General Vancouver Updates

[Jimbo604]

Photo source: me

Blue star Motors has vacated their location next to building at SE corner of 6th & Main

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by mcminsen

From Bold Properties twitter August 10th


https://twitter.com/BoldProperties

[officedweller]

Winston 43
Oak & 67th Ave.


https://twitter.com/CoromandelProp

[s211]

delete

[misher]

Originally Posted by officedweller

From Bold Properties twitter August 10th


https://twitter.com/BoldProperties

I feel like they missed an amazing opportunity to have a rainbow down the middle instead of only 3 colors that repeat.

[Nites]

Originally Posted by s211

delete

[whatnext]

Has this been covered here? Kind of weird, from a city claiming to want more rentals:

Court stops City of Vancouver from thwarting Marpole rental housing project

The City of Vancouver takes every opportunity to trumpet its commitment to support the construction of rental housing.

This is why it appears odd that city hall did everything it could to foil a proposed four-storey rental development in Marpole.

The rental project consists of 26 units, half of which will be for families.

The development at 308 West 62nd Avenue will be on two consolidated lots that previously had a single family home each.

It is interesting to note that the city even took to court the Board of Variance, a quasi-judicial body created under the Vancouver Charter...

...The property is a corner lot with two frontages.

The frontage on West 62nd Avenue is short by 1.1 metres or 3.6 feet in order to qualify for a floor space ratio (FSR) of 2.0, FSR being the result when one divides the floor area of the development by the area of the lot.

If Columbia Street was deemed the frontage, the “permitted outright FSR would be 2.0”, according to the property owner’s court petition.

Under the current zoning, Kelley had the discretion to choose whether the frontage is West 62nd Avenue or Columbia Street.

The property owner proposed an FSR of 1.91. Kelley’s planning department insisted on an FSR of 1.5.

On May 29, 2017, the planning department rejected the development permit application.

On June 13 of the same year, the Board of Variance granted the appeal of the property owner, and approved an FSR of 1.91.

The city’s planning department never questioned the authority of the board...

https://www.straight.com/news/1116806/co...thwarting-marpole-rental-housing-project

[cov]

a senior city staff must live in the neighbourhood

[osirisboy]

So I wonder if the court could stop the city for rejecting the Chinatown proposal

[LeftCoaster]

Beedie would likely have a strong case in court if they were to take the City there. That said it is doubtful they would as pissing off the city is a dangerous game for a developer.

[s211]

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

Beedie would likely have a strong case in court if they were to take the City there. That said it is doubtful they would as pissing off the city is a dangerous game for a developer.

The very definition of a city that has become untouchable by virtue of its bureaucratic arrogance.

[GenWhy?]

I would read too much into Georgia Straight's "reporting style". There is a lot of missing information here, most of which we may never know unless we were there.

This is simply a case of mutiple departments, zoning districts and area plans and conversations, negotiations, and process. Maybe somebody goofed (on either or both sides) on some issue(s), but lets not make this (or the Georgia Straight) out to be that the City is anti-rental, or housing or that Gil is out to quash things. This is two parties (that unfortunately led to this) settling disputes.

[Feathered Friend]

UDP Splits in a Narrow Vote – Are Badly Needed Hotel Rooms Justified or Too Much of A Good Thing?

878-898 West Broadway
Though I would never claim to be an expert in planning or architecture, there’s occasions when I feel the time I’ve spent at the UDP has given me an insight into that world. As a result, sometimes I’m even able to correctly guess what the panel may recommend. Perhaps it was due to the way the chair of this meeting formulated the panel’s recommendations, but in this case, they caught me completely off guard.

Admittedly, I’ve liked this proposal since its pre-application open house, and though Hannah wasn’t at the city led open house, we both thought the design was beautiful and appropriate for its location on West Broadway near Vancouver General Hospital.

However, no one on the panel argued that this design was unattractive, or that the addition of more hotel space next to one of Canada’s largest hospitals wasn’t badly needed. After all, almost half of all patients at VGH come from outside Metro Vancouver. As one panellist noted, it’s very important that this hotel be set up to cater to the needs of its users, as they won’t be coming to Vancouver for a good time.

So, it shouldn’t be surprising that the primary focus of city staff and the UDP was about the livability of the hotel suites, and the quality of the courtyard space.

[misher]

Originally Posted by Feathered Friend

Broadway is going to be the 2nd downtown with the skytrain and the central Vancouver hospital has room for expansion (and its central) while the downtown hospital is pretty packed. Also the central one has better parking and access.

It makes complete sense to build temporary accommodations (hotels) near major hospitals that will likely expand even more in the future. Given how much medical personnel travel between hospitals, short term accommodations are a necessity.

The only argument against this development I can see as reasonable is that it may block the helicopter flight path. If so, then it definitely should be lowered to not interfere with it.


There are also a ton of long-term preparations that can be built into it which make it a good idea to build something like this close to a hospital. Such as perhaps building in support so that should we ever require additional hospital space we can easily convert much of the common, commercial area and rooms to emergency accommodations (should our hospital ever have to be evacuated or if we need additional space during an emergency). Or adding a 2nd helipad should we need that (movie thinking here but perhaps there will be a crash on the hospital one or other reasons it is inoperable+a hotel with a helipad does not seem out of the ordinary).

[Vin]

Don't the choppers usually come from the northwest direction? Just have the tall towers built west of the hospital closer to Cambie Street, all the way down to OV. There are many city centres with helipads on their roof top with tall buildings close by them.

[Firebrand]

I noticed that most Canadian cities have huge networks of pedways, especially in Montreal and Toronto, while Vancouver only has a few of them. (Pacific Central is the only one that comes out of my head.) Does it have to do with our weather here being mild, or does CoV prefer to have everyone walk outside, even in ten months of rain?

[misher]

Originally Posted by Firebrand

I noticed that most Canadian cities have huge networks of pedways, especially in Montreal and Toronto, while Vancouver only has a few of them. (Pacific Central is the only one that comes out of my head.) Does it have to do with our weather here being mild, or does CoV prefer to have everyone walk outside, even in ten months of rain?

Cough cough, you mean "bike" outside, cough.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Vancouverites in general seem to orient their entire city and livelihoods around our four-ish months of blazing heat. Just like how they break out the shorts and sandals in the middle of March or November, as long as it's sunny.

[s211]

Originally Posted by Firebrand

I noticed that most Canadian cities have huge networks of pedways, especially in Montreal and Toronto, while Vancouver only has a few of them. (Pacific Central is the only one that comes out of my head.) Does it have to do with our weather here being mild, or does CoV prefer to have everyone walk outside, even in ten months of rain?

Binga-rino.

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by Firebrand

I noticed that most Canadian cities have huge networks of pedways, especially in Montreal and Toronto, while Vancouver only has a few of them. (Pacific Central is the only one that comes out of my head.) Does it have to do with our weather here being mild, or does CoV prefer to have everyone walk outside, even in ten months of rain?

Bentall has an underground network, it can get a bit confusing but I was amazed at how much stuff was down there, food courts, stores, restaurants, coffee places, travel agents, etc. who knew