VANCOUVER – Vancouver City Council approved the Broadway Plan on June 22, a 30-year framework to add substantial new housing, commercial and office space and amenities to the Broadway corridor integrated with a new SkyTrain line.
Key goals of the Broadway Plan over the next three decades include adding up to 30,000 additional homes at all income levels with 46 per cent of the homes classified as market rentals, 12 per cent social housing, seven per cent below-market rentals and 34 per cent cent as market strata.
“The Broadway Plan is an important opportunity for our city to leverage the significant investments in the Broadway Subway that improves transit access to the rest of the city and the region,” said City of Vancouver general manager of planning, urban design and sustainability Theresa O ‘Donnell in a statement.
“It’s a plan that will work to meet the needs of today’s residents and generations in the future by adding much-needed housing for all incomes, especially renters. This plan will create more job space near transit to support our growing economy and will make it easier to live, work and get around in lively, diverse neighborhoods.”
Vancouver has also implemented “the strongest renter protections ever to help tenants stay in their neighborhoods at affordable rents, including the right of first refusal for existing tenants to return to redeveloped buildings with new homes that are an appropriate size for their household, and at their current rent or a 20 per cent discount on city-wide average market rents, whichever is less,” a City of Vancouver release stated.
The plan will also add space for 42,000 jobs in the area, preserve and enhance shopping areas on West 4th Ave, South Granville and Main Street and support reconciliation through “housing, heritage, public realm, and sustainable water management initiatives.”
The plan will also deliver $96 million for new and enhanced parks, secure 400 new or renewed child care spaces, renewal of the Firehall Library and the Mount Pleasant Neighborhood House and create “Vancouver’s first area-wide blue green system with a network of connected parks -like streets that manage water and protect the ecosystem.”
The Broadway Plan expansion of the region centers around the Broadway Subway project, a 5.7 kilometers extension of the Millennium Line from VCC-Clark Station to Broadway and Arbutus. Five kilometers will be tunnelled below the Broadway corridor, one of the busiest roads in Canada, and 700 meters will be elevated with six underground stations including a direct connection to the Canada Line on Cambie Street.
The Broadway Subway project is scheduled to open in 2025.