Vancouver Infill & Lowrise Updates Discussion

[Feathered Friend]

Kitsilano’s Locally Grown Moderate Income Rental Homes Draw An Otherworldly Reception

3084 West 4th Avenue and 2010 Balaclava Street
The furor over a recently approved rental housing proposal in Kitsilano clearly demonstrated the area’s various resident associations are among the best organized in our city. That was not news to us, as Darren and I have witnessed numerous times before, including at the pre-application open house for this proposal under the Moderate Income Rental Housing Pilot Program. Still, it speaks volumes they successfully lobbied the city to extend this 3 hour event into one that lasted over 4 hours.

The strength of their activism did not end there, as the quality of the display boards at their protest table left some professionals confused as to whether it was an official city presentation. That said, this night was far from ordinary, as a thick tension hung in the air of the H.R. MacMillian Space Centre. We are used to the atmosphere that comes with a room full of angry people, but this was unlike anything we had seen previously.

https://cityduo.wordpress.com/2020/04/23...al-homes-draw-an-otherworldly-reception/

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by Feathered Friend

Only on the west side. Another 6-storey tower!

[SpongeG]

I think we should help organize a move for the tent city in Oppenheimer park to Kitsilano so they can wake up and deal with the reality of their selfishness.

[GenWhy?]

I think they're the same group that almost made the Hollywood Theatre not happen and made it go from a rental proposal to a strata one.

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

I think we should help organize a move for the tent city in Oppenheimer park to Kitsilano so they can wake up and deal with the reality of their selfishness.

because any of these things being built are for the drug addicted squatters in that park.

[cyclinginvancouver]

5656 Fraser Street

Matthew Cheng Architects Incorporated has applied to the City of Vancouver for permission to:

develop a four(4)-storey mixed use building, with an animal clinic on 1st and 2nd floors and eight (8) secured market rentals on the 3rd and 4th floors over underground parking, having vehicular access from the lane, on this existing site.
Under the site’s existing C-2 zoning, the application is “conditional” so it may be permitted; however, it requires the decision of the Director of Planning.

We welcome your written comments (letter or e-mail) on this development application. Comments should be received on, or before May 12, 2020, to be included in the staff review. However, comments will be considered up until the date of decision.

5656 Fraser Street

[TheTerminalCity]

A pair of six-storey rental buildings are proposed along Arbutus, between 20th and 21st. Should be an interesting one to watch.

PCI Group has submitted their rezoning application for 3609-3687 Arbutus Street, a 33,000 SF site that they acquired earlier this year. The site is located on the West side of Arbutus between West 20th and West 21st Ave.

The five-lot, full block assembly is currently zoned RS-1 but is proposed to allow for the development of two 6-storey residential buildings including:

116 market rental units;
4 studios, 66 one-bedrooms, 32 two-bedrooms & 14 three-bedrooms;
a total density of 2.53 FSR;
a maximum height of 73 ft.; and
74 underground parking stalls and 227 bicycle spaces.

More details on the City's website here

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

Originally Posted by TheTerminalCity

A pair of six-storey rental buildings are proposed along Arbutus, between 20th and 21st. Should be an interesting one to watch.





More details on the City's website here

i think 6 is a bit much for this part. i think 4 would be better. take off those top 2 floors that are different.

[Feathered Friend]

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

i think 6 is a bit much for this part. i think 4 would be better. take off those top 2 floors that are different.

As I've been seeing a lot of the new 6 floor format out in the Valley lately, I gotta ask, why is 6 too much here?

After all, the approved Arbutus Centre a few blocks to the south is quite taller, and the new Secured Rental Policy will still allow for 6 floors here, with a transition zone of 4 stories to the west. Plus, the Arbutus Greenway is across the road to the east, so it's not like there will be any height impacts or shadowing concerns on that side.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Especially once the streetcar rolls in. Arbutus is going to be Cambie Lite sooner than later.

[officedweller]

Yeah, with the greenway there, it won't feel like a canyon at all.
Plus the slope is to the west, so it's a bit downhill from the greenway.
...and agreed, you can't go back once the streetcar is built.

[misher]

Originally Posted by Feathered Friend

As I've been seeing a lot of the new 6 floor format out in the Valley lately, I gotta ask, why is 6 too much here?

After all, the approved Arbutus Centre a few blocks to the south is quite taller, and the new Secured Rental Policy will still allow for 6 floors here, with a transition zone of 4 stories to the west. Plus, the Arbutus Greenway is across the road to the east, so it's not like there will be any height impacts or shadowing concerns on that side.

I feel like we should call the 4+2 storey design the Cambie special as they are all down Cambie and seem to be our city’s template for mid rise housing.

But yeah if this was strata housing you could call for less floors but when it’s market rental then be happy with 6 and wish for more. We need more market rental and screw the shadows/views.

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

i find it weird that this area, with no transit, and not a city centre, has the same size buildings as Cambie Street, which has the Canada Line, Oakridge, Marine Gateway, Broadway, and a fast connection to Downtown.

if Cambie is 6 floors, this should be 4 floors. it makes no sense why they are considered the same. Cambie has way more in the sense of, well everything.

i am doubtful the Arbutus Street Car will happen anytime in the next 20yrs. i am doubtful it will happen ever to be truthful. they have been talking about it since the 1990s, and we are even farther from it now than before since at least there were tracks before.

[ecbin]

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

i find it weird that this area, with no transit, and not a city centre, has the same size buildings as Cambie Street, which has the Canada Line, Oakridge, Marine Gateway, Broadway, and a fast connection to Downtown.

Define "no transit" - there's the 16 and 25 which both run frequently (sub-10 mins intervals during rush). The 16 gets downtown (Georgia/Granville) in 20 mins and the 25 gets your cross town into Burnaby in about 20 mins as well. It's not as good as the Canada Line but it's a pretty decent area for getting around and amenities are relatively abundant (certainly as good or better than my area of Norquay)

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

if Cambie is 6 floors, this should be 4 floors. it makes no sense why they are considered the same. Cambie has way more in the sense of, well everything.

If anything I think this is an argument that Cambie should be MORE dense and not that Arbutus should be less dense. There aren't many corridors like Cambie with capacity to take on density easily. Further, if we can't fit a 6 story building in a spot where there's two reasonably high frequency bus lines and a grocery/amenities within a 15 min walk where can we fit them? This is a way better build than the River District.

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

Originally Posted by ecbin

Define "no transit" - there's the 16 and 25 which both run frequently (sub-10 mins intervals during rush). The 16 gets downtown (Georgia/Granville) in 20 mins and the 25 gets your cross town into Burnaby in about 20 mins as well. It's not as good as the Canada Line but it's a pretty decent area for getting around and amenities are relatively abundant (certainly as good or better than my area of Norquay)

i wouldn't really consider bus routes the same as something like the Canada-Line/Expo-Line/Millennium-Line. sure there are buses, but what street doesn't have buses these days in Vancouver?

Originally Posted by ecbin

If anything I think this is an argument that Cambie should be MORE dense and not that Arbutus should be less dense. There aren't many corridors like Cambie with capacity to take on density easily. Further, if we can't fit a 6 story building in a spot where there's two reasonably high frequency bus lines and a grocery/amenities within a 15 min walk where can we fit them? This is a way better build than the River District.

i think this being 6 is too much because what it does is now you've got a disingenuous set up in the city. here you have high capacity, grade separated, rapid transit with the same density of a street level bus that comes ~20% as frequent, and carries less people. that doesn't make a lot of sense to me. if Cambie is 6, then this should only be 4 by using the same criteria that was used for Cambie.

though i will always be anti River District. dumb place to put all of it. but that is for another thread. haha.

[officedweller]

The former Carling-OKeefe Brewery lands are at 12th and Arbutus and set the stage for that scale of development in the area well before the 99 B-Line came into service.

Regarding Cambie, it goes to show how underbuilt that corridor is.

[scryer]

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

i think 6 is a bit much for this part. i think 4 would be better. take off those top 2 floors that are different.

#OkayNIMBY

This set of 6 floor rentals is actually perfect for the future of the area. The Arbutus LRT line will increase the density along Arbutus street and these specific rentals will make a great transition into more dense areas such as into the commercial area surrounding W. 16th/Arbutus.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

i think this being 6 is too much because what it does is now you've got a disingenuous set up in the city. here you have high capacity, grade separated, rapid transit with the same density of a street level bus that comes ~20% as frequent, and carries less people. that doesn't make a lot of sense to me. if Cambie is 6, then this should only be 4 by using the same criteria that was used for Cambie.

Oak & Main are getting 6 too... and isn't everybody always complaining that Cambie is underzoned? One could argue that Cambie is 8 and the rest are 6.

[BodomReaper]

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

i find it weird that this area, with no transit, and not a city centre, has the same size buildings as Cambie Street, which has the Canada Line, Oakridge, Marine Gateway, Broadway, and a fast connection to Downtown.

if Cambie is 6 floors, this should be 4 floors. it makes no sense why they are considered the same. Cambie has way more in the sense of, well everything.

i am doubtful the Arbutus Street Car will happen anytime in the next 20yrs. i am doubtful it will happen ever to be truthful. they have been talking about it since the 1990s, and we are even farther from it now than before since at least there were tracks before.

The Cambie Plan was a catastrophic failure - planning profession malpractice of the highest degree. If they insist on continuing to ban apartments everywhere but arterial streets, Cambie needed to be zoned for 60 stories, not 6.

It shouldn't be used as a reference point for anything other than cowardice and destructiveness of city hall; a poster child for the dead hand of planning.

[ecbin]

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

i wouldn't really consider bus routes the same as something like the Canada-Line/Expo-Line/Millennium-Line. sure there are buses, but what street doesn't have buses these days in Vancouver?

I agree that the 16 and 25 are not Skytrain level transit but they're both high frequency routes that get people to major areas within as little as 20 mins. That's significantly better than say Nanaimo/1st or Champlain Heights or Knight/57th (example of areas with shit transit within Vancouver)

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

i think this being 6 is too much because what it does is now you've got a disingenuous set up in the city. here you have high capacity, grade separated, rapid transit with the same density of a street level bus that comes ~20% as frequent, and carries less people. that doesn't make a lot of sense to me. if Cambie is 6, then this should only be 4 by using the same criteria that was used for Cambie.

I don't think Cambie's zoning being dumb is a reason for Arbutus' zoning to also be dumb.