General Vancouver Updates

[officedweller]

425 West 6th

Rendering of the project on the site hoarding.

Pic by me the other day.

[jollyburger]

The old Royal Bank building at Broadway/Granville is slowly getting demolished. They have exposed steel girders at the top floor.

[officedweller]

1538 Marpole Avenue

- proposed total Height of approximately 43.60 ft.; and
- proposed total Floor Space Ratio (FSR) of 0.39 (approximately 4,004 sq. ft.)

https://development.vancouver.ca/pc1538marpole/index.htm


A DP application for a 4,000 sq ft. single family house at 1538 Marpole, right next to Granville & 16th
and 800 meters from Granville & Broadway skytrain is being built to an astoundingly low 0.39 FSR...because Shaughnessy.
https://twitter.com/vancouvermrkt

[rofina]

Originally Posted by officedweller

1538 Marpole Avenue


https://development.vancouver.ca/pc1538marpole/index.htm


A DP application for a 4,000 sq ft. single family house at 1538 Marpole, right next to Granville & 16th
and 800 meters from Granville & Broadway skytrain is being built to an astoundingly low 0.39 FSR...because Shaughnessy.
https://twitter.com/vancouvermrkt

[GenWhy?]

Even if you could build multifamily strata here I don't think they'd ride the train.

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

Originally Posted by GenWhy?

Even if you could build multifamily strata here I don't think they'd ride the train.

and nor should they allow it to be built here. so it all works out.

[Jimbo604]

dailyhive.com - Vancouver City Council approves study on eliminating minimum parking standards- Kenneth Chan - Sep 30 2020, 3:12 pm

Vancouver City Council has directed city staff to perform a deep dive into eliminating city-mandated parking minimums in future building development projects.

Non-Partisan Association (NPA) councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung’s motion was approved in a vote on Tuesday after very little deliberation, with NPA councillor Colleen Hardwick abstaining, and mayor Kennedy Stewart and independent councillor Rebecca Bligh absent.

Instead, the intention is to have an Open Parking Policy method where market forces — developers and businesses — would decide on the amount of parking supply needed, and be required to implement transportation demand management (TDM) measures that encourage public transit use and active transportation.

A recent study by Metro Vancouver Regional District suggests there is a substantial oversupply in parking within strata apartment buildings (42%) and market rental apartment buildings (35%) in the region, with residential buildings closest to major public transit services seeing some of the lowest parking use.

Proponents of significantly reduced or eliminated parking minimums have long asserted the environmental benefits from not only reduced vehicle use, but also less excavation and concrete for the construction of underground parkade levels.

City council also approved an amendment moved by COPE councillor Jean Swanson to have city staff explore whether the savings from reduced construction costs from ending parking minimums will be passed on to homeowners and renters, effectively improving housing affordability.

City staff are expected to return to city council later this year on their findings and recommendations on removing parking minimums.

If city council approves a future staff recommendation to abolish parking minimums, Vancouver would follow in the footsteps of Edmonton, which approved the elimination of parking minimums this past June.

The City of Vancouver has made parking minimum reductions recently, with changes in January 2019 allowing up to 30% parking reductions available to developers as long as they satisfy transportation demand management (TDM), comprising up to 10% reduction for proximity to public transit and up to 20% reduction from other measures such as free transit passes for residents and a car share service within the building.

Other additional reductions of up to 60% are also permitted for rental housing developments.

Elsewhere in the region, Coquitlam, Surrey, and Richmond have also relaxed their parking minimums in the rezoning process if the proponent offers TDM measures.

[GenWhy?]

Already in best of scenarios for rental we can get it down to about a 60% reduction and almost 100% for social housing. Not sure it'll make new rental rates go down but it will definitely make building easier / not force rents to their max.

[scryer]

Originally Posted by Jimbo604

dailyhive.com - Vancouver City Council approves study on eliminating minimum parking standards- Kenneth Chan - Sep 30 2020, 3:12 pm

Vancouver City Council has directed city staff to perform a deep dive into eliminating city-mandated parking minimums in future building development projects.

Originally Posted by GenWhy?

Already in best of scenarios for rental we can get it down to about a 60% reduction and almost 100% for social housing. Not sure it'll make new rental rates go down but it will definitely make building easier / not force rents to their max.

I also think that the Senakw project will help with further parking reductions since only 10% of their homes will be provided with parking stalls (according to the Daily Hive). The Senakw project is looking to build approximately 6000 homes; simple math tells me that would only be 600 parking stalls. It will be very interesting to see how Senakw's reduced parking build-out will challenge the parking requirement status quo if it's deemed successful.

I'm happy to hear that parking reductions are finally being considered in Vancouver especially considering (and I know people disagree with me) that Metro Vancouver has a pretty awesome transit network and a pro-transit mentality.

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

i don't know why people think this no parking thing will work.

the West End is up with Manhattan densities, walkable, and there is a huge parking problem there.

i don't see how letting developers make more profit by not needing to build parking will help anything. prices wont come down, the market dictates that. all that will happen is people will be parking all over the streets just like in the West End

[s211]

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

the West End is up with Manhattan densities

Pretty sure that urban myth has been debunked several times. As I understand it, some rather judiciously-made boundaries were made to the areas compared, which led to some rather spurious results.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

i don't know why people think this no parking thing will work.

the West End is up with Manhattan densities, walkable, and there is a huge parking problem there.

i don't see how letting developers make more profit by not needing to build parking will help anything. prices wont come down, the market dictates that. all that will happen is people will be parking all over the streets just like in the West End

The only parking problem in the West End is that residents have been unwilling to pay to park in the thousands of vacant parkade stalls. Street parking permits are now much more expensive than they used to be, so that should start to solve the problem, although not ovrnight as there's currently still a discount available to 'proven long term residents'.

[Migrant_Coconut]

West End density aside, there is absolutely no reason for City Hall to be mandating parkades around (even on top of) a SkyTrain station. Let developers and the market figure out how much parking they really need to attract residents.

[GenWhy?]

No developer in their sound mind would build less parking than they could market their rental units at in a competitive market for brand new stock. We might even not take the DCL waivers if need be with less parking! Which would mean no unit maximum size restrictions.

[GenWhy?]

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

i don't know why people think this no parking thing will work.

the West End is up with Manhattan densities, walkable, and there is a huge parking problem there.

i don't see how letting developers make more profit by not needing to build parking will help anything. prices wont come down, the market dictates that. all that will happen is people will be parking all over the streets just like in the West End

It's not zero parking across the board. It's eliminating minimums. I'd assume residential visitor parking, maybe commercial parking and of course accessible stalls would still be required.

[djh]

Wouldn't a better solution be to have a formula for how many parking spaces that a development needs, inversely proportional to the availability and distance to public transport.

Build near a transit hub? Minimal requirement for parking spaces. Build far from any bus lines? Developer needs to provide many parking spaces.

[GenWhy?]

Originally Posted by djh

Wouldn't a better solution be to have a formula for how many parking spaces that a development needs, inversely proportional to the availability and distance to public transport.

Build near a transit hub? Minimal requirement for parking spaces. Build far from any bus lines? Developer needs to provide many parking spaces.

We do have that and use it (and it's better than what existed before but very imperfect), but if you were to revise that policy more... you'd essentially be right where Staff is examining this element now.

Downtown is already parking free. Once you get your ruler out when developing it's not exactly the most representative of reality.

https://vancouver.ca/files/cov/transportation-demand-management-for-developments-in-vancouver.pdf

[officedweller]

RBC Building at Granville & Broadway:

From Lawrence Black twitter:


https://twitter.com/LawrenceBlackTV


https://twitter.com/LawrenceBlackTV

[Feathered Friend]

Public Hearing – October 6th, 2020 – World Class Aspirations Seek To Light Up Downtown, As Vancouver’s Rental Conversion Continues

Public Hearing – October 6th, 2020
Like anyone that has spent time at city hall, Hannah and I were well familiar with La Taqueria Pinche, but their new location has some gremlins, or rather a few existing, unpermitted mezzanines. That’s led to this night’s lone text amendment as, despite the struggles of operating a business during 2020, the city has required a bylaw amendment just to allow for a small expansion of their Yukon Street venue.

The night’s second item, a four story strata building, is less than 15 minutes away on the Canada Line as it’s practically next door to the 49th Avenue / Langara station. Unsurprisingly, Neither have drawn much attention, which makes this whole process feel as fruitful as walking up to a dark house on Halloween night.

However, the third item should add to the vibrancy of Downtown as it proposes to expand the Creative Energy steam plant, and top it off with a new office building. Together they’ll be joined with an entertainment pavilion that the applicant claims will host a world class sports bar. Time will tell if that’s just a lot of hot air, but the last item has committed to a substantial change that might thrill those navigating Vancouver’s rental market

It’s not often that a strata proposal switches to rental housing, but this one will now create over 300 rental homes next to Joyce-Collingwood station. This has spooked some, who hope to see less homes and more vehicle parking added here, but pales in comparison to the 700 foot building under construction in Burnaby’s Metrotown. Yet, unless there’s a last minute mash of opposition, we expect this will be a quick night, rather than one that has the funk of 40,000 years.

Backlash Expectations

Item #2 – 564 – 570 West 49th Avenue – Very Low
It’s less than a block from the Canada Line, but no one seems interested in this four floor strata building

Item #3 – 720 Beatty St & 701 Expo Boulevard – Very Low
Very few would oppose creating new offices, and entertainment space near BC Place

Item #4 – 5055 Joyce Street – Low
Some feel a lack of parking, and too many homes will overwhelm this SkyTrain station

https://cityduo.wordpress.com/2020/10/05...-vancouvers-rental-conversion-continues/

[officedweller]

The Beatty project looks pretty wide and short (due to height restrictions) in that model pic.