Broadway Corridor Updates

[AlessioSBT]

Originally Posted by csbvan

10th is a great bike street. They should definitely add more separated infrastructure along the 10th Ave corridor and have better connectivity down to Broadway (with bike racks), so that you can lock up and shop on Broadway (if Broadway ever improves...). I am OK with 10th being the bike priority street, so long as Broadway gains wider sidewalks and better pedestrian amenities.

I agree.
A good example is heather st.

There's technically a bike path coming from the Cambie bridge, connecting even the olympic village skytrain station, going up on ash st, continuing on west 7th and then going up again on heather.

But then it basically stops on broadway. There are no signs, not even a basic line painted on the street. But technically you just go up and connect to 10th.

But the whole thing is so messy for no reason.
Heather has parking on the bike line side from 7th to 8th (therefore not even a proper delimited lane) BUT then has no parking (and a dedicated painted lane) from 8th to Broadway. Then still no parking but also no lane from Broadway to 10.
Why?

That could be a proper bike path, you literally just need 1 straight line going up until 10th. You don't even need to change anything (beside taking out the few parking spots between 7 and 8).
If they wanted to make it fancy, there would even be the space to actually build a proper infrastructure.

[s211]

Originally Posted by csbvan

10th is a great bike street. They should definitely add more separated infrastructure along the 10th Ave corridor and have better connectivity down to Broadway (with bike racks), so that you can lock up and shop on Broadway (if Broadway ever improves...). I am OK with 10th being the bike priority street, so long as Broadway gains wider sidewalks and better pedestrian amenities.

100% agree. Better for everyone involved, even for the 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 activists that insist Broadway should be bikes-first.

[mcj]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

Ken Sim's stupid political games aside, the 20k+ daily passengers on the 9 and 14 take priority. Bikes already have 7th and 10th.

There's plenty of space for bus lanes + two general use lanes + bike lanes as shown below from CoV plans. Cars already have every single other road in the city. The current plans are a recipe for bikes on the sidewalks, and more cyclist deaths/injuries on our roadways by pretending that cyclists don't/won't exist. We are approving towers along this corridor whose residents will not own cars and will own bikes, this is a failure in urban planning for the future.

[mcj]

Originally Posted by csbvan

10th is a great bike street. They should definitely add more separated infrastructure along the 10th Ave corridor and have better connectivity down to Broadway (with bike racks), so that you can lock up and shop on Broadway (if Broadway ever improves...). I am OK with 10th being the bike priority street, so long as Broadway gains wider sidewalks and better pedestrian amenities.

10th is really not that great when you compare it to modern examples of what cycling infrastructure should be. West of Oak street there is no actual separated bike infrastructure and neither is there East of Cambie street.

And there are no plans to connect Broadway to 10th with cycling infrastructure. Take Laurel Street for example, connects to 10th and the Laurel Street landbridge at 7th, with a direct connection to Oak-VGH station in between. This would be the perfect place to implement exactly what you're proposing yet there is zero plans to do so, and that would only be 3 measly blocks.

[mcj]

Originally Posted by s211

100% agree. Better for everyone involved, even for the 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 activists that insist Broadway should be bikes-first.

I don't think that anyone is under the illusion that Broadway will become "bikes-first" or whatever that is supposed to mean.

To quote the Broadway Plan itself:

The Broadway Plan is shaped around a future where 80% of trips are made by walking, rolling, cycling or transit by 2050

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by mcj

There's plenty of space for bus lanes + two general use lanes + bike lanes as shown below from CoV plans. Cars already have every single other road in the city. The current plans are a recipe for bikes on the sidewalks, and more cyclist deaths/injuries on our roadways by pretending that cyclists don't/won't exist. We are approving towers along this corridor whose residents will not own cars and will own bikes, this is a failure in urban planning for the future.

Give me a break. Dumb statements like this hurt your overall argument.

CoV has been reducing car lanes and creating one-way/bike only areas all over the City for years and continues to do so.

[whatnext]

From BIV today:

'Relatively few' projects in Broadway plan pipeline have been built
Vancouver city staff memo says only three projects issued occupancy permits since 2022
Mike Howell
about 2 hours ago

Four years after the Broadway plan was implemented, only three of the 169 projects in the development pipeline have been issued occupancy permits, according to a recent city staff memo posted to the City of Vancouver’s website.

Though 59 projects have reached the development permit stage or beyond, and another 59 have an approved rezoning, the memo from Josh White, the city’s chief planner, noted construction has been slow.

“Nearly four years into plan implementation, many projects have progressed from rezoning enquiry and application stages to the development permit stage, while relatively few have progressed to construction and occupancy,” White said....

...Many tenants have raised concerns about the plan who live in the area, including a group of renters who saw council approve a hotel development in July for their 27-unit apartment building in Mount Pleasant.

Landowners Nicola Wealth Real Estate and Lotus Capital Corp. were approved to rezone the property at 75 East 8th Ave. to build a 190-unit hotel and two storeys of industrial space....

https://www.biv.com/news/economy-law-pol...y-plan-pipeline-have-been-built-12685022

[csbvan]

Well yeah, the planning approvals and construction of 20+ storey towers takes years....

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by csbvan

Well yeah, the planning approvals and construction of 20+ storey towers takes years....

The missing statistic was "how many have started construction?"

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by mcj

There's plenty of space for bus lanes + two general use lanes + bike lanes as shown below from CoV plans. Cars already have every single other road in the city. The current plans are a recipe for bikes on the sidewalks, and more cyclist deaths/injuries on our roadways by pretending that cyclists don't/won't exist. We are approving towers along this corridor whose residents will not own cars and will own bikes, this is a failure in urban planning for the future.

- As long as it's part of TransLink's MRN, it'll be four GP lanes, buses included... and given a choice between bikes and sidewalks, sidewalks obviously win.

- Funny, drivers say the opposite; maybe the answer is somewhere in the middle.

- The assumption here is that bikes won't use the sidewalk if they have bike lanes, as opposed to using both at the same time (e.g. Burrard Bridge, the Arbutus Greenway and the seawall).

- Options C and D, residents use the big-🞵🞵🞵 subway which is literally why these changes exist in the first place (the Canada Line alone moves more people than any ten bike lanes put together), or walk the bike one block up to 10th. Let the parking NIMBYs have the monopoly on "I need it right in front of me or I'm an invisible minority" hysteria.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by officedweller

The missing statistic was "how many have started construction?"

The City can only easily track permits, so they don't actually record when a project starts construction. The memo that's being used for the article says there are 2 residential projects with an occupancy permit, with 228 units, and there are seven more with an issued building permit, for 387 units. I think the completed projects are 1477 West Broadway, and a small strata duplex, so really only one Broadway Plan tower.

Five of those with building permits are small strata buildings with a total of 15 units, so although they're in the Broadway Plan area, they're relatively inconsequential. That means there were just two projects underway at the end of Q2. I think they might be the PCI TransLink tower at Arbutus, and the Chard 8 East Broadway project.

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by Changing City

The City can only easily track permits, so they don't actually record when a project starts construction. The memo that's being used for the article says there are 2 residential projects with an occupancy permit, with 228 units, and there are seven more with an issued building permit, for 387 units. I think the completed projects are 1477 West Broadway, and a small strata duplex, so really only one Broadway Plan tower.

Five of those with building permits are small strata buildings with a total of 15 units, so although they're in the Broadway Plan area, they're relatively inconsequential. That means there were just two projects underway at the end of Q2. I think they might be the PCI TransLink tower at Arbutus, and the Chard 8 East Broadway project.

Thanks. The building permit data is useful, but even then you need to look at each one as you've summarized.

[Feathered Friend]

By our count, under the Broadway Plan there's been 125 rezoning applications, 95 that have been approved, and only 11 that have been issued a development permit.

Those that have been issued building permits include: 2090 W Broadway, 8 E Broadway, 1436 W 8th Ave, 1738 W 11th Ave, 188 E 5th Ave, 2175 W 7th Ave, 1960 W 7th Ave, 708 E 15th Ave, 2158 W 1st Ave, and 2110 W 5th Ave.

We really should publish that tracker at some point, but spending time with our little one is not only all consuming, but also more enjoyable than writing articles.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by Feathered Friend

By our count, under the Broadway Plan there's been 125 rezoning applications, 95 that have been approved, and only 11 that have been issued a development permit.

Those that have been issued building permits include: 2090 W Broadway, 8 E Broadway, 1436 W 8th Ave, 1738 W 11th Ave, 188 E 5th Ave, 2175 W 7th Ave, 1960 W 7th Ave, 708 E 15th Ave, 2158 W 1st Ave, and 2110 W 5th Ave.

We really should publish that tracker at some point, but spending time with our little one is not only all consuming, but also more enjoyable than writing articles.

I just checked that last one on your list, 2110 W 5th Ave, and the page I get says the Building Permit is still in review. I'm sure some will have moved forward since June (when the City memo data ends), but I'm not sure they've all been approved yet?

[Feathered Friend]

Originally Posted by Changing City

I just checked that last one on your list, 2110 W 5th Ave, and the page I get says the Building Permit is still in review. I'm sure some will have moved forward since June (when the City memo data ends), but I'm not sure they've all been approved yet?

Ugh you're right, that one always trips me up when I do our monthly updates too as I focus on the hot linked address, rather than the status we've assigned to a proposal (dp issued, bp under review).

Aside from that one, a few others in the list still haven't shown noticeable signs of construction/demolition either, and I would venture that's related to the TRPP.

[jollyburger]

The DP for that last project got issued in June and there are some demo/tree removal permits so probably going ahead.

[csbvan]

Interesting, 2158 W 1st Ave (1st and Yew) is going for more height to add 99 hotel rooms. Very close to the beach and on a retail strip, this is a good place for some hotel rooms, it will be good for the businesses too.

2158-2170 W 1st Ave - B. Plan - To amend CD-1 (928) under the Broadway Plan to permit a 26-storey mixed use building including 121 rental units with 20% of the residential floor area as below-market rental units, 99 hotel rooms and commercial space on the ground floor. The proposal includes a total floor area of 17,020 sq. m (183,200 sq. ft.); a building height of 101 m (331 ft.) with additional height for rooftop amenity and mechanical, and a total density of 8.73 FSR. 5 levels of parkade are proposed.

https://plposweb.vancouver.ca/Public/Default.aspx?PossePresentation=Guest&PosseObjectId=300685352

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by csbvan

Interesting, 2158 W 1st Ave (1st and Yew) is going for more height to add 99 hotel rooms. Very close to the beach and on a retail strip, this is a good place for some hotel rooms, it will be good for the businesses too.

Interesting switch. The last (and only?) hotel Millennium built was L'Hermitage on Richards - and that was 20 years ago.

[csbvan]

Originally Posted by Changing City

Interesting switch. The last (and only?) hotel Millennium built was L'Hermitage on Richards - and that was 20 years ago.

This would be quite a similar development to that as well.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by csbvan

Interesting, 2158 W 1st Ave (1st and Yew) is going for more height to add 99 hotel rooms. Very close to the beach and on a retail strip, this is a good place for some hotel rooms, it will be good for the businesses too.



https://plposweb.vancouver.ca/Public/Default.aspx?PossePresentation=Guest&PosseObjectId=300685352

Hotel rooms are the next bubble apparently.