actually be the retail space. We also be able to pass through the full block and actually spill into the laneway itself. Similar to other blocks in Gaston, which has a kind of dual frontage of laneway and street frontage. Like in Blood Alley. Exactly. Yeah. Okay, great. Okay. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Meisner. Counsel Kerb Young. Yeah. Thanks, Chair. I have a couple of questions. And first of all, I wonder, maybe I'll direct this to the applicant because it's my, our one opportunity. Can you walk us through the specifics of this site and thinking about the slides that
were shown to council around the distinction between this application and policy and specifically
with respects to tower separation on both sides and why the we're seeing are those 10 and 11 and 12 feet in conjunction with the specifics of this site? Because that's very unusual and something that council doesn't see very often. Yeah. I don't know if you want to stay for the applicant, correct? Yes. Yes. And I think you're probably referring to the Hastings site exclusively. I think it showed both as having minimal. Hastings site is the site that's most unique in the fact that the size of the site and what a tower, a typical tower floor plate that's efficient and is economical requires, has required us to bit into that, the setbacks that are shown. The floor plates are.
typical of towers in Vancouver, but it's the, in terms of 11 foot, there's two aspects of it. There's the portion that's in the podium, which actually has a zero lot line condition with light well, and there's actually a condition that we're prepared to meet, which is to enhance the light into the light well podium units. And above the podium, the tower is set back, and commensurate with the property lines. I'm not sure if answers your question, but 11 foot setbacks. I think on both sides, east and west sides.
Okay, so you're saying it's a function of both the site-specific context as well as the floorplate requirement?
It's a response to what fits on the site with the structure and the top of the tower floor plate.
Okay. I'm going to switch gears a little bit because this seems to be our night for having projects that have been such a huge part of Vancouver's collective memory. I think that was the term used earlier. Can you speak to any sort of treatments with respect to honoring the Army, Navy, the heritage, signage, historical plaques, retention of any components that would be a visual design cues or something that speaks to the significant history of this century old site? Yeah, I don't know if you want to come back and offer, but we, I know the Kuhn family and Jackie has a number of artifacts. Oh, my goodness. Anytime you walk upstairs to what is now the closed Cordova side, it's just. filled with Army and Navy memorabilia, and I'm keeping it for this occasion to be able to have, whether it's scattered through a hotel lobby or it's in an area. My partner and I haven't really gotten to that point, but as you can tell by my emotions tonight, the history of the Army Navy is so important to me. I think some of you were in our
public meeting that we had in the store, and you saw the wall with all the photographs, of black and white. I'm keeping them for this reason. I can't tell you where exactly I'm going to put everything, but the history of the Army and Navy is, as you can see in my emotion is huge. And I think every little artifact, I have written logs from 1919, so I don't know how far back and how much stuff will have room for, but there will be a huge memorabilia history to the new development. Anything on the Exterior, the building with respect to signage treatment design, so there's a plaque that speaks to the history, any other, any design elements? I would say all of the above. It just, I don't know that we've actually gotten to that level yet, if I'm correct, I think so. But I know that right now when you drive down Hastings, and you drive past the Osborne shelter, the Army and Navy sign is still up there, whether that's considered, you know, of that era. Unfortunately, the sign that was on Cordova back decades ago. That was long gone.
Again, I'm not quite there yet, but any part of the memorabilia that is befitting, I would be using. Does that help? Yeah, it does because it's a piece of Vancouver's history, so thank you.
Appreciate it. Thank you, yeah. No, I, so many people, I think some of you, you know, I used to shop there for the fishing gear, for the shoe sale, and those are memories that I hold just so dear. that people remember, you know, being in the Army and Navy. Almost everyone has a story. My mother used to take me or my grandmother, so the heritage from my daughter, who's here with me tonight, my three grandchildren, my mother, and it's all part of our DNA. So thank you for bringing that up. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor GERB Young.
And I'm just going to advance myself for a quick question to staff. Just noting towards the end of the presentation,
you were daylighting. I think that this application isn't necessarily compliant with either policy we have or in some cases we don't have a rezoning enabling policy. Could you just speak to why as staff you're supporting this? Because, you know, sometimes we haven't seen that all the time. You've had presentations where you said, we can't support this because it's not policy compliant. So could you speak to the tradeoffs and why you thought this was worthy of support?
Thank you, Councillor Domino for the question. This was not an easy application to go through. It was definitely, staff definitely had to really consider what was on the table and what's being offered. But I think in summary on balance, as I tried to resummarize it, despite all of these things that were raised, we had to look at the site-specific context. We had to look at the opportunity that was here of buildings that were closed and slowly deteriorating. and the opportunity and the public benefits that were being offered. And on balance, staff came to that conclusion and just said, okay, staff will support this application. Okay. Thank you. Thanks for addressing that question. In that case, I am going to move to call for another call for speakers, and then we'll go to our speakers. If anyone wishes to speak to this item, please call 1833-353-8610, followed by the participant code 106-144-4-5. five pound. Phone number will be displayed on X and is also going to be displayed on the
screen during the recess. We'll now hear from members of the public. Any registered speakers in council chamber please come forward to the left podium, it's the one to my right, when your name is called. Phone in speakers will be unmuted when your name is called. Just a reminder, speakers have up to five minutes to make their comments and should focus their comments on the merit of the application being considered this evening. Our first registered speaker is Brenda Knights. who I believe is in person. Good evening. Ketchka, O-CM. Good evening, council members.
I feel your nervousness as well.
When I stand here as an indigenous person, I feel the responsibility for all of my people.
I'm here to speak for those that can't speak for themselves. Welcome. Thank you for the opportunity. My name is Brenda Nights, and I'm a member of the Quantland First Nation, and I also have ancestral family ties. to the Musqueam. I'm a descendant of Chief Waddle Canem, and I come from his family, the family that met the Simon Fraser expedition at the Quatland Village of Cicate, and what is now known as Brownsville area of Surrey. As a local indigenous person, I carry the stories, teachings, and responsibilities of my family. Our heritage is not only about the past, but also about our relationships to this land. The communities that have lived here for just
generations and the ways we care for future generations. Projects like the Cohen Block and the Army and Navy. Redevelopment are an opportunity to honor that heritage by creating housing and spaces that continue indigenous presence in the city, support families, and respect the land while meeting contemporary needs. I am also the CEO of BC Indigenous Housing Society, and we are thrilled to be chosen as a housing operator of 108 below market units included in this project. And Jackie, my hands go up to you for putting reconciliation into action and inviting us to be part of this project. I acknowledge that this project is on the traditional and unseeded territories of the Musqueam's, Laibututu, and Swamish nations. These lands have long been places of gathering, trade, and community. And indigenous peoples haven't experienced, ongoing displacement in this area as the city has grown. I am thankful for the relationships and family connections to these communities and work hard to honor and preserve their history in their territory. Because of that history, indigenous people often approach development with both care and concern. Gentrification and displacement are real issues, and we have seen supportive housing placed into buildings that were never designed. for that purpose, often as temporary solutions rather than long-term care. The downtown east side, specifically the four-block radius from Maine and Hastings is a testament to the failure of these temporary solutions and the lack of strong leadership we need to implement change. More of the same has only exasperated the social ailments of our city. In contrast, projects like the Cohen Block demonstrate what is possible when house, house and commercial enterprise built intentionally for permanence, dignity, and cultural relevance. Indigenous teachings remind us that meaningful change must consider the next seven generations. And this project reflects the long view responsibility. D.C. Indigenous Housing Society has been engaged on this project for several years, working closely with the development team to ensure this project delivers housing that meets the needs of our community members. We have actively shaped the design and programming to strengthen livability, cultural safety, and spaces that honor indigenous philosophy and values. This project is stronger because indigenous voices were not only heard, but embedded in its foundation. At the same time, we also have a responsibility to be realistic, even affordable housing projects are increasingly difficult to make viable. And with project, When projects don't pencil out, no housing gets built at all. From an indigenous perspective, planning for future generations means finding ways to move forward responsibility, or responsibly not allowing housing to stall. I support the Army and Navy Project and the Cohen Block because it makes use of an existing site, includes meaningful, a meaningful portion of affordable housing, and creates an opportunity to replace temporary measures with permanent, well-designed housing, for many generations to come. Height and density, when done as thoughtfully as this project, exemplifies a necessary solution to the social issues of this area. I also see this project as an opportunity to support Build Canada homes, Canadian workers, and local businesses at a time when our economy and housing system needs that momentum. I encourage Council to move forward, move this project forward while continuing meaningful engagement with the urban indigenous peoples and keeping displacement, affordability, and long-term care at the center of the work. Let's go, OCEM. Thank you, Brenda. Our next speaker is Alexandra Christian. So, Sandra. Welcome. You have five minutes. Thank you, Council members. Thank you for this opportunity to speak about a project that represents not just 108 non-market housing units, but 1008 non-market housing units, but 100, and eight chances for indigenous individuals and families to build stable, dignified lives in our community. My name is Alexandra Christian, and I've spent 17 years working in the housing and social services sector, as a consultant, as a funder, and for the past three years, as a housing provider, seeing firsthand what happens when people finally have a safe, affordable place to call home. In those 17 years, I've learned that housing isn't just about walls and a roof. It's about what happens inside those walls.
It's about a single mother who can finally afford to keep her children with her instead of choosing between rent and groceries.
It's about an elder who can age with dignity in their community rather than being displaced to wherever rent is cheapest.
It is about a young person transitioning out of care who has a foundation from which to build the future rather than cycling through precarious living. situations that make everything else in life harder. Indigenous people in our region face disproportionate barriers to housing stability. The statistics are sobering, but behind every statistic is a person, someone's grandmother, someone's child, someone who deserves better than what their current market offers them. Those 108 below market units represent targeted, meaningful action to address a documented gap in our community. What I've witnessed as a housing provider is transformative. When people have housing security, everything else becomes possible. Children's school attendance improves. Health outcome gets better. People can maintain employment, rebuild family connections, and participate fully in community life. Housing stability is the platform from which people can address every other challenge they face. This project will strengthen our neighborhood by bringing in families, individuals who want to be here, who will contribute to local businesses, schools and community life. Well-managed below-market housing doesn't diminish a community. It enriches it by ensuring diversity and preventing displacement. I urge Council to support this project, not just as a housing initiative, but as an investment in reconciliation, in equity and in kind of inclusive. community we say we want to be. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you very much for your comments. Our next speaker is Royce Schwinn on the phone. Go ahead, Royce. Thank you very much. Good evening again, Council. It's been quite a minute since we spoke. For the record, Royce Schwinn, CEO, Destination, Vancouver and a Vancouver resident. I'm pleased to speak to you for the second time in support of another city and community building project, and that is the real city. development of the former Army and Navy building. I, too, have the memories of shopping with my mom.
That was a big, big day out down to Army and Navy. What an incredible experience in quite a value in shopping there. Great memories for my family. At destination Vancouver, our works sits at the intersection of city building and economic development. And we partner closely with, of course, you the city, local businesses, BIAs, cultural and organizations and community leaders to ensure the growth supports neighborhood vitality, local employment, long-term resilience, which supports a growing annual $9 billion visitor economy. Tourism succeeds when cities succeed, and that means being thoughtful, adaptable, and willing to invest in projects to respond to changing realities while honoring what makes Vancouver unique. This site is deeply embedded into the collective memory of our city, and the Army and Navy building was long seen as that place of accessibility. There was inclusiveness of everyday Vancouver life. Its redevelopment represents a rare and rare. meaningful opportunity to respect that legacy while reimagining the site for contemporary needs and future generations. And what stands out in this proposal is its balance. It is a multifaceted project that brings together significant heritage retention, thoughtfully scaled boutique hotels, secured rental housing, including below market units, and a clear commitment to honoring the spirit of Army Navy, which was a homegrown institution that served Vancouver rights for more than a century. Achieving that balance between preservation and renewal is complex. It's costly, but very, very commendable. I also want to acknowledge the importance of ownership in this story, and that is the Cohen family, is a long time and historic Vancouver family that has retained this property through decades of change, a commitment, their decision to reinvest here speaks to the belief in this neighborhood and the city's future. This is not about short-term extraction. It is about stewardship, reinvestment, and uplifting the community as long as part of Vancouver's economic and social fabric. The impacts of a project like this are felt first and foremost at the neighborhood level. Gas Town on the Hastings Crossing area are defined by their independent retailers, small businesses, and distinctive character. These businesses rely on consistent local spending to survive and thrive and particularly in our uncertain economic landscape. Visitors, of course, play a critical wall in the ecosystem as they spend their dollars locally on accommodations, food, retail, culture, and experiences. Our hotel community impact study outlines how we're going to be a lot of the economy economy economy. study outlines how new hotel supply can meet growing demand while delivering real benefits, job creation, animated streets, millions of dollars in social economic activity that flow directly into surrounding neighborhoods. And I do want to highlight the opportunity presented by the activation of the laneway. Well-designed laneways, as we know, can become vibrant public spaces, supporting small businesses, increasing safety through activity and contributing to more dynamic, interesting, and welcoming public realm. Details matter in city, every foot counts. For all these reasons and those from the speakers before me, Destination Vancouver supports this project. We see it as a thoughtful reinvestment in a historic site, a neighborhood catalypt, and a signal of confidence in Vancouver's future. I encourage council to support the application before you this evening. Thank you once again for your time and consideration. Thank you, Royce, for calling in this evening. We're just going to take a brief 30-second recess. Okay. Oops, we... Good. Thank you, Royce. We're going to move to speaker number four, Ash McLeod. I saw it in person. Welcome. Good evening, everybody. I've been operating a Better Life Foundation out of Save On Meets for the last 12 years, just a couple blocks down from the Army Navy location. Seyamon Meets has been a steward of food security on the same block as Army and Navy since 1957, so neighbors for quite a long time. their closure resonated with us deeply, and it's a considerable loss for our community. It's certainly felt by everybody on that block. In our work, we not only feed people every day of the year through our meal programs, but we host community dinners multiple times a week. We bring people from outside the downtown Eastside community into the Savan Meets Diner and Commissary Kitchen to prepare three-course, restaurant quality, uplifted, dignified meals that we invite our community to join us as guests. It's as much about connection as it is about deliciousness and sustenance and bringing people together and celebrating our community over food. I've hosted about 360 of those dinners, and on top of the meals that we do 365 days a year that go out to people in the downtown yside, these dinners have given me a lot of firsthand perspective into what the residents that aren't often represented in these chambers are living and feeling. It shows the depth in the quality of our community that isn't revealed when you drive down Hastings Street. It's a different look. It's a different feel. And you can never distill the livability or lack thereof that currently exists in our blocks down to a single factor. Of course, there's very complicated equation that has resulted in what we're experiencing as a city. But from the conversations in my first. and experience, I believe a major factor is the vacuum that was created post-pandemic by sweeping closures, people not returning back to offices, a vacancy, and essentially, like I said, a vacuum that's been created. And in that vacuum, negative and nefarious energy filled that void. And it's present, very present in a physical manifestation on those streets today. It makes it unsafe for a lot of the beautiful and wonderful and caring residents, the folks that the women that live in the Rainier Hotel on Carroll, the families that live in the Veronica block across from Army Navy on Hastings Street. Many families are also living in Bob and Michael's place across from us. More families can be found in the Sorella on Pender and Abbott. And, of course, numerous SROs that have really wonderful residents living in there. And they're not living in safe streets. And to make this community more livable, I believe that we need to restore a balance. More shops and services that fit the neighborhood. Access to affordable groceries. Food, of course, is a passion of ours, and having more access to food is critically is critically important. Just generally, more positive. economic activity, not more law enforcement, more balance, proper neighborhood stuff. It's a big responsibility that's being undertaken in this proposal. There's an existing community to respectfully include the indigenous housing component of this project is huge. It speaks to that balance. Army Navist, an Army Navy has a prestigious legacy in this community, and I trust will take the responsibility of being a good neighbor with the weight it deserves and continue that legacy of Army and Navy of being a steward of the community. A Better Life Foundation, Save All Meets, Ash McLeod, we're in support of the Cohen Block going on about this project. Thanks, guys. Thank you, Ash, for your comments this evening. Our next speaker is Derek Kasperson on my phone. Thank you. So I said my name's Derek Kasperson. I'm a resident of Gastown and a board member of the Gastown residents of the Gastown, Association. And I'm here tonight really to speak in my support of the Cohen Block. I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak and for the time and care that you put into reviewing the projects like this. I recognize these decisions aren't easy and that you're balancing many different perspectives. Like many people in our community, I care deeply about how our city grows. I care about housing, jobs, walkable neighborhoods, sustainability, and keeping a sense of balance while planning for the future. I believe this project moves us in the right direction. Since the Army and Navy closed its doors in 2020, this site has been largely underused. It's a key location in the city, but right now, it isn't contributing much to the community. This redevelopment is an opportunity to bring life back to a space that has been dormant for too long. By adding homes, jobs and activity to the neighborhood. I support the Cohen Block redevelopment for three main reasons. First of all, it makes good use of land in the central, well-served area. The site already is close to transit services and amenities. If we want to manage growth responsibly and address housing demand, this is exactly the kind of place where additional density belongs. Building here helps reduce sprawl. and it makes better use of the infrastructure that we already have. Second, the project will greatly improve the site itself. The current building adds very little to the public space. The proposed redevelopment would create more active streetscape. It would improve how the site connects to the surrounding area, and it would bring a more modern and welcoming design. This kind of thoughtful redevelopment is what helps the neighborhood evolve. without losing its character. Number three, the project aligns with the, which I believe the city's broader goals, which is Vancouver has made it clear about the need for more housing in a well-designed and well-designed growth. With the added height to the South Tower, this project will deliver over 600 secured purpose rental homes. And it will also include 500 market rental units and one, over 100, below market rental units operated by the BC Indigenous Housing Society. This project also adds retail and restaurant space, which will help bring activity back into the streets and make the downtown east side more vibrant again. No single project can solve everything, but this one clearly moves the city forth in the right direction. In closing, cities change. Thank you for us. future depends on making careful, balanced decisions about how the change happens. In my view, the Cohen Block redevelopment represents that. For these reasons, I encourage Council to support this project as it will allow us to move forward. It's time to turn the lights back on on the former Army and Navy site. Thank you so much for your time. Good night. Thank you very much for calling in this evening. Our next speaker is Shannon Bose. I'm not sure if I pronounced that correctly. Shannon here is supposed to be person. Good evening. Good evening. And yes, you did pronounce my name last, my last name properly. My name is Shannon, Shannon Bose, and I'm speaking today on behalf of the Gastown Residence Association. The GRA represents residents who live, work, and invest emotionally in Gastown and in Real Town. We care deeply about this neighborhood. It's history, it's people, and its future. After careful consideration and direct engagement with the project team over the past year, the GRA is supportive of the Cohen Block development, and we urge Council to approve it. I want to begin with one word that keeps coming up in our discussions as residents regarding this project, and that word is respect. This project demonstrates respect in several important ways. First, respect for heritage. The former Army and Navy building, the former Army and Navy building is not just another structure. It's a part of Gastown's collective memory.
Many projects promise heritage retention in theory, but the Cohen Block proposal generally preserves
and restores the historic Cordova Street facades and character-defining elements. This is adaptive reuse done properly, honoring the past while allowing the site to function for the city that we live in today. Second, respect for the neighborhood and its history. Navy was once a social anchor in this area. The proposal acknowledges that legacy
by reestablishing the site as a place of activity, connection, and contribution, not a blank, disconnected mega project. Third, respect for city policy and balance.
Unlike other development proposals that we've seen recently offered in the downtown east side that are trying to rely heavily on social housing credit dumping, this project works within the city's 80-20 framework. It delivers a significant amount of secured rental housing with 20% below-market housing, including deeply subsidized units for families. This distinction matters to Gastown residents. Gas Town, Rale Town, and the downtown east side have carried more than our share of the region's support of housing, and we strongly support the city's stated goal of distributing that housing more equitably across Vancouver and the province. Fourth, respect for partnership. We're particularly encouraged by the partnership with the BC Indigenous Housing Society, which will operate 100 below-market rental homes for indigenous individuals and families. This is a meaningful collaboration that aligns with reconciliation goals while delivering real long-term housing
outcomes. Fifth, respect for the community vitality. Gas Town is not just a residential neighborhood. It is a place of small businesses, restaurants, cultural spaces, and tourism. This project brings new residents to support local businesses, smaller scale, street-oriented retail, a much-needed hotel that strengthens the local economy, an activated laneway that improves safety, lighting, and day-to-day livability. These elements help restore gas town as a living neighborhood, not a museum and not a containment zone. As residents, we have also been encouraged by newer supportive housing models in the area, such as Bob and Michael's Place, which show that well-designed, well-managed housing can succeed when done thoughtfully. The Cohen Block proposal aligns with that evolution. Importantly, this project has the has not appeared overnight. It has been over four years in the making with multiple rounds of community engagement, revisions, and city-led open houses. The GRA has met with the project team, asked hard questions, and seen our concerns taken seriously. No project is perfect, but this one is responsible, balanced, and forward-looking, and it reflects the kind of development that residents can support. Council is often asked to weigh competing. pressures, housing needs, heritage protection, economic revitalization, and neighborhood livability. The Cohen Block does not solve every challenge in Gastown, but meaningfully advances all of these goals at once. On behalf of the Gastown Residence Association, I want to thank Council for the time and care you've taken to giving this application. We respectfully urge you to approve the Cohen Block development and allow the long-awaited project. to move forward. Thank you. Thank you for your comments this evening. Our next speaker is Landon Hoyt.
And it on the line. Go ahead, Landon. Yes. I'm in the council. My name is Landon Hoyt, and I'm the
executive director of the Hastings Crossing Business Improvement Association. Haysen's Crossing represents over 800 businesses and commercial property owners in the downtown Eastside, ranging from Gore to Richard Street. I'm here tonight to express our support for the rezoning application for the Cohen block at West Hastings and West Cordova. This area is the historic heart of the city, but it's also a place that has experienced prolonged this investment. From our perspective on the ground, what's needed most right now is thoughtful, well-planned investment that brings people, activity, and long-term stewardship back to our streets. We see this proposal as an opportunity to advance several important city goals at once. First, we're particularly supportive of the new ground floor retail and small business spaces proposed as part of this development. Hastings Street and Cordova Street are critical pedestrian corridors. When ground floors are active and well designed, they help animate the public realm, support safety through everyday activity, and create opportunities for local entrepreneurs. These kinds of street level uses are essential to restoring vibrancy and making the area feel welcoming, safe, and alive. Second, the addition of significant rental housing across a mix of income. is a major strength of this proposal. Both market and below market rental housing are urgently needed in this community. New residents help sustain local shops, services, and amenities, and they play a critical role in building a stable, resilient, local economy. More people living in the neighborhood means more life on the street and more support for existing businesses. We're also very supportive of the hotel component on West Cordova. Additional hotel capacity helps bring visitors into the area, support local restaurants, and retailers and reinforces the role of this neighborhood as a destination for culture, history, food, and commerce. When paired with strong ground floor uses, visitor activity can be meaningful contributor to economic recovery. Another important aspect of this proposal is the commitment to collaboration with indigenous partners and local economic development organizations. Ensuring that retail spaces are accessible to social enterprises and community serving businesses is critically important in the downtown East These partnerships help ensure that new development delivers tangible benefits for the community, supports inclusive economic participation, and reflects the social and cultural fabric of this neighborhood. We recognize that the proposed heights exceed existing policy in both the Victory Square and Gas Town sub areas. From our perspective, this application deserves careful consideration given the scale of housing being delivered, the economic benefits, and its alignment with broader city goals related to housing. housing, supply, reconciliation, and inclusive growth. In closing, Hasing Crossing encourages council to support a path forward that enables new housing, active ground floors, and community serving uses to move ahead in this critical part of the city. We believe projects like this, when done botfully, can help rebuild vibrancy, strengthen the local economy, and support more resilient and inclusive downtown Eastside. Thank you for your time and thank you especially to the Cohen family for their dedication and legacy this neighborhood and for the larger team behind this project for the engagement and thoughtfulness present the future of the downtown side thank you london. Thank you, Landon, for calling you this evening. Our next speaker is Elise Jorkowski. On the phone. Elise, go ahead. Hi there. Good evening council and thank you for this opportunity
to speak. My name is Elise Yerkowski and I am the executive director of the Gastown Business Improvement Society, representing more than 600 businesses and property owners in one of Vancouver's most historic and economically important.
neighborhood. I am a Vancouver resident and I am speaking in support of the rezonia application for the Cohen Block. Gas Town is at a pivotal moment. We are a neighborhood with enormous cultural value, economic potential and community at our core, but one that has also carried more than its share of challenges in recent years, including the closure of the Army and Navy Department store. Maintaining Gastown's vitality requires thoughtful, intentional development that supports businesses, residents and the millions of visitors who walk our streets each year. This proposal does that. It brings together mixed income housing, a long-needed hotel, indigenous reconciliation, laneway revitalization, and active commercial frontages in a way that aligns with multiple city objectives and responds directly to what our businesses and communities have been asking for. For over a decade, GBIS has advocated for hotel capacity in Gaptown. Vancouver's hotel shortage is well documented and anyone, working in our neighborhood can vouch for how many visitors want to stay in Gasstown but simply cannot. A hotel here is more than just additional rooms. It's a catalyst for stability and vibrancy. It supports independent retailers, strengthens restaurants, improve street presence at all hours, and helps maintain and sustain the cultural and economic ecosystem that defines Gagstown. Its inclusion fills a critical gap in our land use mix. We also strongly support the proposals mixed income housing and new ground floor commercial space. Fast time relies on a balanced mix of residents, workers, businesses, and visitors. Without that balance, the neighborhood cannot thrive. More residents living close to shops and services translates directly into safer, more animated streets. And high-quality commercial furnages, not empty or underutilized spaces are essential for the small businesses that anchor this store district. This proposal strikes that balance. Yes, the proposal, height exceeds current policy, but the policy contact itself is evolving. The city has stated repeatedly through the Gastown Public Spaces Plan, through housing Vancouver Strategy, and through hotel development, that it needs more housing, more commercial activation, and more hotel rooms in the area best suited for them. This project delivers on all three while preserving heritage and legacy. We believe the public benefits outweigh the policy variance. For all these reasons, GBIS supports this rezoning application and encourages council to allow this mixed-use project to move forward as proposed. We remain committed to working closely with the Cohen family, with the developer, and city staff to ensure that the next stages of design and management, strengthen gas towns resiliency, heritage character, and long-term economic health. Thank you for your time and for your continued attention to the future of our neighborhood. Thanks for calling in this evening. Our next speaker is Danielle Shoyan-Francis. No? Okay. Go ahead, Danielle. Hi, my name is Danielle. Troyan. I am a lengthy resident. I'm more late.
It's very difficult for me to speak right now. Sorry, I'm outside due to the fact that I don't have a home. I am homeless at this time.
And my thought of this is the fact that we have over 5,000 empty condos right now, and I don't see as building more to be empty, like, when it's going to call it. the problem. There's over 100 people that lived in the Osborne shelter at this present time that are in the Army maybe site. And then also the other SROs that are there, I'm just more concerned about what would happen to the people there. It's going to be, they're going to be displaced once again. I understand, like, having 108 below profit market, like, for families to have a place to live. Like, I am a mother as well, and I've been going through a difficult time. in my life and I just feel that it needs to be addressed more to have more affordable housing. And I don't think this is going to create more affordable housing. When I look around and I see empty condos everywhere, and there's people still sleeping in the streets and dying in the street as of now. Like, I've missed my time to go sign in to where I live, and I will be outside tonight. And it's a shame because I wanted to speak on behalf of the people. of the downtown East Ends because we need to have a place to live as well. I'm trying to better myself so that I can be a part of normal life once again. And it's difficult when on a daily basis I have to deal with the city and the VPD, they come around and they steal items and I have to go out to find out how I'm going to get a tent or get blanket, so on and so forth. And I'm on income assistance at this present time. So, and I only get $600 to live off the road. And I feel that doing this is not full on the right decision to be making, because, again, we're still going to have people not having a place to live once the project would happen, because now the Osborne shelter will be shut down, and there will be people on the streets once again. So I'm about making sure that the streets are safe for everybody and not having people living outside anymore. There has to be a way. to create that so everybody's happy. I'm not quite sure how to make that happen without speaking on behalf of everybody else. And I'm hoping that you guys will make the right choice and maybe increasing the amount of a low profit margin and housing so that there's more opportunity so people can, that wants to change their life so that they can have their families be a part of their life again would be very important to me. That's all I can really say. And I thank you for the opportunity to let me speak. And I'm hoping that what I've said is okay. Thanks, Danielle, for calling in this evening. Thank you. Our next speaker is Rachel Penner, also on the phone. Go ahead, Rachel. Hi there. Can you hear me? Yes, go ahead. You have five minutes to address council.
Great, thank you. My name is Rachel, and this development is going to steal
my morning sunshine permanently.
The construction of this development is going to disrupt my sleep, compromise the air that I breathe, and reduce my quality of life for an unknown number of years.
It will also negatively impact my ability to generate income. And I know this council cares about the business community. I have a business, so I hope that means you care about me too. I'm a self-employed solopreneur, and I require a calm, quiet, and controlled environment in my home to do my work. In other words, I'm going to be struggling with productivity for the entirety of this construction project. And so when I look at the costs that I'm going to be paying for this development, some temporary, some permanent, I ask myself, is it worth what this will bring to my neighborhood? Because the truth is, I love my neighborhood. I love my community and I love where I live. I live. I walk through the downtown. side all the time. Alone at night, I've never been threatened by my unhoused neighbors. And it's the first place I've lived in my 40-plus years of existence that I've been able to see myself living permanently. So I would sacrifice a lot if it meant that my neighborhood and my community would reap long-term positive benefits. After reviewing this proposal, there are definitely positives in it, but I cannot support it completely without one adjustment. The percentage of non-market housing in this development must be increased and shelter rate units must be included. I'm a lifelong renter and a huge supporter of purpose-built rental building. So why not give unconditional support to a tower full of purpose-built rental units? Because the majority of them are not affordable. I honestly don't know anyone who can pay market rate. I'm paying market. rate and it costs 50% of my income. So technically, that means what I'm living in is unaffordable housing.
The downtown east side is home to more than 2,000 people with no fixed address. Now, that's likely an undercount and the number is only going up. This development doesn't house them. It brings in a boutique hotel with fancy rooftop amenities that will only be accessible to wealthy tourists who come and go and don't care about this community. In fact, those tourists are likely to complain about the people who are forced to live on the streets because nobody has built housing for them. I wonder if I will even be able to shop at the retail coming into this development. I can't afford nesters. I can't afford the shops on Water Street. How is this project going to be different? It seems that this is a business. did have a repeat of the gentrifying Woodward's development. Have we already forgotten how that turned out? I mean, everyone's been in an uproar since London drugs left. And I'm just wondering, is this project applying lessons learned from what didn't work at Woodward's? Council right now has an opportunity to make just one adjustment to this proposal so that it falls in line with what the developers' own. public engagement found. The community here wants low income, deep subsidy, below market housing, fewer market rental. I am reading this straight from the developer's application booklet. So if you all are going to go to the effort of creating housing, I beg of you, let poor people live in that housing. Please don't make my suffering and lost income. from this project be in vain. Require this project to house unhoused people and not create conditions for further discrimination against them.
Thank you so much. Thank you for calling this evening. Our next speaker is number 11, Louis Fernando Braha Barrera.
In person, good evening, and thank you for your time. I'm going to speak in instead of Fernando as a translator. We have a business very, very, very, close to the project and we want to speak about our experience as a business owner. We believe that this construction, this new project will bring important benefits to a restaurant and the neighborhood. New developments can bring more residents, more activity, and improve the safety and cleaner, and more organized and environmental. This will help our business by attracting new customers and creating better experience for everyone in this area. At the same time, we would like to address an ongoing challenge that is affecting our daily operations. We daily experience individuals who stand in front of our business. We're talking about homeless. They are affecting affecting our business because they are stand up right in front of our entrance and they are unpredictable and sometimes aggressive. For safety reasons, we are forced to keep our doors or door lock and when customer arrive, they think that we are close, but this, and they leave. So we have contact the authorities to help, but the process is slow. So this affects our business. We believe that this project will help to improve the safety for the community, for our staff, and for the customers. Thank you. Thank you for those
comments this evening. Our next speaker is Steve Johnson on the line. Oh, in person. Welcome.
Hello, Mayor, and Council. It's great to be before you tonight to speak in support of this project. My name is Steve Johnston. I'm not a resident of Vancouver, but I am the executive director of CIRAS, a community impact real estate society. CERAS is an organization designed to curate a portfolio of commercial real estate that can be made available at below market rates to nonprofits, social enterprises, and other businesses committed to providing affordable goods and services to residents of Van Goges. Hoover. We've had many interesting and productive discussions with the BOSA and broader project team on the small-scale retail included in this particular proposal. In particular, the below-market portion on West Hastings has a real opportunity to deliver a community benefit through the retail space. Our goal with these discussions is to work together to help secure a community-minded retailer that speaks to the needs of a wide variety of people, the residents of the building, the current residents in the surrounding area, the business community, the long-standing community, the long-standing community organizations in the neighborhood and the visitors who come here to experience Vancouver. I have to add that it's also encouraging to see the beginnings of an economic revitalization strategy in this proposal, one that I think moves beyond a sole focus on community safety and addresses livability and community economic development. I think there's been a lot of conversation over the past few weeks about the loss of retail in the downtown east side and the surrounding area. And I think that's why this project is incredibly vital. It provides a roadmap for how the development sector, not-for-profit, community members and BIAs can come together and leverage something new to create affordability in commercial retail space. That's a bit of a diversion from my current remarks, but it just feels so pressing right now. And listening to you speak about the heritage of Army Navy has been such an important guide for our conversations in this with BOSA and with our community partners. This is an essential opportunity to, again, leverage policy to create deep. affordability so that through partnership, we can return some vestige of what Army Navy is to this community. And I'm really excited about that possibility. I think it's a really meaningful chance to do something different in the absence of other policies that we've had in the past, like a CVA community benefit agreement policy. Again, more broadly, having experience in this particular neighborhood, the inclusion of a new boutique hotel alongside the mix of market and below-market rental housing will help bolster and stabilize the local economy. We look forward to seeing this project come to fruition, and I hope to see it approved tonight. Thank you for listening. Thank you, Steve. Our next speaker is Amy Robinson.
Amy, go ahead. Hello, Mayor and Council. It's Amy Robinson. I'm the founder and executive director of Local BC. We're a non-profit organization. We conduct research and do campaigning to support
local businesses, raising awareness of the economic and community benefits of small and local businesses. I'm also a resident of East Vancouver and a frequent visitor to the downtown east side, and I support the project. We work closely with many of the business improvement areas and businesses in the area and believe that the project will help bring much needed vitality to the area, helping to increase foot traffic for all businesses, make our streets safer for business owners and their staff, their customers, and help fill empty storefronts. The majority of nearby BIAs are populated with independent businesses, and I think the project team has done a good job creating partnerships to ensure that the retail space will fit in well with the area and prioritizes small and local businesses. The project developer, both the properties, is an important partner on current research that we're doing on commercial affordability, and I appreciate that they have set aside that commercial space on the ground floor to be offered at below market rent to help entrepreneurs get small. businesses started, especially social enterprises. That kind of awareness and sensitivity to the neighborhood should be recognized. And I feel like it's a rare project that balances below market housing with commercial space that's also accessible to small local businesses and social enterprises. And the project's partnerships with the Indigenous Housing Society and plans for below market and nonprofit leasing shows they've worked very hard to ensure that the project reflects the neighborhood. while working to revitalize the block and the neighboring area. So I'm in support of the project, and I hope that you'll approve it tonight. Thank you. Thank you very much for your comments this evening. Our next speaker is Mark Smith. Yes, go ahead, Councillor. Mark, just hang on one moment. I have a counselor who has a quick question. Go ahead, Councillor Kerr-Bion. Yeah, thanks, Chair. Just appointed procedure noting the time and that we just have a few speakers to go. I just wanted to move a motion for counsel's consideration to extend
past 10 to complete this item tonight.
Okay, that's a motion on the floor. Do we have a seconder? Second. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor?
I just get confirmation of how counselors voted online because I can't see. Who's that in favor? Okay, that is unanimous. So we will extend past 10 o'clock and do debate and decision this evening.
Now we'll go back to our speaker list and we have Mark Smith on the line.
Go ahead, Mark. You have five minutes to address council. Yes, thank you very much, and thank you to counsel for the opportunity to speak. I would like to provide a perspective. First of all, I want to say I agree with the proposal 100%.
I am the president of the Stratacorp of 53 West Hastings, a small heritage conversion that is a stone's throw away from the proposed development, close to Abbotton Hastings. I've heard many great comments tonight. I won't try to repeat them. But I want to give a perspective similar to the gentleman who spoke from Savon Meets because we literally live almost next door and we face the issues that are going on in the neighborhood, which are in desperate need of revitalization. And I think this proposal provides that. And I'm speaking on behalf of the majority of our residents in our small little Harris conversion on 53 West Hastings. I've spoken to many people. and the neighborhood is in real desperate need of revitalization. I would like to read to you an email from one of the residents because I think it speaks to a lot of, you know, how we all feel, at least in our building. So this is from one of our residents. I'll read it to you now. My name is Satoro Inu, a resident in Gastown, specifically 53 West Hastings. I wanted to submit my feedback regarding the development. as a resident of the block that's related to these two joint, I strongly support the redevelopment of the former Army and Navy buildings. I know the neighborhood for 20 years, and I've lived in it for more than five years combined. The previous longstanding policies that practically prevented any development in the area since the early 2010s into the mid-2020s only made the dire situations in the downtown. county side worst. Worse. The alley between Cordova and Hastings on the block is an open air toilet at best, while the Hastings sidewalk is also filled with human feces, urine, needles, and other drug substances, and I walk there every single day. Sorry, I'm just trying to scroll through my email here. The Baba Michael's building that was recently completed has many. small and young children living in it, and they have to witness and walk through these daily as well. We should immediately stop normalizing such circumstances, and in my opinion, a certain degree of gentrification will help and must happen. I understand there may be concerns of over gentrification by many folks, but I'd like to point out that the status quo that has maintained the last 15 years has been ineffective. In fact, it is the opposite. it's going in the opposite direction. It's about time we did something differently. And I have to really emphasize, like, as the president of our Stratacorp, or a small little building, we don't have a concierge. I have to deal with these matters on a daily basis. On a daily basis, we have people urinating and defecating in our doorway. On a daily basis, people starting fires, people are threatening people. People are leaving our building. And I heard early on in the presentations, from city staff. There's been concerns about gentrification and protecting certain historical values. Right now, all we're protecting is despair and decline. And people are literally, like, I've literally been threatened and told that we need to leave, like our building needs to leave the neighborhood because it belongs to others and not people, not residents that want to live there. And they want us to, they want us, to leave. And so I just really want to emphasize that this is a very wholesome, integrated, thoughtful development. We wholly support it, and we are residents that live throw away from the buildings. We wholly support it, and the neighborhood is desperately in need a revitalization. There's a reason London drugs left, and nobody's being displaced by this development. In fact, you have a very solid good, nonprofit, indigenous housing association that is part of this.
They're in fact, they're creating a social housing, and we just, we really wholeheartedly support this. We applaud Jackie Cohen for moving ahead with such a thoughtful development. But as the residents of a building that is very close by, we are literally, like, pleading for this development to go ahead. Residents are moving out. I helped a young man move in.
Mark, Mark, I'm just going to jump in. You've reached your five minutes, so I just, I appreciate you calling in this evening.
Again, on behalf of our building, we really support this development. Thank you so much.
Okay. Thank you very much for taking the time to call in this evening. I'm just going to take a brief pause. Just for counselors who have joined us partway through the public hearing, just noting that if you do wish to vote on this item, we will have to take a recess for you to get an update from clerks on the presentations as well as any speakers that you missed. So just noting that, and you should have requested that in advance. So just making that clear because we're getting close to the end of speakers. Next speaker is Jackie Sign. Is Jackie here in Chambers? No? Is she on the line then? No. Okay. Our next speaker is Ed Benton Evans. On the phone? Okay. Thank you. That brings us to the end of our speaker list. Are there any other speakers in chambers that wish to speak?
There are.
Again, just a reminder, your name, resident, and to keep your comments focused on the merit of application.
My name is Sean Cassidy. I'm from Vancouver.
Yes. I'm here to speak on the project. It wasn't really an intention, but being here, I know this project. I know the area very well. I know the Army and Airbnb store extremely well. For respect to the Co-Rbey store. family for what they've done over generations with neighborhood, the store, New Westminster, tremendous anchor in this city. I can't say enough about how the Army and Navy anchored the city. You go to the New York and you go to the Bronx. There's a store called Conways. Have you ever heard of Conways? It's very similar to Anchors Fordham Road. Reflecting back here, circling back. I was a former deputy treasurer of Canada mortgage and housing. I've raised a lot of money, done a lot of projects, worked as an investment banker, finance real estate, work for developer. This project, given the neighborhood to the area, it's a lot of density. And the notion of affordable housing is it's 20%. And market rental for our one bedroom here will probably be around $4,000, $38,000 a month. So does it fit into the neighborhood? Has planning what they stated about the... does it match the zoning in the area? It's a stretch. This is a game changer. It's very similar to what's going on in Vancouver. We had the Broadway plan. You up-zoned the whole downtown east side. You took out the view cones. So this is an added next up, you know, this is like density night tonight. I support the Army and Navy. This project, I think it's too much beyond what's encompassed. in the context of the neighborhood. In terms of the social aspects of the neighborhood, I feel change is needed. I also worked at Oppenheimer Park when I was a student. I ran Oppenheimer. I know the area extremely well. There's a lot of issues in that neighborhood. And it's very hard to run a business. Chinatown has been directly impacted. But this neighborhood is in the building. It's just gentrification, effectively, with the 20% aspect I know Carol Lee in Bob's house and go back a long way with that project. So I think the planning department kind of stick handled this end. But I think as counselors, you have to ask serious questions around this project and around the future of the downtown east side if you want to turn it into the next park place. Because there's a lot of things that are not being asked. So I'll leave it with you and I'll leave it with that. But for respect to the Army Navy store, for respect to, you know, the anchor of the city in a lot of ways, going back to the days when Hasty Street was extremely vibrant in the 30s, 40s, 50s. So kudos.
Okay, thanks. Thank you for those comments. Do we have any other speakers in chambers?
There are none?
Do we have any others online this time? Okay, thank you. This will be our third and final call for speakers. If there's any speakers who wish to speak to this item, please call 1833-353. 8610, followed by participant code 1061445 pound. The phone number is posted on X and will be displayed during the recess. Council will now take a two-minute recess. Thank you. Do we have any further speakers on the line?
We do have one speaker. Okay.
Unknown. Okay. It's a speaker on the line. If you could just identify yourselves and whether you live in the city of Vancouver and whether you're speaking in support or in opposition to the application.
Sure. My name is Amit Johal. I live in Chinatown, and I'm speaking in support of the application.
I know it's been a long night for you all, so I'll keep my comments short, and I do appreciate the opportunity to share. All of us who have spoken tonight share a deep passion and commitment to our community, and I have deep respect for that. I applaud everyone for making the effort to participate this evening and share opinions. One of the main reasons I'm in support of this proposal is the many years of engagement that I've observed from the applicant, which I believe is reflected in what's before you today. You can see through the application progression how they've tried to balance what makes sense economically with what the community needs. I believe it's landed on a balanced application that will deliver tangible benefits to diverse members of the neighborhood and local stakeholders. I really appreciate the partnership with BC Indigenous housing, which will ensure that the below market homes are operated by experts, which I think is needed with years of experience in the neighborhood, inherently understanding the needs of the community. I believe the boutique hotel will also be an asset here. The Gastown neighborhood is full of unique shops, as in our Chinatown neighborhood as well, and the visiting community will help to provide a steady income base for these deserving businesses and the future retail included on site as well. And finally, as you know, we need housing. The market rental paired with the below market will provide new homes for the many in search of new professionally managed, secured rental housing in the downtown area. I'll end my comments. there. So thank you for listening, and I hope to hear that this marquee site can continue to be a legacy site for Vancouver. Thank you.
No.
And I'm not seeing any others at the podium at this time. And so I will now close the speakers list. Has there been a large volume of public comments received since 5 p.m.?
No.
Thank you, clerks. In that case, I'll also close receipt of public comments. Does the applicant have any closing comments or remarks?
No. Okay.
Does we close? Anything in writing?
Okay. Well, in that case, counsel, time for decision. Can I get someone to move the recommendation?
Moved? Seconded.
And if you could put yourselves on the queue, I'll just clear, hang on, just let me clear it for one sec. Put yourselves on the queue for comments. Sorry, you know what, counsel, I should have asked if there was any final questions. You do have questions? Okay. You can do it as a point of information, I think, at this point. This is the recommendations, we moved. My apologies, that was just my bad. Go ahead, Councillor Maloney.
Yeah, through the chair, I've just got three very brief questions of staff, just to follow up on a couple of issues that were raised by speakers, because it's important to me that we do. respond and get answers. So one of the speakers mentioned Osborne Shelter. Now, I can see that in the report, the rezoning site doesn't have existing rental residential uses. Can you just provide some explanation as to what that query might have been about that the public speaker raised, the Osborne Shelter? There was a concern that it would close as a result of this.
Thank you, Councillor, for the question. There is currently a shelter operating on the Hastings site. It's an 80-bed, 24-hour shelter. The intention is to keep that shelter open for as long as possible, but yes, through your development, the shelter will close.
And what are the arrangements for the people that live in that shelter once it closes?
I'm sorry, I don't have an answer to that question. The shelter is funded by BC Housing, and supported by BC Housing. housing. Portland Housing Society operates that shelter. I don't have an answer. I would be speculating, but I would say that it's likely that they would try to shift individuals to other shelters in the city.
Okay. There was also a query raised about, there were concerns raised about the impact of construction on neighbouring residences. Can you speak to any measures that? that might be in place to reassure that speaker about the impact.
Thank you very much for the question. The city does have noise control bylaws and construction bylaws. I'm going to ask my colleague from engineering to just talk a little bit about those.
Thank you for the question. My name is Robin Wilkinson. I'm speaking for engineering. The construction will have to take place in line with the city of Vancouver noise bylaw. In addition to that, the project will have to meet with engineering prior to taking place to make sure that all construction and street use is in line with city guidelines. They'll need to apply for permits, but I have to get traffic management plans for any street closures that are requested.
Okay. Thanks very much. And there was also an expression of dissatisfaction with the percentage of non-market housing
incorporated in the proposal. Can you speak to the effect on viability of the project? in the current market conditions if additional affordability in terms of inclusive zoning was added to this project, please. Unfortunately, that is a question better suited to the applicant. The current proposal, as is, was evaluated by staff. There is, if it's one thing with the current proposal and the current market mix and below market mix and the public benefits, including the non-market space, the facade retention, all those costs, there is no additional lift. that was found in this project.
Thanks very much.
I'm all done. Thank you, Councillor Maloney. Councillor Kirby Young. And just a note to counselors, because I did miss giving you time to ask questions before moving the recommendations, I am giving everyone the opportunity to ask final questions,
and then we'll do debate and decision. But your purview. If you don't have questions, you can see. Do you want to canvas to see if any of those councils have questions before we get into a mix of comments? Do the counselors online who are in the queue have questions to staff? No. Councillor Montague, Councillor Bly, Councillor Montague does have questions. So maybe we'll advance Councillor Montague. I'm not sure about Councillor Bly, do you have questions? Or just comments.
Okay.
So we'll just say advance Councillor Montague, thank you for the suggestion. That's for Kirby Young. And then everyone else put yourselves back on the queue for debate.
Councillor Montague, go ahead. I think you might be. Yeah, thanks, Chair. Just a quick clarification question. One of the speakers mentioned something about that he figured the rent for a market rental in this building for a one-bedroom would be $3,800 to $4,000. Can staff just confirm with, so that's on record what market rate, what a typical market rental in this area would be for a one-bedroom?
Thank you very much for the question. I'm going to turn that question over to housing staff. They are online. Thanks, Jean. Thank you, Councillor, for the question. Emily Brooker Housing Regulation. For market rental, for newer market rental on the east side of Vancouver, So that's Market Venture kind of built from 2050 onwards. We're looking at about kind of 2000 for a studio up to about 4,000 for a three bed.
Okay, but for a one bedroom, so $2,200 or something.
Looking at about $2,500, basically.
Okay, not $3,800 to $4,000.
No.
Great. I just want to clarify for that. Thank you.
Thank you, Councillor Montague. And now I'll advance Councillor Kirby Young. And just as a reminder, we've already moved and seconded the recommendations, so we are into debate for this item. So please add yourselves to the queue if you want to offer comments before voting.
Thanks.
Thanks, Chair. I will be brief, because I think a lot has been said quite honestly by the proponents and by the speakers, but I'll just say clearly I'm fully in support of this project. I do think it's been done with a lot of care and thought and attention. There's a partnership between Cohen family, a recognition, of the history of Army and Navy. You've got a well-known builder in the city partnering and nonprofit involvement. So I think it should be noted that it is a departure. There's an absence of a rezoning policy within the parcel that fits in the gas town side, and then a departure from the other. But I think what's noteworthy here is that with the 583 units, 155 or BMR, below-market rental, but as we heard from one of my colleagues' questions earlier, It's a much deeper level of affordability than is typically required of those BMR units. And so I do think that that's noteworthy. And in terms of the context, I think it provides sort of important rationale for considering it. By and large, we heard the majority of positive comments with some concerns I recognize from a couple of folks in the neighborhood. But I thought it was most compelling. One of the speakers was Ash McLeod from Save On Meats, who I thought it's spoke kind of straight to the heart of it about the need to restore balance in the neighborhood. And I think that that is something that has been very much on the mind of this council in recent votes and decisions with respects to bringing more balance back into the downtown east side in the adjacent areas. In terms of a mix of people, backgrounds, income levels, et cetera, will be healthy for everybody. And I think that this project sort of represents and reflects. that. I think there's care and consideration with respects to bringing in V.C. Indigenous housing. I really appreciated hearing from them with the connectivity between the two buildings and the shared amenities. And so all in all, I think it's been done with some care here. The heritage facade retention is an important one. I know that's gone through the respective reviews there. And interestingly, no incursion on view cones despite the increased heights. So I do think there's a lot of positive. about this one. The one thing I heard that didn't satisfy me completely, I'll be honest, was around the history. I appreciated the hearing from Ms. Cohen around how much history is retained, but I didn't necessarily feel that in the design explicitly. I'm sure it'll be reflected well, and I take that to heart within sort of the building. But I do think that there's some consideration that can be given to the exterior around signage consideration of the sign or a sign that is inspired by if the old sign is not workable at this point, heritage plaques, something that I think we need to do a better job of really recognizing these places and spaces that have been part of our kind of collective histories. Our cities are not static. They continue, their organic organisms in a sense. They continue to grow and evolve and they should. But I do think there's a place to recognize some of that history. So I'm just going to, you know, make that suggestion that I think there's some things that can be done there with respects to signage, Black's history or something that speaks to the sense of place. And I will say that I have been to my fair share of Army Navy shoe sales and had a few hot dogs back in the day at the cafe to kind of power up in between and keep going. And it was a big deal to kind of go to the area downtown and to go and to go and have that experience. It is part of, I think, people's memories. collectively of what Vancouver has seen. Now I'm getting per clumped. But it is, right? And these are moments. So I think it will take on its next chapter and its next life, but we should
Thank you. Counselor Kirby Young. Councillor Meisner. Yeah, thanks. I think this is really exciting. And I know there's so much passion and love in this project and could feel that tonight. from from Jackie and your family. And I think it's in great hands. And I used to live in Gastown and I used to go to Army and Navy and walk through it. And, you know, I even, there's like a small kind of grocery canned foods section and stuff. I used to buy stuff there. And yeah, I have lots of good memories. And I know like what a hole it's put in the neighborhood since the closure. And this is going to just really, really bring a lot of life back to the, this part of Gastown and the downtown East side. it will help a lot of people too. And I think that's, you know, what's really important about this. I think it's really impressive, the level of affordability that you're going to be able to provide here for people that are really in need of, you know, new housing. As was mentioned by some of the speakers and, you know, we all are aware of the poor conditions in many of the SROs in the neighborhood. And those people deserve to be in dignified housing. And that's what this project is going to help provide. And on top of that, of course, it's going to, you know, bring new people to the neighborhood as well, renters and also the nonprofit or social purpose retail space. I think it's a great idea. So, and the heritage retention and the history of the site. And there's like, I think there's so many positive things about this. And it's just really well thought out and really well considered. And I'm really excited to support it. And again, just so happy to see something happen here that has a public benefit. So thanks for all of your efforts in making this happen and get to this point.
Thank you. Councillor Meisner. Councillor Frye. Yeah. Thanks, Chair. And I've been listening online.
I know you were asking earlier, but, and I did want to participate on this one. I have been paying attention. And I think, I don't even know if it was last term or when it was that I attended the open house when they were first sort of positioning around this after Army and Navy had closed, I guess. during COVID and what a gap that was. And knowing, and like many of speakers and counsel, you know, so many memories from Army and Navy and what a presence that has been in the neighborhood. So I do really appreciate the thoughtful approach to this. I realize that that there are concerns in the community around how it should be delivering more low market housing, et cetera. But the reality is that I think achieving this on its own, it is doing a lot of heavy lifting in the absence of like the big government intervention. I do worry about what happens with the relocation of the Buda Osborne shelter because obviously that is providing a very critical shelter space, but I recognize that that's not necessarily the responsibility of the coens and the proponents here. So I do want to just echo the real appreciation for the social purpose real estate and providing this sort of below market retail opportunity, which I think is really part of the antidotes of some of the concerns that we hear about gentrification, recognizing that, you know, we do have new residents that will be coming in that will be contributing to the neighborhood in other ways. And I think that this sort of street level integration through social purpose real estate is actually a big part of what will make this project success. I'm very happy to see it moving forward. It has been a while. And clearly it's a gap that's needed to sort of rebuild some of the streetscape there and make it more accessible for everyone and improve that part of the street because it has been pretty blighted since the shop has since the department are closed. And I think this is, you know, it'll be, appreciate the concerns around construction and what that'll look like, but I think it'll be on the whole, a very good addition. And I really appreciate the heritage retention, especially on the Cordova sideways. just such a handsome building. Thanks. Thank you. Councillor Frye. Councillor Bly. Go ahead. Thanks very much. And I just want to share my appreciation to the speakers. And particularly the Cohen family, of course,
provide services. And we heard from many of them, as well as residents who signed up to speak, whether in favor or opposed, these processes are very important to hearing the feedback from the community. You know, I think given all of that and the time and attention that has been sort of shepherded this project along since its inception, demonstrates the care and attention that, I would say, the Cohen family and in partnership with the builder to bring something that really is a continued legacy of the Army and Navy store in terms of servicing the community. And we don't often see projects like this one come along because of how comprehensive the application is in covering a lot of important components that we need in this community, whether it's the hotel to activate the tourism side and really link and bring a net positive to gas town and Chinatown and and rail town and other parts of the neighborhood. But also that was sort of already identified is that deeply affordable housing. And while we really can't get enough deeply affordable housing, I think the fair share in this particular development is on balance. I really see that there's a clear intention to add to the neighborhood in this application. And, you know, again, I think that, you know, we've all got our sort of nostalgia to share in terms of our time at Army Navy, Navy, which also highlights, and I think some speakers spoke very well, is that we've seen a decline in affordable retail in this community. And it's, it is starting to really have a significant impact. So I think we've got to turn our attention after this as a council, as a city. and work in partnership with business stakeholders to figure out how we can meet that need that is clearly increasing in the community as we speak. So in terms of affordable retail, but for now, I think this project is a really one to celebrate and I think we'll offer a transformative moment for the community in many ways. And I just want to highlight, again, others have spoken to the social impact real estate. component and just want to appreciate the developer who I know really took that on in terms of finding out more and what's out there and what's become a really impactful practice, particularly in and around the downtown east side in terms of leveraging below market retail and making sure that the community feels part of what this project can be. So with that, I'm happy to and my support and appreciate my colleagues' comments tonight and the application in general. So thank you very much. That's it. Thank you, Councillor Bly. And I'm just going to advance myself in the queue as well. Similarly, I'm going to echo the appreciation for all the speakers to our staff,
the Cohen family, the applicant. I think you're going to hear some common themes here. And so I'm actually not going to repeat what my colleagues have said because I really could just say, ditto, ditto, ditto, ditto, because I think they've really encapsulated I think the flavour of why this application is so powerful, really in just meeting a whole variety of objectives that also fits with the existing neighbourhood and community. But as I was listening to the speakers, I was listening to the application, I wrote down the words, legacy, history, renewal, hope. And I think the word that stood out the most from the speakers, was balance — of really achieving the right balance in this project. And so I am happy to support it. I applaud you for the efforts. And thank you very much. And with that, I see no other speakers. I'll call the vote on this application. And Clerks, I will take a vote in favour, please. And all our votes are in, that passes with Mayor Sim, Councillor Klassen and Councillor Orr absent. But it is successful. Congratulations. And that concludes our item. Thank you, Councillors, online. With that, I just simply need a motion to adjourn. Moved, seconded, all in favour. And that carries. Good night, everyone online. Thank you to Councillors and staff.
Thanks. Thank you, Clerks.