West-side Vancouver residents and developer tangle over block of land and a beloved café
City Hall has tacitly made this block a unique situation in a city where there is a wider debate over adding density in leafier neighbourhoods versus keeping legacy businesses.
JOANNE LEE-YOUNG Updated: August 26, 2018
The northwest corner of 33rd Avenue and Mackenzie Street on Vancouver’s west side has tongues wagging in a city obsessed with real estate and a sense of belonging.
Ground zero is Bigsby the Bakehouse, set in the middle of an old, low-slung building with seven or eight storefronts dating back to the late 1930s.
For decades, one company owned this parcel of land on three lots. Then, in January 2015, it was sold to a numbered company for $5.43 million and then flipped four months later to another numbered company for $6.40 million, or almost a $1 million gain.
The new owners, 1032682 B.C. Inc., hired Ian Egloff of Creekside Architects to come up with a proposal for a three-storey building with eight luxury condos, underground parking stalls and commercial space on the ground.
That’s when the talking started, which led to the formation of the MacKenzie Heights Community Association.
Deborah Henderson, who is on the association’s steering committee, said the group got busy writing hundreds of letters and emails, and getting other residents to do the same. They also met with city planners.
“We invited (them) to listen to us and they talked to us about where things were at and what we could ask for,” she said.
Egloff said that when the developer held public consultations, one thing they heard was that people wanted smaller shops, as opposed to larger spaces which would lend themselves to more big box/chain retailers.
As a result, Egloff came back with a revised proposal: Retail store spaces became smaller, at 16 feet wide, and some grade-level town homes with no stairs were added so retiree homeowners could downsize from big houses and stay in their community.
However, Egloff said that “essentially, after two years of public consultation on a project that fit the City of Vancouver’s written guidelines of increasing the commercial area and modest increase of residential density for that area, (city staff earlier this year) stated they wanted a larger rental building on the site.”
City staff “suggested that they could not stop us from making the (rezoning) application, but that it would not be well-received and would not have staff support if it ever did make it to council.”
The city told Postmedia that a rezoning application had not been submitted for this site, which had “been considered for a privately-led redevelopment in recent years.”
At the heart of this matter though is Bigsby, what it means to the community, and fears business owners Earl Morris and his sister Ellen Morris have for its future.
The little bakery serves simple soup, sandwiches and salads and has become a neighbourhood institution with a loyal following even though it only opened six years ago.
“I’m not against adding density, but if they bring in the density, it’s that process that will destroy the building,” said Morris, adding that in his situation, having to relocate his equipment, furnish a new place, pay wages for staff, and not work for an extended period, would make things unfeasible.
To understand the draw of Bigsby, consider that regulars like Samantha Banks book ahead of time, the way others make dinner reservations, to secure the freshly-baked Bigsby loaves they want.
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https://vancouversun.com/news/local-...a-beloved-cafe
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