Proposal includes 38- and 39-storey rental towers and a 19-storey social housing tower. Residents say the scale is ‘out of character’ with the neighbourhood.
A highrise boom could be coming to East Hastings in Strathcona.
The southwest corner of Glen and Hastings would have a 38-storey rental apartment building, and the northeast corner would have a 39-storey rental apartment building. There would also be a 19-storey social housing building a block away at the southwest corner of Vernon Drive and Hastings.
Strathcona resident Evan Horie is alarmed at the height of the proposed towers, which are about two-and-a-half times taller than others in the neighbourhood.
“The scale is really out of context with the neighbourhood character, and really the infrastructure capabilities, particularly with the social housing element,” said Horie.
“This type of scale in density far exceeds (the density around) a rapid transit hub, and that’s not even there. In addition to that, there’s the lack of parking (41 stalls for 767 rental units in the rental towers).
“Can you imagine the nightmare (parking) in this neighbourhood? It’s already tough to find a spot in front of our house to unload our kids from school.”
ABC Vancouver Coun. Rebecca Bligh said the building heights may be necessary to achieve the city’s 20 per cent social or affordable housing goal in each new building.
As it’s a rental project, the developer doesn’t have to provide community amenity contributions, which are often used for parks, daycares or community centres elsewhere in the city.
Bligh said to get money from the developer to pay for the social housing, the project must be taller.
“Why so tall? We are committed to building social housing units as an inclusive policy, when it comes to community benefit coming out of rental projects,” said Bligh.
“I think the land costs, the construction costs, interest rates are really (what), at the end of the day, determine the pro forma. The developer brings those pro formas forward with our planning department to show their numbers, if you will, and we always want to look to get to a balance of what can the project deliver?”
The area is part of the city’s Downtown Eastside Area Plan. Market highrise developments are prohibited in most of the Downtown Eastside and Strathcona on or north of Hastings between Carrall and Campbell streets, but an exception was made for the three-block area on Hastings between Campbell and Clark Drive.
Initially, the strip was zoned for 12 storeys, but Vancouver city Coun. Pete Fry said it has been raised to 18. Westbank has yet to submit a rezoning application to the city to try to build 38 and 39 storeys; unveiling the proposal to the public for comment is the first stage.
Dan Jackson of the Strathcona Residents Association said the proposal came out of the blue. Usually the city talks to the local community about major proposals like this.
“We found out about it from a Daily Hive article,” said Jackson.
Jackson worries about the impact on the neighbourhood, which has a shortage of parks and amenities.
“It’s the worst kind of city planning you can possibly imagine, to plunk down a highrise that has no supports or area amenities, in the middle of an industrial area, in the middle of a busy street with no parking. It’s just ghettoizing renters.”
Strathcona has social housing projects such as MacLean Park and Stamp’s Place, popularly known as Raycam, where two more social towers are planned.
Atira, the social housing agency and developer, has also proposed a 336-unit affordable social housing development on the Pink Pearl restaurant site on the southeast side of Hastings and Glen.
There is also a new 15-storey social housing building for Indigenous people currently under construction at the northwest corner of Hastings and Glen. But it doesn’t appear in the digital pamphlet Westbank submitted to the city.
There will probably be more market buildings constructed in the neighbourhood. The pamphlet includes an illustration with several outlines for several future towers on East Hastings, including in the area where market highrises currently aren’t allowed.
Most of the three-block strip on Hastings is currently zoned industrial. An empty lot at 1030-1070 East Hastings has been vacant since 1973, when a fire at a rooming house killed three people on the property.
The tallest building in the area is currently the 15-storey Strathcona Village.
According to the proposal, the developers would own the rental buildings. They would also build the social housing building, but transfer ownership to B.C. Housing.
B.C. Housing said it couldn’t comment on the financing during a provincial election. It also wouldn’t divulge how many people currently live in social housing in Strathcona.
Horie said the proposed towers would be almost the same height as the Harbour Centre tower at 555 West Hastings downtown.
“I think people understand there’s a need for housing, and I think most residents welcome that and are very supportive,” he said.
“But we want it done in a thoughtful way, one that considers the infrastructure capabilities, understands the neighbourhood and preserves the character of the neighbourhood.”
Strathcona has a long history of battling with the City of Vancouver. In the 1960s, planners wanted to build a freeway through the neighbourhood, as well as Chinatown and Gastown.
The freeway was nixed after massive public protest. But several blocks of the neighbourhood were torn down and developed as social housing in the 1960s and 70s.
The developer Westbank is known for high-end buildings like Vancouver House and the Shangri-La hotel and residential tower. But it also developed the mixed-use Woodward’s project, which included some social housing.
It is currently building the Senakw development for the Squamish nation beside the Burrard Bridge, as well as developing the Butterfly and Jenga towers downtown. It is also the builder of the massive Oakridge development.
