Vancouver’s Broadway Plan Gets a Big Boost. At What Cost?

Vancouver’s big plan for Broadway has just gotten bigger — worrying locals concerned about the scale of change and the displacement of renters as the city invites development into its “second downtown.”

The original plan was approved back in June 2022 and was intended to guide growth along the Broadway corridor, which has a subway in the works. Since then, the province has rolled out legislation that mandates municipalities to increase density near rapid transit.

As a result, the City of Vancouver has had to give the plan an extra boost. In some areas, it has removed limits on towers per block and proposed even more density than what the province has required.

The revisions give the current city council, controlled by Mayor Ken Sim’s ABC party, a chance to leave their mark on a plan that was created before they were elected. Recent ABC priorities such as the removal of some “view cone” protections and the push for more hotels have been incorporated.

Compared with the old version, staff estimate that the plan’s 30-year timeline will see a greater increase of homes (to 41,500 from 30,000) and jobs (to 45,000 from 42,000).

These numbers reflect the fact that more development is being welcomed under the revised plan, but also the high volume of interest from developers, staff told council.

Council approved the revised plan on Dec. 12.

While many expressed that the changes are too much, another theme that resonated with councillors was the uncertainty for renters.

The Broadway Plan — which covers a 500-block area around the corridor stretching from Clark Drive in the east to Vine Street in the west — is home to numerous pockets of rental apartments, from Mount Pleasant to near Vancouver General Hospital, and Fairview to Kitsilano.

Twenty-five per cent of the city’s rental apartments are located in the plan’s area. Most of them were built four decades ago or more, making them affordable compared with newer stock but also appealing for redevelopment.

Council voted to forge ahead with the revised plan but approved a few new checks and balances ahead of what is expected to be large-scale renter relocation.

‘There was no way we were going to be able to stay’

During a public hearing that ended at 11:40 p.m. on Dec. 11, many of the 139 speakers before council mentioned the plight of renters. However, only half a dozen identified themselves as actual renters in the area.

“I’m not surprised. Renters are busy working,” said Teresa Alfeld, 37.

She is one of the many renters on the frontlines of change, having lived in an apartment with her husband and cat in the Broadway Plan area since 2018. She recently spoke at a protest to ensure their voices are heard.

Earlier this summer, she received notice of a rezoning application from her developer landlord. Alfeld had known it was coming ever since the original Broadway Plan was passed.

“We panicked because we knew there was no way we were going to be able to stay,” she said.

“I was happy that there was a discussion about renter protection... but we live in one of the most real estate developer-friendly cities, and I didn’t buy it.”

Alfeld has special insight into over half a century of Vancouver’s housing crisis as a filmmaker who has completed documentaries on left-leaning councillors like Harry Rankin and Jean Swanson.

To be clear, Alfeld says she isn’t against transforming Broadway. But the boosting of the plan has her worried.

“I support the subway. I support increased densification,” she said. “But not at the expense of existing affordable stock.”

She was recently called a “NIMBY boomer” for wanting to see the plan paused. But Alfeld says her attitude towards the plan is a lot more personal than “not in my backyard.”

“It’s actually ‘not in my living room,’” she said.

‘Strongest renter protections in Canada’?

Back when Alfeld and her husband were looking for a place to rent, they thought they’d have luck finding a cheap apartment on the east side, the historical home of the city’s working class, where she grew up.

Their long search came to a “hilarious” end when they unexpectedly found a more affordable option on the west side: a 900-square-foot unit in a century-old building. Their rent today is less than $2,000 a month.

“It was our dream home,” she said.

Her neighbours were a warm bunch and around the same age. They too were priced out of renting in other parts of Vancouver and unable to afford mortgages.

When the Broadway Plan was announced, the mayor at the time, Kennedy Stewart, tried to assuage renters like the residents of Alfeld’s building. If developers were to displace them to build their new projects, Stewart said, they’d be getting the “strongest renter protections in Canada.”

According to the policy, tenants forced to relocate must have the difference in their new rent covered by the developer.

When the new building is complete, tenants must be offered appropriately sized units for their household at their current rent or a 20 per cent discount on average market rents, whichever is less.

Displaced tenants will also receive free rent or compensation depending on how long they’ve lived at the residence they’re being displaced from. On the lowest end, tenants of fewer than five years will receive four months’ rent.

Such an extensive policy has never been tested before in Vancouver. It prompted tenant advocates to call it “hot air” and developers to warn that the extra costs would make it too burdensome to pursue projects in the area.

City staff were concerned too. In March 2023, they proposed a slowdown of the plan in the form of a cap on the number of rezonings per year in rental apartment areas. They presented three options: a cap of five, 15 or 25 rezonings.

Without a slowdown, staff estimated that up to 2,000 renter households would be displaced per year. They threw their support behind a cap of five rezonings, which would reduce that number to 150 households.

However, the slowdown was ultimately rejected by the ABC-majority council.

Up in the air?

The residents of Alfeld’s building received the notice about the rezoning application at different times.

It included a copy of a city-produced handout about tenant protections with a list of resources. At the back of it was contact information for “City of Vancouver Homelessness Services.” (The city’s web page for tenant protections also features homelessness services.)

“I have it on my wall to remind myself that they are not looking out for us,” said Alfeld. “[To me, the city is saying,] ‘Our tenant protections are so fabulous, but in case they’re not, just call this hotline and they will help you with shelter.’”

Their building and the one next door are to be replaced by a 19-storey rental tower. The units are to be 80 per cent market and 20 per cent below market, a typical ratio for new developments within the Broadway Plan area.

Alfeld’s husband works at Vancouver General Hospital, a short walk away. The plan has the potential to displace health-care workers like him who live in the area, she says.

Alfeld and the other residents eventually met over Zoom with representatives of the developer, who took questions but offered few answers other than that they would follow the city’s tenant relocation and protection policy.

While Alfeld feels like the city’s policy doesn’t offer enough compensation, she says what really worries her is the lack of information about how the whole process is going to play out. The city might be the one setting out policy, but it’s being enacted by each landlord-developer for their respective tenants.

She wants to know what happens to tenants if the developer flips the property to another developer. Also, there’s the burden of displacement.

“This is where I’m angry at the city: no one seems to be mindful of the mental health impact of having your home taken away,” she said.

“We were told by both the city and the developer that there’s going to be a tenant survey where we’ll be asked if we have any additional needs. But who’s evaluating that survey? Is it the developer? Do we say we’re depressed and anxious because you’re taking away our homes? If developers decide we’re not depressed enough, is no additional support needed?”

Evan Morien, on the steering committee of the Vancouver Tenants Union, has long been disappointed by what he sees as the lack of political will at city hall.

“There is no enforcement body for these protections, so the reality is that the developers don't have to do anything but go through the motions,” he said.

Tenants protected under the plan have told the union that “relocation specialists” working for the owner-developer haven’t been doing more than sending them links to Facebook and Craigslist rental listings. Often, those rentals do not fit the needs they’ve specified.

“It’s a real ‘We tried nothing and we're all out of ideas’ sort of situation,” said Morien.

It’s been a busy time for the tenants union. Advocates like Morien have been hearing from people almost daily about their buildings up for sale.

“We also see landlords trying out cash-for-keys schemes on their tenants, encouraging them — verbally and through material means like withholding maintenance — to leave before the formal eviction process starts,” he said.

Lately, the tenants union has been focusing on organizing within individual buildings, disappointed with the lack of government action on policies they’d like to see enacted like vacancy control.

On and around Broadway, Morien is bracing for the worst: “Densification without meaningful tenant protections will always lead to forced displacement of working-class tenants.”

A second downtown?

A group of residents has been petitioning city council to “pause the plan.”

A number of local city builders and scholars have thrown their support behind the pause as well. Twenty-two have signed a letter, including some prominent former city staff such as Larry Beasley, who once led the planning department and is known as a champion of “Vancouverism.”

He too was concerned about the plight of renters, writing in the letter that “disruption and displacement with so many victims is just too destructive for a responsible city.”

Among the few with development experience is Michael Geller, who has a varied resumé working on public, private and institutional projects. He is also a retired architect, planner and adjunct professor of sustainable development at Simon Fraser University.

“I agree with the intent of the provincial government's directive, but I just feel that the pendulum has swung too far,” said Geller.

To him, the boosted plan looks like the city and the province are engaged in a density “competition.”

“It’s not as if [the city] is saying we want to raise up the density or building heights to meet the province’s requirements. They’re actually boasting — and I can use that word — that they’re going to exceed those requirements.” He points to the staff report that says the revised plan will “meet or exceed” provincial requirements.

Geller says that trying to channel density near transit stations and along Broadway itself makes sense.

But he worries about welcoming towers to the residential pockets just off Broadway, because of the scale and what it will mean for tenants if they are displaced en masse into a market with a low rental vacancy rate.

Off Broadway proper, the revised plan boosts the maximum number of storeys to 20 from six at up-and-coming intersections called “villages.”

In busier areas the plan calls “centres,” the maximum has been increased to 25 storeys from 10. In lower-density residential areas, it has increased to eight storeys from six. Towers in these areas have various rental requirements.

“I don’t agree with those who say that this is the second downtown and so it should look like Georgia Street,” Geller said.

With Vancouver’s high rents beginning to ease up, Geller sees a potential catch-22. He and some others in the planning and development community believe that the upcoming supply of rentals on Broadway will be enough to push rents down. However, he’s wondering if this will jeopardize high-end projects on the corridor that are counting on the ability to charge high rents to go ahead.

ABC Coun. Mike Klassen said in council that he had been monitoring public sentiment and noted that towers have been a particularly controversial concern.

“The vast majority of the Broadway Plan is set within the metro core, right?” responded Josh White, the city’s chief planner. “It is the centre of the central municipality, and it is an extension of our downtown. Therefore, we view towers as an appropriate scale to be ubiquitous throughout the plan area.”

That doesn’t necessarily mean that there will be towers everywhere, noted White. Each individual block is different when it comes to shape, size and pre-existing buildings.

Bringing on the boost

City staff say there are about 18,000 units in the letter of inquiry or application stage so far.

As for approvals, there are 2,359 units on the way: 14 condos, 1,901 market rentals, 315 below-market rentals and 129 social housing units. While the city has been pushing for more rental, developers have not been pursuing condo projects due to a poor market.

The first phase of the Broadway subway, which will extend the existing SkyTrain network west to Arbutus, has a completion date of 2027.

Parts of Broadway, home to many office towers, are particularly stark, and staff have noticed a deficit of green space. The plan will increase public space by 30 per cent, with over half of that being park space. Eleven per cent of road space at minimum will also be changed to non-vehicle uses. There will be more trees, patios and wider sidewalks.

All these plans will turn Broadway into a “Great Street,” according to the city.

But with so much concern about tenants, council voted to have staff report back quarterly on how the policy develops, look into what happens if a developer initiates a rezoning but does not develop the project, and research how the next-door city of Burnaby is dealing with its tenant protection policies.

“I know this is not going to be easy for some individuals,” said Mayor Sim of the changes, “but we can do it in a way where we take care of people.”

Burnaby approved the policy before Vancouver did, but it’s still being put to the test. While the first batch of “demovicted” renters in the Metrotown area returned to a new building earlier this year, others have faced challenges.

The residential and commercial developer Kirpal Group, which was about to demolish a rental apartment for a new condo project, ended up selling the property and abandoning the venture. Another developer, Thind Properties, purchased the property but is now facing insolvency proceedings.

This has left the tenants, who had been relocated two years prior, in limbo. A fire recently broke out in the empty apartment building, never demolished; a man was found dead inside.

In the meantime, Alfeld says, it’s renters who are burdened with the extra homework.

“It’s been a lot of research and collaboration with other tenants,” she said. “Every time we engage with city staff, that’s their job. Every time we engage with the developers, that’s their job. Every time we have to take time out to better understand a confusing email or a contradictory statement in a meeting, that’s unpaid labour that we have to do.”

Sometimes, that’s enough to make tenants give up.

“Most people who get the runaround from city staff, relocation specialists and developers just end up leaving,” Morien, of the tenants union, said. “People don't have the time and energy to deal with stuff like this if they're already struggling in their lives.”

The recent amendments by council are just a call for staff to investigate, he notes, “not an actual policy change.”

For Alfeld, the uncertainty comes at a high cost.

“It affects our lives when we don’t know where we’re going to be living,” she said. “I can list off all the plans in the future that are on hold.”

Alfeld and her husband are waiting for housing stability before they have children. After a recent health diagnosis, she notes she may also require adaptive housing.

“It’s hard to figure out anything when your life is dictated by the developer.”