Vancouver came one step closer to taking financial control of the Olympic Village today after council gave staff the go-ahead to seek outside funding for the project.

“I think we’re turning a corner now,” Mayor Gregor Robertson said of the decision. “We’ve been hard at this for the last month.”

Earlier this week, director of finance Ken Bayne presented a report to council outlining the risks and benefits of giving the city freer reign to finance the athlete’s village.

Under the current loan arrangement with financier Fortress Investment, the city is on the hook for interest rates that top nine per cent. Bayne said a renegotiated loan with Canadian lenders could reduce the figure to below five per cent.

But Vancouver could also face a loss in its credit rating which would potentially add hundreds of thousands of dollars to annual borrowing costs.

Robertson didn’t say whether the city would seek to replace Fortress as the principal lender to builder Millennium Development or whether such a move would carry a financial penalty.

“We’re looking at all possible options,” he said, adding that the results of negotiations with Fortress would be made public soon.

Robertson said the city plans to fast-track talks with possible lenders and added that a financing solution for the $458 million in construction costs needed to complete the village would be forthcoming in the next few weeks.

(If the city bought Fortress out of the project, it would also assume responsibility for $317 million already advanced by the hedge fund on a $750 million construction loan.)

Chris Shaw, an activist with 2010 Watch, told council that Vancouver should push for more affordable housing on top of the 250 units already included in the development.

“Viewed from a social perspective this is an enormous resource that can be used,” he said. Shaw added that additional funding could be provided by federal or provincial partners, which would likely be receptive to plans for addressing homelessness.

“If Vancouver leads I think the other levels of government will follow,” he said.

Bayne such a move would likely be impractical because work has been tendered on 95 per cent of the project's units with less than 10 months to go before most construction must be finished.

“It would be difficult to change what that village looks like at this point,” Bayne said.

Council also passed an item that gives the city more power to crack down on unwanted advertising and signs, a measure that was opposed by some members of the public who feared it would violate Charter rights of free speech.

A final council decision set the stage for consultations with inner-city neighbourhoods to discuss Games-time security rules that might disrupt travel and make life more difficult for local residents.

Geoff Dembicki is a staff reporter for the Hook.